Washington Theater Memorabilia from the Collection of Robert Headley
About Robert Headley
The artifacts exhibited here are from the Theater Collection of Robert Headley. Robert Headley was born in a small town on the Northern Neck of Virginia. He grew up in Baltimore where he attended public school, graduating in 1955 from Baltimore City College. He received his B.A. in anthropology from the University of Florida and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Celtic languages from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Headley worked as a research linguist for the United States Government from 1959 to 1995 and has published numerous books and articles on Southeast Asian languages.
Robert Headley became interested in documenting the history of the rapidly disappearing American movie theater in 1968, and after six years of research published a book, EXIT, on the history of movie theaters in Baltimore. Dr. Headley has conducted research on the theaters of the Washington Metropolitan area, Honolulu, Milwaukee, Richmond, Va., the West Coast of Florida, Reykjavik, Iceland, and Stockholm, Sweden. He has been a member of the Theatre Historical Society of America since 1969 and served as editor for the Society's journal, Marquee, from 1981 to 1987. His most recent research culminated in a book, Motion Picture Exhibition in Washington, D.C., which traces the history of motion picture exhibition in Washington and adjacent Maryland and Virginia from the 1890's to the 1990's. It contains over 200 illustrations, maps, diagrams, line drawings, and photographs (most of which have never been published), as well as a comprehensive list of local movie theaters. McFarland & Co. published Motion Picture Exhibition in Washington, D.C. in April 1999. At the present time, Dr. Headley is working on a complete revision of his book EXIT.
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Content questions should be directed to Information Provider Last modified: August 20, 2004
