Cinemas celebrate 100 years!

[PghUSA]

The first Movie Theater in the world is in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania on Smithfield Street opening in 1905!

Pittsburgh also became the earliest hub for motion picture companies with MGM and Warner Brothers having their roots here in Pittsburgh before moving west, as well as Selznik Pictures ("Gone with the Wind" fame).

Pittsburgh Post Gazette 6/19/2005:

The world's film industry started in Pittsburgh, 100 years ago today, in a dingy storeroom teeming with working-class immigrants, sexual tension, danger and the still-fresh thrill of seeing moving pictures.

 

The mix was so volatile that during the first day, 450 people watched movies at the new theater, which its owners dubbed the "Nickelodeon." By the second day, more than 1,500 people stood in line to see movies there, and eventually the Smithfield Street site became known as the world's first modern movie theater.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05170/522854.stm