Spielberg inspired by movie seen at Boyd Theatre

posted by HowardBHaas on January 15, 2009 at 7:45 am

On Sunday’s Golden Globes telecast, Steven Spielberg described how he was inspired to become a director after his father took him to see “The Greatest Show on Earth” at a Philadelphia movie theater. As many of you know from our historic photos, it was the Boyd Theatre that showcased that film.

The 1952 movie was not wide screen, but unusual for any movie, had a wide screen special effect showing a train crash. After seeing the movie, Spielberg crashed his model trains at home so many times that his father told him he would take away the trains if he kept it up. Spielberg borrowed his father’s 8 mm camera and filmed the train crash, so he could watch the trains crashing on film.

Friends of the Boyd would be pleased to share our photos of “The Greatest Show on Earth” at the Boyd Theatre with the local and national press. As Philadelphia’s last surviving movie palace, it is important that the closed Boyd Theatre be rescued, restored, and reopened. As wonderful as it is to have a local developer seeking to purchase the theater to preserve it, the Boyd needs all the publicity it can get so that funds can be obtained from various sources to help with the rehabilitation costs. The Boyd should once again play a part in entertaining and inspiring children and adults.

Spielberg Acceptance Speech

Howard B. Haas
Friends of the Boyd

Theaters in this post

Comments (5)

HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on January 15, 2009 at 7:58 am

For Spielberg’s acceptance speech go to
www.youtube.com then type in the Search box: Spielberg Demille award

A photo of “"Greatest Show on Earth” at the Boyd is on
Philadelphia Inquirer movie critic Carrie Rickey’s blog on January 13
View link

which then appeared online VARIETY (see January 13)
http://weblogs.variety.com/thompsononhollywood/

View link

Dan Gross mentioned the Spielberg connection in his Philadelphia Daily News column on January 14:
View link

nerwall16
nerwall16 on January 15, 2009 at 9:34 am

while watching the globes i picked that out right away

JodarMovieFan
JodarMovieFan on January 15, 2009 at 8:36 pm

With all the gazillions he has earned, he could channel a few millions to save the theater, don’t you think? :)

nerwall16
nerwall16 on January 15, 2009 at 10:11 pm

didnt he help revive the egyptian in la

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on July 6, 2010 at 4:06 pm

alot of film stars and Directors could give money to theatre projects.JodarMovieFan,Maybe they do and we never read about it.

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