APRIL 21: First Movie Theater 

Profile America — Thursday, April 21st. For over a century and a quarter, going to the movies has been one of the American people’s great pleasures. The first time paying Americans gathered as an audience to watch a motion picture was this week in 1896, at the Koster and Bial’s Music Hall on West 34th Street in New York City. The movie was a plotless novelty at the end of a live vaudeville show, showcasing a new projector of Thomas Edison’s. Previously, people viewed short films individually by peering into a hand-cranked peepshow unit. Now, there are over 4,450 movie theaters affected by the pandemic. Previously, these theaters employed 149,000 people, and took in about $16 billion annually. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at  www.census.gov.

Sources:

Joseph Nathan Kane, Kane’s Famous First Facts, Fifth Edition, H.W. Wilson Co., New York, NY 1997, #5511.

Koster and Bials, accessed 8/31/2021

Theaters and employees, County Business Patterns, NAICS 512131

Revenue, Economic Census, NAICS 512131