As films grew in popularity, the venues they screened in also developed. Early films were projected in halls, cafés and any venue that could be darkened and had space for an audience. Thomas Edison opened the first dedicated cinema, the Vitascope Theater, a venue in Buffalo, New York in October 1896, but site-specific venues would remain rare for another decade. As the sensation of a new experience wore off and audiences became more familiar with film, screenings would appear as part of an evening's entertainment in theatres and music halls. Audiences were still unused to spending too long watching moving images on a screen, so these films benefited from being part of a mixed programme. However, as they became longer, they required their own venues. In June 1905, businessmen Harry Davis and John P. Harris opened a small venue in a storefront in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Referencing the nickname given to some dime museums - entertainment venues regarded as lowbrow distractions - in the late 19th century, these venues became known as 'nickelodeons'. They screened films on a continuous loop and audiences initially attended not to watch a specific programme, but to be entertained by whatever was screening at the time. The popularity of nickelodeons saw their numbers increase to almost 10,000 venues within five years. They ranged from makeshift operations with little more than a projector, screen and benches, to locations whose capacity ranged from 200 to 1,000 and were accompanied by live music.
The nickelodeons attracted entrepreneurs who saw a gold mine in this nascent entertainment. In 1906, German émigré and future owner of Universal Pictures Carl Laemmle opened his first cinema in Chicago. He was followed in 1907 by Louis B. Mayer, who purchased the Gem theatre in Haverhill, Massachusetts and converted it into the Orpheum theatre. He soon owned the largest chain of nickelodeons in the region. In 1910, Marcus Loew joined forces with future film moguls Adolph Zukor and siblings Joseph and Nicholas Schenck to turn the Loews cinema chain into a major franchise. By 1913, they owned the majority of the venues in New York. At the time, more than a quarter of the US population was attending film screenings every week. Production companies were coalescing into larger conglomerates and films themselves had progressed from one- and two-reelers to features. In 1914, the Mark Strand Theatre on Broadway in New York opened its doors. It seated an audience of 2,989. Five years later, the 4,000-capacity Capitol Theatre also opened on Broadway. Then, in 1927, another New York cinema, the Roxy Theatre, known as the 'Cathedral of the Motion Picture' became the world's largest cinema, holding an audience just shy of 6,000.
- Ian Haydn Smith, A Chronology of Film, London, 2021, p.40
See also:
Movies: The refreshingly brutal candour of 'The RKO Story', 27 July 2021Movies: The dream factory of old Hollywood, 17 February 2021
Movies: Great are the marvels of living photography, 28 September 2015
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