Nickelodeon

even earlier style of film.

Almost like the Nickelodeon type thing where you put a penny in the machine and turn the crank and see this little drama playing out in a And the style of acting where people are – it's really interesting to see that he obviously is a student of those old film languages.

But he's sort of – he's not totally – going there with it.

There are modern aspects to the way he uses film language in his films, at least in this trailer.

And it was a...

They had it labeled as a Nickelodeon, I want to say in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

So at one

point, the building...

Don't feel anything but the burning black eyes.

Carl Laemmle migrated to the United States in 1883 and became fascinated with the Nickelodeon.

That little gadget that for just a tiny amount of money, a pittance, would show you a small short film.

Those of you my age and a little younger may recall the View-Master toy.

You would put usually a round disc into it that looked as though it had negatives, and you would crank the lever and it'd show different pictures.

The faster you cranked the lever, the more it looked like a film.

So it was with the Nickelodeon.

It showed a series of pictures very fast on the reel, and you had the illusion of movement of watching a film, which is really just what a movie is today.

But then something across the bustling Chicago street caught Carl's eye.

A lengthy four or five deep line of people snaked its way from around the corner of the block and heaved into the doors of a gaudy Nickelodeon theater.

Every 15 minutes, 100 or so sweaty, grinning patrons would burst from the exit, and the line would squeeze in through the doors until it was halted by the manager.

Carl figured that 100 people, each paying a nickel, meant that the theater was taking $5 every 15 minutes.

The theater was open from 10:00 in the morning until midnight, and therefore was bringing in $280 a day, $1,960 a week, $7,840 a month, $94,080 a year, give or take.

And what if you didn't just have one of these things? What if you owned two, three, a dozen, 100? At that very moment, Carl Laemmle knew exactly how he was going to spend the money he'd been saving.

Within a few years, Laemmle owned a large chain of Nickelodeon theaters and was turning over a handsome profit showing short films produced by American Pathé, Vitagraph, Star Film Company, and Biograph, bringing the wonders of the world to members of the public for a nickel a time.

However, in 1908, Thomas Edison, who owned most of the patents relating to motion picture cameras, forced all the motion picture producers to form a trust known as the Edison Trust, which sought to charge a fee to every exhibitor in the United States each time a trust-produced film was shown, essentially creating a monopoly on film production and distribution.

But the nominal, the number that you see, because a candy bar used to be a nickel.

And it used to go to the Nickelodeon for 10 cents.

in West Egg with Daisy Buchanan.

That's a great Gatsby reference.

In the same way the Internet started by engineers and technicians.

A hundred years ago, one of the most popular Nickelodeon features was, like, man sneezing.

And that the most watched Internet video a hundred years later was panda sneezing.

And it was very, very analogous.

We're talking about, like, old wood seats, slanted down mezzanine, old vibe.

Yes, it was e- what they call a Nickelodeon theater.

It had silent films in the early 1900s.

Perfect.

Do you know what, what that means, a Nickelodeon theater?

No.

Used to cost a nickel.

This isn't just a fad.

This isn't just a little way to throw a nickel into a Nickelodeon and entertain yourself for a couple of minutes.

That people can actually do serious stuff.

And the movie that really hit me in terms of serious stuff in silent film was one that I... that happened in film school and that was sorry i'm also trying to bring up my notes at the same time oh yeah yeah um uh and that was a movie that moved me completely and not only is it entirely without dialogue but it is actually entirely without title cards which of course normally in most silent films is it's action action action beautifully told with visual storytelling But you really wouldn't know what the hell was going on until that title card came in and you heard a little bit of dialogue that explains some stuff.

you know? Yeah.

And you go, you go to the Nickelodeon, you get a fresh sarsaparilla.

Yeah.

She was taking a sip of her like sarsaparilla root beer when Lincoln was shot.