Silent Photoplay Forum

Have you ever wondered why movies were so commonly called "photoplay"? Here is an interesting background on that very subject!

I like the term photoplay. It sounds classier than "movie" or "moving picture" and more artistic than "film" or "motion picture."

Doesn't it? I like it a lot. It's a pleasant word to say out loud, too.

I was thinking that it's a shame the term fell into disuse, but then it occurred to me that Cheech and Chong Up in Smoke would be referred to as a photoplay, and somehow... No. Just no.

donnie wrote: ↑

Wed May 17, 2017 3:33 pm

I was thinking that it's a shame the term fell into disuse, but then it occurred to me that Cheech and Chong Up in Smoke would be referred to as a photoplay, and somehow... No. Just no.

funniest thing I've heard all day!!

I will tell you that I love those movies, though.

The linguist George Kingsley Zipf proposed the idea that more frequently used words tend to get shorter over time. I guess a corollary is that a shorter word for the same commonly-mentioned thing would see more frequent use. That may be what doomed "photoplay," given the availability of "film" and "movie."

I'm intrigued, though, by that phrase "picture theater." That's a new one on me.

dachshundonstilts wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 07, 2017 2:39 pm

I'm intrigued, though, by that phrase "picture theater." That's a new one on me.

That's a nice one, I agree! I don't know if I'd heard it before, either. It makes it sound like you're going to something much more grand.

The term "talkies" is one I'm glad didn't last very long. I assume there were two reasons it didn't; the rapid disappearance of silent pictures and the basically unappealing sound of the word "talkie." It's a homophone of "talky," and who wants to see a photoplay that's talky?

Those are interesting thoughts. I like to use it quaintly.

Yeah, I do sometimes wish people would use it occasionally as in "Let's go to the talkies." I don't actually like to see any word completely die out.