What were nickelodeons like? What was the first movie palace?What influenced the transition to the movie palace? Why do you think the movie places became so important?
The first Nickelodeons featured motion pictures. The mix was so volatile that during the first day, 450 people watched movies at the new theater, which its owners dubbed the "Nickelodeon." By the second day, more than 1,500 people stood in line to see movies there, and eventually the Smithfield Street site became known as the world's first modern movie theater.the most important thing of all, at least for Pittsburgh's essential place in film history, was the mere sight of hundreds of people lining up to pay 5 cents to see a 15-minute moving picture show. Movies became a business because of Pittsburgh. Thousands of copycat nickelodeons were built in cities all over the country on the Nickelodeon model, and a system of producing films and then distributing them to theaters nationwide grew in order to feed the new phenomenon.
A ceremony and plaque on Smithfield Street celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first Nickelodeon, which opened in June 1905. The plaque, replaced with one honoring the Nickelodeon's founder, has a few inaccuracies: the two moving pictures it mentions were produced at least two years after the Nickelodeon opened and the title of one film is given as "The Battled Burglar" -- the correct title is "The Baffled Burglar."
New York's Regent Theater, built in 1913. First American movie palace.
The strand seated around 3,000 people and boasted a second-floor viewing balcony and a two story rotunda where the audience could socialize before and after the film and during intermission.
The strand seated around 3,000 people and boasted a second-floor viewing balcony and a two story rotunda where the audience could socialize before and after the film and during intermission.
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