William Paul, professor of film and media studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has won the 2017 Richard Wall Memorial Award from the Theatre Library Association (TLA) in New York.
Paul won the award for “When Movies Were Theater: Architecture, Exhibition, and the Evolution of American Film” (2016). Published by Columbia University Press, the book explores how the architecture of American theaters has shaped viewers’ perceptions of events on screen, from Thomas Edison’s 1896 projections to the Cinerama premiere of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001” (1968).
Founded in 1937, the TLA supports librarians and archivists affiliated with theater, dance, performance studies, popular entertainment, motion picture and broadcasting collections. The Wall Award honors English-language books of exceptional scholarship in the field of recorded or broadcast performance.
Paul will receive the award Oct. 13 during a ceremony at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center.
