Mondo Knows Facts

The first nickelodeon opened in Pittsburgh in 1905

Harry Davis converted a storefront into a cinema charging five cents In June 1905 Harry Davis opened a converted storefront on Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh and charged a nickel for a programme of short films. The idea spread quickly across American cities, and within a few years thousands of small cinemas were showing films to working-class audiences. It sits in Mondo's movies & tv collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Smithsonian Institution

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Tags: 1905, cinemas, nickelodeon

The first nickelodeon opened in Pittsburgh in 1905: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Harry Davis converted a storefront into a cinema charging five cents. The figure is taken from Smithsonian Institution, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a movies & tv fact?
Yes. It sits on the Movies & TV shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.