[ Regarding the Pittsburgh nickelodeon claim, Dave Bowers sends
 [ MMDigest this excerpt from a forthcoming book, "One Thousand
 [ Nights at the Movies - From Peep Shows to Movie Palaces, 1895 to
 [ 1915 - A History and Appreciation of the Early Years of Motion
 [ Picture Exhibition in America and the Players Involved," by Q. David
 [ Bowers and Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Foreword by Paul Spehr, Whitman
 [ Publishing, LLC.

Remembrance of Theatres Past - Pittsburgh and Its Nickelodeons

Reminiscences by old-timers usually reflected nickelodeons in
a favorable light.  These are the memories of childhood, "Movies in
the Age of Innocence," as lifelong film fan Edward Wagenknecht titled
a book, a nostalgic time of pleasure.

The Moving Picture World, July 15, 1916, was devoted to a history
of the early years of the business.  In it the first use of the name
Nickelodeon for a five-cent theatre was attributed to Harry Davis.
By that time there had been many such theatres in America, but none
with this particular designation:

Mr. Davis opened the first moving picture theatre in this city on
Smithfield Street, two doors from Diamond Street, Pittsburgh, in the
year 1903 [sic, should be 1904].  He named the house "The Nickelodeon,"
and thus coined a title that has clung to the picture theatres through
all the steps in its development.  The Nickelodeon seated 200 people
and, despite the small capacity, was considered a veritable "gold mine"
from the very beginning.  The house was open from 8 o'clock until
midnight, and the shows lasted only 15 minutes to a half an hour, in
which manner entertainment was provided to three to four thousand
daily.

One of the most notable features of The Nickelodeon was its music.
Not that a symphony orchestra, or even a pipe organ, was as yet even
dreamed of by Mr. Davis as a possibility for moving picture
entertainment.  The musical setting was supplied by a lone pianist --
who was none other than the well-known composer of popular melodies
of today, Harry Carroll.  Mr. Carroll, who had not yet written "Within
the Loop" nor his ballads such as "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine,"
received the staggering salary of $6 per week.

Within a year after The Nickelodeon was opened [in 1904], Mr. Davis
had some eight or ten Nickelodeons scattered about in the different
sections of the city.  While The Nickelodeon was the first moving
picture theatre in the world, Mr. Davis does not have the distinction
of having opened the second, which was established in Warsaw, Poland.
A certain Pole, whose name is not recalled here, passed through
Pittsburgh shortly after the opening of The Nickelodeon and carried
back with him the idea which he immediately put into effect.  Another
year saw the establishment of Davis' picture theatres in Philadelphia,
Rochester (New York), Buffalo, and Detroit, besides a total of 17 in
the Pittsburgh district alone.

The notion that The Nickelodeon was "the first moving picture theatre
in the world" was picked up by many historians and was translated into
fact, never mind that by 1904 there were hundreds of small movie houses
in America.

Dave Bowers