During my time in the church, I only attended temple ceremonies that featured the movie. It is my understanding that prior to the movie the ceremony was all acted out by temple workers.

Does anyone know why the church implemented the movie and didn't stick with the original format?

Just curious...

same reason they fired the janitors.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2017 11:16AM by Dave the Atheist.

^^^^

Ha, ha!

I don't know for sure, I don't think that the church has ever stated it clearly, but I think there were a few factors:

- Apparently there was often unintentional humor introduced by live acted sessions. Temple workers aren't trained actors and often would flub a line, miss a mark or otherwise not maintain character. This would often make sessions difficult and more time consuming. My Dad told me where he was in a session and an older gentleman just couldn't get his lines right and got more and more frustrated as the session went on, until he finally broke down into a tirade of swearing that kind of ruined the "spirit" of the session.

- A simple lack of temple workers would could do the acting at all. Live sessions require more temple workers, and more of a time commitment from them as they have to learn their parts.

- Consistency. It's easier to make sure that every session is the same if it's based on a movie.

- The other thing about live sessions is that it required moving the "audience" room to room. There was the garden room, the "wilderness room", etc. Instead of just changing scenes in a movie, the audience would gather their things and move to a different room. This was not only time consuming, it also required more specifically designed space in the temples that couldn't be re-used for other purposes. With a movie, each room could be a simple theater, with a "Celestial" room in the middle. This is cheaper and easier to maintain.

Really I think it boils down to cost and getting people to into the temple. The movie, in the long run, is cheaper because of the building issues. It's also much more pleasant to watch the movie, rather than watching Temple workers struggle through their lines, which was causing attendance to drop off, which meant lower tithing income.

Maybe someone has a firm answer, but I think its a combination of the above.

Finally Free! Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My Dad told me where he was in a
> session and an older gentleman just couldn't get
> his lines right and got more and more frustrated
> as the session went on, until he finally broke
> down into a tirade of swearing that kind of ruined
> the "spirit" of the session.

Hee, hee! Love it!

The actors took a lot of resources. You literally had to have a full cast of people who memorized all the lines. And all the temples had to be built for the full cast, which cost a lot. I think the Oakland and DC temples may have been the last to be built for live ceremonies.

The SLC and the Manti temples still have the live actors.

I have been to a kind of compromise of the two in LA. The LA temple was built for live actors, but they would have one movie session going on in the creation room, another session in the garden room and so forth. But a couple of times I was there, they had us all get up and move from one room to the other at the appropriate times on the film. Then the film would pick up again in the next room.

It's all so stupid, anyway. But after 1990, I REALLY missed the preacher.

It might work for the sacrament prayer and for some of the laying on of hands events. A real person could place hands on someone's head, then switch on a video for the words.

I live in the south. We have had movies in all of our McTemples as far back as the mid-80s (I wouldn't know before then, cuz I was a woman, and women weren't supposed to go to the temple till age 30 unless they were going out on a mission or getting married).

But in 1988, my husband and I went Utah, and sat through live sessions at both Salt Lake and Manti. We went to St. George, too, but I don't remember if it was live or film.

Why would any couple spend their precious family vacation time and money on a "temple vacation" - that is, we drove from one temple to another to attend a single session in every temple we could fit into our schedule?


We even went to see the Las Vegas temple -- which was under construction when we made that trip.

I picked up a small piece of scrap wood the contractors left laying around -- treated it with all the respect that you'd treat something "holy" for many years. I STILL have that stupid piece of wood lying somewhere around in the garage...

They went to the Movies when they build their first temple overseas (Swiss) that required multiple languages. The movie made is easer to just dub in a different language as needed. And you can have multiple languages during the same session with head phones.

The DC and Oakland temples were the First to be build to handle the movie, since they don't have multiple rooms

Whew S exmo you guys had it bad...never been and never will but oldsters used to talk about the devils part being the only one with any sauce to it...the guy playing that could really get some drama going...interesting that the devil was the only memorable role ..having seen a bit if the videos i am eternally grateful i didnt waste the days and dollars to attend such absolute nonsense...sorry masons...but it is...come on...secret handshakes passwords and names...even kids know its just nonsense when they do their little clubs...but my folks sure swallowed it all...wouldnt even talk about it hardly...danites might gettem i spose...guess they liked their tongues and bowels...hard to put a lot of zip on...we will go down...return and report....tap tap tap...what is wanted?...oh boy

The preacher was fun too.

There was a time the preacher waltzed in and belted out "let us sing!" Followed by everyone singing "onward Christian soliders" with gusto and often off key.

Only saw that in salt lake.

Who remembers the similar cultish ritual at the end of the show called "The Red Green Show?" hahaha

Going to a live session was one of the first things I did when I visited SLC back in 1995. It was pretty cool. It was funny to see and old guy acting as satan, I think he was the coolest actor but you can tell they just repeat their memorized parts. Some times they were giving a hand by another patrons or from people in the group. It was a shorter presentation as well.
Back in those days, they only had live sessions at the SLC temple as far as I know.

My first time through the temple was on my wedding day...it was live. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that these two old geezers playing Adam and Eve were supposed to be young adults.

I do remember the Manti Temple and moving room to room and it was so beautiful.

Because it's a McDonald's franchise. Get the same shit no matter where you are in the world. A cattle call for profit. You can get more 'payers' through with less fuss. Here in Sanpete county the temple ceremony is still live. The live version is not glitzy like a movie. More like a bad Jr High School play. Old farmers stumbling through their part.

Just a thought...

isn't it funny that they "act" out the parts in the temple -- being someone who they are not (phony)

Kind of ironic don't you think?

Live sessions are naturally longer and if your in a progressive session you move from room to room, so even longer still.
Also consistency. Much was cut out to make a session shorter so more sessions could be allowed. I do think the live version was far more entertaining.

After Kirkland and Nauvoo, Utah temples were constructed with various rooms corresponding to various parts of the Endowment. The early Utah temples all had a Creation Room, Garden Room, Wold Room, Terrestrial Room, and Celestial Room. Sealing Rooms were off the Celestial Room. The veil of the temple was in between the Terrestrial and Celestial Rooms. The early Utah temples also had solemn assembly rooms on the top floors.

The earliest temples that altered the rooms were the London, Swiss, and New Zealand temples built in the 1950s. It's my understanding that initially a slide show was used to represent the various rooms. With the advent of better technologies, movies were introduced. And, as a poster mentioned earlier, the Swiss temple had to provide Endowments in several languages.

In the early 1970s, the Provo and old Ogden temples used a multi-theater approach that had veils separating the Endowment rooms from the Celestial Room (positioned so several Endowment rooms opened into the Celestial Room. This room flow allowed for more Endowment sessions and most importantly, provided consistency and a more efficient use of time. It also allowed for fewer workers, per session, who didn't need to memorize parts.

In the mid-1970s, the Morg began to renovate its older temples in St. George, Mesa, LA, and elsewhere. Where possible (LA) the Morg kept the murals representing the older rooms. But where necessary (St. George, Mesa, and elsewhere), the Morg removed the murals and installed Endowment rooms opening into the Celestial Room.

The shit hit the fan with the Logan temple. The Morg bulldozed the interior and put in a mishmash of what had been a beautiful pioneer temple built by loving hands. The rooms didn't flow into each other and looked tacky. The good folks in Cache County were furious at the Morg leadership! The rescheduled remodeling of the Manti Temple was dramatically changed to keep the older murals and the live endowment. In short, the Morg didn't fuck with the beauty of the Manti Temple.

Since the Morg building program, all recently constructed temples have the Endowment room theaters opening into a central Celestial Room.

I've never been in the D.C. Temple, but I assume it doesn't have murals or was ever intended to do live sessions. Anyone out there who can confirm this? It should be noted that LA and D.C. were the last temples to have solemn assemble rooms in their top floors. Emil Fetzer's Boner.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2017 08:03PM by BYU Boner.

My ex's long-time friend was getting married. I didn't know any of his friends, so I was pretty much alone on the women's side. I hadn't been to the temple very often, so I was in panic mode. The "actors" were horrible. They pretty much just mumbled their parts monotone.

If you've ever seen an 85 year old Adam and Eve, you'd know the answer.

It was all I could do to keep from laughing.