Events

Movies

Located in Culture Commonplace, the Talking Theater will be showing classic films from roaring 20's. Some of these include: The Kid, The Gold Rush, The Circus, A Woman of Paris, and The Pilgrim. All of these movies star Charlie Chaplin, one of our Roaming Characters who you can spot all around the park. Our selection of movies will be playing on loop throughout the day, and start 10 minutes after our park opens.

In this time period, the very first movies with sound appeared, called "Talkies", that stormed the world. The very first one, called The Jazz Singer, wowed the world. In the United States, it was through this that Hollywood really pushed forward into one of the most powerful commercial and cultural center of influences in the world. This meant that there were major advancements in technology for such a feat to occur. Of course, this had some consequences, previously world famous actors that had odd voices or extremely thick accents would suddenly be cast aside, because of the addition of sound.

Live Shows

Located in Progressive Park, The Harlem Theater will have live music from 12:00-4:00. A big band featuring over 20 musicians will be playing daily. They will be playing mostly swing and jazz, two styles that were extremely popular for the time period, known as the Jazz Age.They will be playing pieces from George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and many more artists of the time.

In this era of prosperity after the Great War and before the Great Depression, jazz took hold as some of the main musical tastes. Before this period, jazz was considered immoral and threatening to culture, but as time progressed, jazz took off, and became the globally appreciated genre known today. Through the Prohibition and the times of trouble after the Great War, jazz and the Blues came to be. With the rise of speakeasies from the Prohibition, there became a new venue for aspiring musicians to perform. In these dark, New York cellars, the sounds of smooth jazz could be heard for hours.