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- For the Nickelodeon Theatre in Columbia, SC, see the page on the Columbia Film Society.
The Nickelodeon (AE: nickel = 5ยข-coin, Greek: Odeion = roofed over theatre) was an early 20th century form of small, neighborhood movie theaters. 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).
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History
The name "Nickelodeon" was coined by Harry Davis and John P. Harris, who opened their small, storefront theatre with that name on Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in June 1905. Though theirs was not the first theatre in the world to specialize in presenting movies, Davis and Harris found such great success with their operation that their concept of a five cent theatre running movies continuously was soon imitated by hundreds of ambitious entrepreneurs, as was the name of the theatre itself. 1
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".2
Nickelodeons declined as cities grew and industry consolidation led to larger, more comfortable, and better-appointed movie theaters.
Types of "moving pictures"
Nickelodeons would show films which were typically fifteen to twenty minutes in length, and in a variety of styles and subjects, such as short narratives, "scenics" (views of the world from moving trains), "actualities" (precursors of later documentary films), illustrated song slides, local or touring song and dance acts, comedies, melodramas, problem plays, stop action sequences, sporting events (e.g. the 1897 Corbett-Fitzsimmons championship fight or the 1899 Jeffries -Sharkey fight) and other features which allowed them to compete with vaudeville houses.
The titles of a few of the films released in 1907 and distributed to nickelodeons by the Miles Brothers (Herbert and Harry) partially illustrate this diversity.
These are taken from a 1907 article published in The Saturday Evening Post:
- Catch the Kid (directed by Alf Collins; comedy)
- The Coroner's Mistake (comic ghost story)
- The Fatal Hand (directed by J. H. Martin; drama)
- Johnny's Run (directed by Frank Mottershaw; comedy)
- Knight-Errant (directed by J. H. Martin; old historical drama)
- A Mother's Sin (directed by J. H. Martin; drama)
- The Romany's Revenge (directed by Frank Mottershaw; drama)
- Roof to Cellar (comedy)
- Sailor's Return (drama)
- Village Fire Brigade (directed by James Williamson; comedy)
- Wizard's World (comedy)
Other 1907 films also distributed to nickelodeons by the Miles Brothers:
- Anarchist's Mother-in-Law
- Boss Away, Choppers Play
- Cambridge-Oxford Race
- Cheekiest Man on Earth
- Female Wrestlers
- Great Lion Hunt
- Indian Basket Weavers
- International Contest for the Heavyweight Championship: Squires vs. Burns
- Jim Jeffries on His California Ranch
- Life and Customs in India
- The Naval Nursery
- The Petticoat Regiment
- Shriners' Conclave at Los Angeles
- Squires, Australian Champion, in His Training Quarters
- That Awful Tooth
- The White Slave
- A Woman's Duel
Decline
Though strong through the period between 1905 and 1915, Nickelodeon theaters would also face their downfall upon the wake of feature films, starting with The Birth of a Nation, in 1915. During this wake, box office attendance grew greatly and as a result, ticket prices expanded from five cents to ten cents.3
See also
- Nickelodeon, a 1976 film about the early days of the silent movies business.
- The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has an exhibit, Yesterday's Main Street, which includes a working mock-up of a nickelodeon.
References
- ^ Lightner, E.W. Pittsburg Gave Birth to the Movie Theater Idea, The Dispatch, November 16, 1919
- ^ Where Is Haverhill, Massachusetts?, City of Haverhill, Massachusetts, April 8, 2006
- ^ The Nickelodeon's history, essortment.com
External links and sources
- The Nickelodeons, written by Joseph Medill Patterson and published in the November 23, 1907 issue of The Saturday Evening Post
- "Story films" distributed by the Miles Brothers, from the American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 19 November 2008, at 01:44.
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