The Washington herald., 1908-01-07

great majority IS on the SIDE OF the
nickelodeon. Philadelphia uses law proc
esses, Louisville uses fine regulations. !
other cities employ other means to end
the existence Of the scent theater, but it
still lives and prospers, financial panics
Notwithstanding
The nickelodeOn came TO answer de-
mand for short, cheap, wholesome enter
tainment, and passed quickly from the
list of novelties into that of standard
amusements It's home IS a small hall
that will seat a few hundred people, for
If too great a crowd is admitted the
amusement transcends its privileges, and
is raised to the rank of a theater and
must pay a theateT license instead Of an
amusement license. The hall is fitted
with a small stage that supports a screen
for the pictures. while a piano or per
formerless musical apparatus beats out an
accompaniment TO the comedy or tragedy
being portrayed by the moving pictures.
A 5-ceBt admission invites patronage
that would not be given anywhere else,
and one may leave as early as one
wishes. or stay through the entire per-
fOrmance
The nickelodeon was born in a little
Southern town. and was the inspiration
of a soda fountain man. This man had
bought an expensive soda fountain and
installed it in an old drug store, and
soon found he was losing money. Just
IN the midst Of the financial straits his
landlord came and offered him the next
door building also at a bargain figure.
The building he already had did not seem
to be paying, but nothing could be
worse than that one he concluded he
would take two. He cast about In his
mind for some means Of making il a pay
ing thing. and just then. when a maker
Of moving pictures came by, he found his
solution. The pisJuTemaker had not been
so successful himself. They decided 10
open small theater that would seat
a hundred people. and entertain them
by throwing moving pictures on a screen,
and have a graphophone make music at
the same time. They al first charged 10
cents admission; then they saw that half
as much would be more popular and
profitable
The nickelodeOn was a success from the
start. At the end of eight or nine months
the soda fountain man and the moving
picture maker had S35.000 in the bank Of
the small town and were well on the
highway to success. Their idea was soon
flying far and wide over the country.
Big cities and little ones took il, Up un-
I'll there are five thousand or over in full
swing throughout the country, with many
hundreds IN New York alone Some have
even gone SO far as 10 enlarge their
houses, and take out regular theater
licenses at 500 year so they can ac-
COmmodate the 500 or 1900 people that
their gate men have showed would be
possible If the auditoriums were large
enough Philadelphia, alone, has one that
clears upward of $4,000 a year. and this
after one considers the fact that the
average attendance Of the smallest OF
the smallest ones must average 4000 a
week at least 10 meet the running ex-
penses,
New York $ great trouble has been that
the noise Of the "barzers" megaphones
and monographs at the entrances cause
annoyance and formal con plants have
been fled against the nicEelodeons by
merchants Of their neighborhoods AS a
result, the barker may go. and the meg
aphone man may follow, but the phono-
graph under one OF its many guises may
remain, for In this age Of machinery.
that must soon minimize mans services
in many WAYS. even as a mechanism
throws the figures Of the actors and act
resses on the canvas I'm the darkened
rooms where owl-eyed ushers skilIfuIy
find YOU a seat, so il must eventually
| furnish the entrance calls, the urgent
invitations 10 come and see what is in
side, and all the gay music that sets
you 70 wondering what lies beyond the
doors.
Children are the best patrons Of the
nickelodeon. The scent piece is easily
begged from the parental purse. and
thousands of tots go TO the tiny moving
picture show who never see any other
To meet their demands real fairy tales
are often enacted and bits Of travel and
history shown. In large cities where
new foreign population helps swell the
census rolls an astonlshingly large per-
centage Of the audience in the nickelodeon
Is drawn from the Latin races who can
not speak English, who could not under
stand a word Of an English play, but who
can understand and enjoy d picture
pantOmime.
Romance finds its adherents the world
over whether one understands the Ian
guage of country or not, and the TRACE
dies of Vatican shepherdess, posed, per-
haps. in some modern wood just outside
Paris. where real sheep are available,
ara r4,{+e ,aal 70 Yho "a a,,7iar,oo oF o Nrov-
York East Side nickelodeon, whether they
are mentally interpreted in Yiddish, Ital-
ian. Bohemian. Syrian. or Polish The
blunders Of the tipsy man with the ac-
commodating latch key are understand
able in any language. when only a pic
tuTe pOTtrays them. and the tragic story
of the forsaken wife and the dying child
are as real as real can be. and sympa-
thetic snhfies and visible applications of
handkerchefs bear fiattering tribute to
the far-awav actors in some mOving-piC-
ture studio who acted out the touching
little drama before the powerful camera.
The nickelOdeOn. in its demand for
many and varied pictures. has created in
the five years of it's existence a new class
of actors and a new class of playwrights
Actors who never more see a real stage.
who are ever far from real fOOtlights.
and who never hear the plaudits of the
millions they please by their art, play
out i'm pantomime before the cameras the
hundreds Of little dramas that the NOV
ing-p picture machines under their mani
fold names present to audiences all over
the world: men who could not write
line of a play have become famous at
making plots for the actors to interpret
The niekelodeons use the majority of the
films so prepared. and talent and inge-
nuity are busy keeping up the supply.
It is no small task making these little
Photographic films OF the modest proper