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In June, 1905, a far-sighted showman, John P. Harris, resolved to try out something new in entertainment. Films were nothing new of course - Harris had shown them in one of his theatres as early as 1897, but only as an added attraction for vaudeville and repertory companies.
Realising that there was a growing public interest in the new medium, however, he took over and re-modelled a small store in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, hung a muslin sheet on one wall and set up 96 chairs and a box-office. Thus making the first purpose built cinema. He needed a name sufficiently intriguing to cause word-of-mouth publicity. So he called it the Nickelodeon. The name was a combination of the admission price and the Greek word for theatre.
A salesman in Kaufmann's department store, just across the street, saw how popular this new venture was and decided he should get in on it as well. That salesman was Harry M. Warner the first of the Warner Brothers. The jewellrey store a few doors away also notices the crowds that flocked there daily. The jeweller was Lewis J. Selznick who decided to become a film producer as well.
