By 1910, the tens of millions of patrons visited nickelodeons every week, drawn by the five-cent price of admission. Films, shown continuously through the day, could be as short as 10 minutes, but patrons could arrive in the middle of afilm and stay as long as they liked.
Silent films were screened in converted auditoriums and specially-built theatres called nickelodeons, with the musical accompaniment of a pianist or organist.
With the release of the first motion pictures in the last years of the 19th century, theatres introduced a form of entertainment that was new and void of etiquette. With so many crowding into the small theatres, a few projected remindersof basic etiquette were necessary.
