Nickelodeon

By Deane Barker

The first indoor movie theaters in the United States. They charged five cents for admission, and played short movies silent and newsreels continuously. They flourished in the early 1900s.

“Odeon” is the Greek name for a public auditorium for performances. (A European movie theater chain is called “ODEON Cinemas Group.”)

Why I Looked It Up

It came up in 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War. I knew the term from the cable channel, and had a general understanding that it was a movie theater, but was short on specifics. In particular, I was curious where the name came from.

Postscript

Added on

I was walking around London in May 2022 and stumbled on a theater called “Odeon Luxe Leicester.”

This is item #565 in a sequence of 948 items.

You can use your left/right arrow keys to navigate