Nickelodeon movie theater

:For the Nickelodeon Theatre in Columbia, SC, see the page on the Columbia Film Society.

Related Topics:
Columbia - SC - Columbia Film Society

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Nickelodeon is an early 20th century form of small, neighborhood movie theaters in which admission was obtained for a nickel. By 1907, one estimate (based on basic business economics) was that an average of over two million people attended the nickelodeons daily. The popularity of these affordable, entertaining, and highly profitable venues was such that their numbers mushroomed to approximately 8,000 in the U.S. by 1908.

Related Topics:
20th century - Movie theater - Nickel - 1907 - 1908

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Nickelodeons were usually minimally converted main street storefronts, formerly used as shops (or even livery stables). Most were small, with fewer than 200 seats, 200 being the threshold then in place in many cities where the nickelodeon had to take out theatre licenses instead of the much cheaper amusement license. The auditorium was small: one story high, typically 25 feet wide and 70 feet deep. Its seats were usually simple kitchen chairs and its walls were often painted red.

Related Topics:
Main street - Livery - Theatre - Amusement - Auditorium

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Nickelodeons in competitive markets had a piano or organ, playing whatever music the pianist or organist knew that seemed appropriate to a scene (e.g. classic ragtime for a chase sequence, or what was called at the time "Eliza-crossing-the-ice" music during the scary moments).

Related Topics:
Piano - Organ - Classic ragtime - Eliza-crossing-the-ice

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Still, for a nickel you could be transported into a fantasy world on the screen, and kids couldn't wait until the next episode of the serials on Saturday afternoons to see what was going to happen next to their heroes.

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The first nickelodeon was opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1905. 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 he opened in 1907 as the "Orpheum Theater", and announced that it would be "the home of refined entertainment devoted to Miles Brothers moving pictures and illustrated songs" http://www.answers.com/topic/louis-b-mayer#American_History, http://www.haverhillusa.com/whereishaverhill.html.

Related Topics:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - 1905 - Louis B. Mayer - Haverhill, Massachusetts - Miles Brothers

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Their numbers declined as cities grew and industry consolidation led to larger, more comfortable, and better-appointed movie theaters.

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