I was wondering about the evolution of movie showings/cinema. For example, what was the process of going to a movie in the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, to the 1970s? For example, how much did it cost, how did you know if a movie was showing and at what time? What, during each decade, would you except to see, for example, in regards to short-subjects, serials, main features, news reels, and coming attractions? What were the main changes seen during each decade in how we watch a movie in the theater? And are there any websites I can go to to find this information without bothering everyone?
This is a huge topic. To start with, some of the best descriptions of early cinema experiences come from David Bordwell - browse around some of his postings online, or pick up one of his books, and you'll get a much better idea of how movies worked at different points in time.
Some brief sketches, though:
In the 1910s, movies were basically sideshow attractions. There were nickelodeons (which cost a nickel!) for one-person viewing, some of which were sort of naughty ("What the Butler Saw...") if petticoats and garters are your thing. There were also larger showings in darkened rooms at places like carnivals or Coney Island or Blackpool.
If you heard about panics in cinemas when the Lumiere Brothers shot a train rolling toward the camera, it would have been at one of these places, alongside skee-ball, strongmen and jugglers.
By the 1920s: Films had become like little silent plays, and there was (in the U.S. at least) a national distribution network getting Charlie Chaplin or Clara Bow performances out to their fans.
By the 1930s: Short subjects were shown before films (cartoons!), as well as newsreels - the ancestors of broadcast news. And, of course, sound!
I know up to the 1950s at least, showtimes were a slightly flexible affair. You know the saying, "This is where I came in..."?
That's from the experience of going to a cinema - you'd come in whenever, watch to the end, then the little animated short, then the beginning of your film, then leave at the point where you came in.
(Notice in films before the 1950s, the credits are usually relatively short, and usually shown at the beginning, not the end.)
And through the end of the 1970s, cinemas were usually very large rooms with one picture, or a double feature. The multi-screen cinema where everyone in town could see every big movie that came out that weekend... that gradually evolved from the end of the 1970s through the 1980s. One knock-on effect from that: screens shrank.
Watching Rita Hayworth on an old 40- or 50-foot-tall screen is not the same as seeing Charlize Theron in a box that's at most 22 feet high. Seen in the old scale, you begin to realize why people called those actors "stars" - there's something celestial about them. Literally larger than life.