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8 Building Theatre Patronage
During the year 1906 and 1907 motion picture theatres or "nickolettes" were spreading all over the country. They were only remodeled stores, and cannot be dignified with the name "motion picture theatres."
These "store-show" theatres were very much alike. The tiny entrance, the stuffy vestibule, the curtained-off auditorium, long and narrow, the low ceiling, straight rows of uncomfortable seats, dim, uncertain lighting, the cheap, flashy picture on none too smooth canvas, the banging of a tuneless piano, the rattling of the shutter from the projection booth, the stuffy air — hot in summer and cold in winter — and the eye-strained audience huddled in the straight, stiff chairs were details universally common. Here and there crude plaster decorations at the entrance were a distinctive touch. The more daring exhibitors added to the entrance display a few electric lights which served only to make the plaster decorations seem more ugly. Patrons almost welcomed the familiar notice on the screen "All those who have seen the picture will kindly pass out."
But the next step in the development only brought larger "stores" and further attempts at ugly decoration. The result was over-seated rooms with meagre equipment. An exception was the Victoria Theatre, Philadelphia, erected about 1 906 by Sigmund Lubin — the first "real" theatre structure in which motion pictures were emphasized rather than vaudeville.
In 1912, the Lyceum Theatre, New York City, was leased to show the photoplay "Queen Elizabeth." For the first time, the motion picture was presented as the main attraction in the setting of a real theatre.
Remodeling.
Gradually, legitimate theatres were remodelled into motion picture houses. At that time the remodelling was not very expensive. Temporary booths made of sheet metal or asbestoslumber were set up in the balcony, and there was a feeble attempt to arrange the lighting so that the screen would be protected. But such remodelling was temporary in character because the photoplay still seemed even to the most confident, only a fad which did not justify a permanent structure.