The Nickelodeon

The Nickelodeon

The Nickel Madness; the Amazing Spread of a New Kind of Amusement
Enterprise Which Is Making Fortunes for Its Projectors.
-Headlines in Harper's Weekly, 24 August 1907

It was a time before there were World Wars, but only just before. The Second International Peace Congress was held at The Hague in 1907, and the third one was scheduled for 1915. People were talking about Peace, Rights for Women, Prohibition, Labor Relations, Child Welfare, and Moving Pictures. What had appeared at first as the "moving-picture craze" was bigger than anyone had anticipated. The reactions were bewildered and confused. Many feared the worst: this was getting out of control. America was confronting for the first time the phenomenon known as mass communication. Newspapers and magazines were part of it too, but they did not share in the excitement and apprehension that surrounded the moving image. All across the country the little store shows known as nickelodeons were doing a gold-rush business in the midst of the economic recession of 1907. In downtown entertainment districts the nickel shows congregated in the same blocks with the herd instincts of overdue city buses. The shows ran continuously from morning to evening. Enterprising young men who could scrape together a little cash to invest in a picture show were getting rich, opening one nickelodeon after another, establishing theater chains or rental exchanges.

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