He worked closely with Marcus Loew at this time, becoming treasurer of his company.
Zukor put in a motion picture theater on the floor above the arcade. Called the Crystal Hall, it had a glass staircase with water cascading inside it over colored lights. It cost five cents to see a movie. Zukor developed his own brand of "talking" pictures. He had actors stand behind the movie screen and say their lines in synchronization with the silent action on the screen, which they could see in reverse.
Film Finds an Audience
At this time, movies, or "flickers" as they were called, were very short, no more than about 12 minutes. People in the industry felt that American audiences would not want to see anything longer. Zukor disagreed. He felt that audiences would sit through a movie for an hour or more, if it had a good story. Zukor tested his theory by buying the rights to a three-reel European religious movie, Passion Play. Zukor described the audience's reaction in his autobiography: "The scene was one of the most remarkable I have ever witnessed. Many women viewed the picture with religious awe.
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