The Nickelodeon was the
first type of indoor exhibition space
dedicated to showing projected motion
pictures. Usually set up in
converted storefronts, these small,
simple theaters charged five cents for
admission and flourished from about 1905
to 1915.
"Nickelodeon" was
concocted from nickel,
the name of the U.S. five-cent coin, and
the ancient Greek word odeion,
a roofed-over theater, the latter
indirectly by way of the famous Odéon in
Paris, emblematic of a very large and
luxurious theater much as Ritz was
of a grand hotel. For unknown reasons,
in 1949 the lyricist of a popular song, Music!
Music! Music!, incorporated the
refrain "Put another nickel in, in the
nickelodeon...", evidently referring to
either a jukebox or
a mechanical musical instrument such as
a coin-operated player
piano or orchestrion.
The meaning of the word has been muddied
ever since. In fact, when it was current
in the early 20th century, it was used
only to refer to a small five-cent
theater and not to any coin-in-the-slot
machine, including amusement
arcade motion picture viewers such
as the Kinetoscope and Mutoscope.
The earliest films had
been shown in "peep
show" machines or projected in vaudeville theaters
as one of the otherwise live acts.
Nickelodeons drastically altered film
exhibition practices and the
leisure-time habits of a large segment
of the American public. Although they
were characterized by continuous
performances of a selection of short
films, added attractions such as illustrated
songswere sometimes an important
feature. Regarded as disreputable and
dangerous by some civic groups and
municipal agencies, crude,
ill-ventilated nickelodeons with hard
wooden seats were outmoded as longer
films became common and larger, more
comfortably furnished motion picture
theaters were built, a trend that
culminated in the lavish "movie
palaces" of the 1920s.
Famed film historian Charles
Musser wrote, "It is not too much to
say that modern cinema began with the
nickelodeons."[1]
The name "Nickelodeon"
was first used in 1888 by Austin's
Nickelodeon,[2] a dime
museum located in Boston,
Massachusetts. However, the term was
popularized by Harry Davis and John
P. Harris, who opened their small
storefront theatre with that name on
Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, on June 19, 1905. They
called it the Nickelodeon, joining
"nickel" with the Greek word for an
enclosed theater adopted by the famous
18th century Odéon in
Paris. Although it was not the first
theater to show films, in 1919 a news
article stated that it was the first
theater in the world "devoted
exclusively to exhibition of moving
picture spectacles".[3] Davis
and Harris found such great success with
their operation that their concept of a
five-cent theater showing movies
continuously was soon imitated by
hundreds of ambitious entrepreneurs, as
was the name of the theater itself.
Statistics indicated that the number of
nickelodeons in the United States
doubled between 1907 and 1908 to around
8000, and it was estimated that by 1910
as many as 26 million Americans visited
these theaters every week.[4] Nickelodeons
that were in converted storefronts
typically seated fewer than 200, patrons
often sat on hard wooden chairs, the
screen was hung on the back wall, and a
piano (and maybe a drum set) would be
placed to the side of or below the
screen. Larger nickelodeons sometimes
had the capacity for well over 1000
people.[5] Louis
B. Mayer came of age just as the
popularity of the nickelodeon was
beginning to rise; he renovated the Gem
Theater in Haverhill,
Massachusetts, converting it into a
nickelodeon that he opened in 1907 as
the Orpheum Theater, announcing that it
would be "the home of refined
entertainment devoted to Miles
Brothers moving pictures and illustrated
songs".[6] Other
well-known nickelodeon owners were the Skouras
Brothers of St. Louis.
see more at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Nickelodeon
