It seemed to be almost forgotten that " Bijou " used to be almost a synonym for a movie theater, with movie houses in general bring called ' Bijous " - Really, I think that writings about movies 50-60 years ago might refer to " neighborhood Bijous " or someduch to refer to movie theaters in general - especially " neighborhood theaters " in the pre+JAWS sense, I supposed But it seems to be forgotten now as slang!
. fuI..morelly checked Wikipedia just now, and they, for instance, do not list ' Bijou " as a meaning for a movie theater, though they list various now- or formerly-existing theaters named Bijou...and Google found me, for three, presently existing thatters, in Mount Vernon, IA, Eugene, OR, and San Antonio, TX named " Bijou "! More later.
Apparently this is the Bijou the novel concerns (novelist Madden grew up in Knoxville and worked there as a 13 yr old usher). Home | Bijou Theatre
There used to be a Bijou Theater in Kansas City's Westport Square. It later changed its name to the Tivoli.
....The Wiki piece on " Bijou " even refers you to this old " recreating an pre-TV era movie houses experience ' PBS series called " Evening At The Bijou " or similar but makes no reference TO the meaning describing a movie theater! I found an OLD (2987) Straight Dope column where the concept of theaters being named " Bijou " is already an old thing the writer is asking about! IIRC, he says that some vaudeville promoters of the early Twentieth had a lot of vaudeville houses named " Bijou ', and, when many vaude houses were convert Ed to movie houses... There was something in a Doris Leading novel I remember relating to this by I'm not up to composing it (& putting it up in American/British Word Differences) now...
50 years ago one of the New York City tv stations...WNEW channel 5. I think... would have a “Sunday Night at the Bijou” movie presentation. The only film I remember watching was the James Cagney-George Raft prison drama “Each Dawn I Die”. In the 1980s there was a mom and pop video rental store in my town called “Bijou”. But the name now is as gone as calling telephones “Ameche”
The Bjiou that was in Chicago was a well known gay movie theater. Well known largely due to the regular calls made into by radio personalities Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. Those radio bits were gold...
Yes on one of the Houston UHF stations in the 70s they did a late night movie and it was called "Matinee at the Bijou"
Matinee at the Bijou - Wikipedia Matinee at the Bijou was a television series that premiered nationally on PBS in 1980. It recreated the American moviegoing experiences of the 1930s and '40s, with trailers, a cartoon, one or more selected short subjects, a cliff-hanging serial chapter "to be continued," and a tightly edited feature presentation. The 90-minute series ran for five consecutive first-run seasons, each consisting of 16 episodes, and continued on PBS for three subsequent years in reruns. First place I ever saw the classic Sunshine Makers
The Wikipedia page also mentions that it's a term used by real estate agents to describe an apartment so small you couldn't swing a cat without giving the poor thing a concussion.
I have referred to apartments so small you couldn't shake a chicken with its head cut off in the middle of the room. Thanks to Wanda Jackson for giving me the idea
A great series. I never missed it and was very sad when it disappeared. Everything they showed was fine but the cartoons were my favorite part. Regular tv no longer showed the old 30's cartoons and this was before the vhs/dvd explosion when all kinds of animation became available.