Profile America

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.

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

APRIL 20: Ford Launches Assembly Line

Profile America — Wednesday, April 20th. The American automobile industry began to crank up this month in 1913 — as Henry Ford set up the first moving assembly line in Highland Park, Michigan. Before the assembly line, workers spent over 12 hours building a single Model T. Afterward, it took only 93 minutes. Ultimately, a new car came off the assembly line every 24 seconds, and 15 million were built over the years of production. Prices dropped too. In 1909, a basic Model T roadster cost $825 — by 1925, it was down to $260. Now, American automakers — Ford still among them, of course — manufacture close to $105 billion worth of vehicles annually. Production peaked in 2016 at over 12-million passenger and commercial vehicles. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.

Assembly line, accessed 8/30/2021

Speed of production, accessed 8/30/2021

Model T prices, accessed 8/30/2021

U.S. auto sales value, Annual Survey of Manufacturers, NAICS 336111

Production data, accessed 8/30/2021

APRIL 19: All News 

Profile America — Tuesday, April 19th. The first all-news radio format in America was heard on this date in 1965, as WINS-AM in New York City switched from rock ‘n’ roll to rip and read. The station faded out the last song, the Shangri-La’s “Out in the Streets,” and became “all news, all the time.” The experimental format has been successfully replicated in cities around the country, with 43 domestic stations currently devoted to all news, still including WINS. The most listened-to such station is a competitor in New York City. Seven-hundred seventy-six more stations are found in the news-talk format. In America today, there are 15,428 radio stations, employing around 90,000 people, with annual industry revenues of nearly $21 billion. Profile America is completing 25 years as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Joseph Nathan Kane, Kane’s Famous First Facts, Fifth Edition, H.W. Wilson Co., New York, NY 1997, #6303.

Station history, accessed 8/23/2021

All news stations, accessed 8/23/2021

News-Talk, accessed 8/23/2021

Number of stations, accessed 8/23/2021 [3 MB]

Radio employment, County Business Patterns, NAICS 51511

Radio revenues, Economic Census, NAICS 51511

APRIL 18: First Laundromat 

Profile America —Monday, April 18th. For urban dwellers, the difficulty — or at least the expense — of doing their laundry began to ease on this date 88 years ago. In 1934, the first public, self-operated laundry in the country opened in Fort Worth, Texas. The first name for the business was “Washateria,” eventually replaced with the now familiar “Laundromat.” Early facilities were not necessarily coin-operated, and there was always an attendant on duty. The automatic washing machine came along in 1937, and by the late 1940s, the first unattended, 24-hour Laundromats were opened. Now, there are over 10,500 dry cleaners and coin-operated laundromats across the country. Employing more than 40,000 people, they do $4.3 billion of grime-fighting business annually. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov. 

Joseph Nathan Kane, Kane’s Famous First Facts, Fifth Edition, H.W. Wilson Co., New York, NY 1997, #2442.

“Washateria”, accessed 9/2/2021

Dry cleaners and laundromats and employment, County Business Patterns, NAICS 812310

Revenues, Economic Census, NAICS 812310

APRIL 17: First Public School 

Profile America — Sunday, April 17th. America’s oldest school in continuous existence celebrates its 387th birthday this month. The Boston Latin School started in 1635 with a handful of students meeting in the headmaster’s home. Stressing a classical education and the development of independent thought, the school has long been considered one  

of the top public secondary schools in the nation. Its list of graduates includes John Hancock, George Santayana, and Leonard Bernstein. Today, there are over 80 million children and adults enrolled in school throughout the country — from nursery school to college. They comprise 25.4 percent of the entire population age 3 and older. Of those students, 16.9 million are in high school. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at www.census.gov.

Joseph Nathan Kane, Kane’s Famous First Facts, Fifth Edition, H.W. Wilson Co., New York, NY 1997, #3040.

School history, accessed 8/27/2021

Ben Franklin and alumni, accessed 8/27/2021

U.S. school enrollment, American Community Survey