Edison, Dickson, and the Kinetoscope

Edison, Dickson, and the Kinetoscope

Children stand outside a nickelodeon.

By 1905,
1)films were showing in most of the available vaudeville houses, local theaters, and
    other venues.
2)The main trend in the American film industry from 1905 to 1907 was the rapid
   multiplication of film theaters.

Side Note:
The Castro Theatre was built in 1922 by pioneer San Francisco theatre entrepreneurs, the Nasser brothers, who started with a nickelodeon in 1908 in the Castro neighborhood. The Castro was built at a cost of $300,000.  Source - the castro website
Side Note:
The Roxy was first known by these names via Roxy website

The Poppy 1913-1916
The New 16th Street 1916-1920
The Rex 1920-1926
The Gem 1926-1930
The Gaiety 1930-1933
The Roxie 1933–present

End of side note //
History of theaters in San Francisco click here
1910 - The Clay on Filmore.

3)These were typically small stores, installed with fewer than two hundred seats.
    Admission was usually a nickel (hence the term nickelodeon) or a dime for a program
    running fifteen to sixty minutes.
4) Most nickelodeons had only one projector. During reel changes, a singer might
    perform a current song, accompanied by lantern slides.
5) Nickelodeons had advantages over earlier forms of exhibition.
6) Unlike amusement parks, they were not seasonal.
7) They were cheaper than vaudeville houses and more regularly available
    than traveling exhibitions.
8) Expenses were low.
10) Spectators typically sat on benches or in simple wooden seats.
11) There were seldom newspaper advertisements to alert patrons
       in advance concerning programs.
12) Patrons usually either attended on a regular basis or simply dropped in.
13)The front of the theater displayed hand-painted signs with the names of the films,
      and there might be a phonograph or barker attracting the attention of passersby.
14) There was almost always some sound accompaniment.
15)The exhibitor might lecture along with the film,
      but piano or phonograph accompaniment was more common.
16) In some cases, actors stood behind the screen and spoke dialogue in synchronization
      with the action on the screen.
17)More frequently, people used noisemakers to create appropriate sound effects.