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At the age of 39, Carl Laemmle was closing in on middle age when he took his first small steps into the still-developing movie industry.   By 1906 he had been working for the Continental Clothing Company in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for 12 years.   He had done modestly well in his time with the company, rising to the position of manager.   He had even married Recha, his boss’s daughter, and his life was relatively comfortable.

Like so many people though, Laemmle felt that his pay didn’t reflect his worth to the company and, after voicing this opinion, he was summoned to Chicago by his boss (and father-in-law) Sam Stern for a meeting to discuss his grievances.   The meeting didn’t go well.  In fact it went so badly that not only did Laemmle tender his resignation, but Stern accepted it.

Laemmle returned to Milwaukee full of doubts and anxiety, but was relieved to receive the support of his wife when he broke the bad news to her.   Robert Cochrane, a friend and associated from Laemmle’s days at Continental, urged him to strike out on his own, and Laemmle and Recha decided to return to Chicago and search for a business opportunity in which they could invest their savings.   Laemmle had in mind a chain of five-and-dime stores, but as he searched for a suitable location in the windy city he was struck not only by the number of nickelodeons he passed, but also by the queues of people waiting outside for the next screening.   Legend has it that he stood outside a nickelodeon for an entire day, counting the number of people who entered and calculating the takings.

Laemmle soon abandoned his idea of becoming a shopkeeper and invested $3,600 – almost his and Recha’s entire savings – into renting and sprucing up a vacant building on Milwaukee Avenue.   He painted the building’s facade white and called it the White Front Theater.   Inside, he installed 190 camp seats borrowed from a neighbouring undertaker’s.   Laemmle ensured the theatre remained spotlessly clean at all times to encourage female patronage.  

His strategy worked, and he earned the sum of $200 that he estimated he would require to cover his weekly overheads on the theatre’s first day of business.   Within a month he had recouped his initial investment of $3,600.   Within two months he had opened a second theatre with his friend Robert Cochrane.   This one he called the ‘Family Theater.’   In November of the same year, just nine months after entering the business, the Laemmle Film Service, which would quickly become the largest film distributor in the country, was established, and by 1909 Laemmle and Cochrane were grossing $10,000 a week from the Midwest and Canada.

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