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6/4/1894: The Movies Open for Business
By the 6th April 1894, the first kinetoscopes were ready for shipment from Thomas Edison’s West Orange Laboratory. They were shipped to the Holland Brother’s Kinetoscope Parlour at 1155 Broadway in New York City (once the studio of sculptor John Rogers, the building is now the site of the Broadway Plaza hotel). The Holland Brothers, Andrew and George, were Canadian businessmen from Ottawa who had enjoyed success in a variety of business ventures including steamship lines, typewriters, bookselling, publishing, and the selling of Edison’s phonograph. They purchased Edison’s kinetoscopes at a cost of $250.00 each.
The ten kinetoscopes were arranged in two rows of five, and surrounded by a brass rail for the patrons to lean on as they viewed the films. Each machine showed a different thirty second film, and payment of a fee of 25 cents entitled a customer to watch five films. The title of each film was displayed on the machine on which it was shown, and an attendant, after receiving a ticket from the patron, who would then peer into the machine’s peephole, would start the film (the kinetoscope would later be coin-operated). The new Kinetoscope Parlour – and with it the movie industry – opened for business on Saturday 14th April 1894. The movies shown included Blacksmith Scene, a film of strongman Eugene Sandow, one of Ena Bertoldi, Highland Dance, Amateur Gymnast, Barber Shop Scene, Cock Fight, Organ Grinder, Trained Bear and Edison Employee’s Picnic.
The show was an unparalleled success, grossing $155.70 on its first day, and a month later, on 17th May, the brothers opened a second parlour, with another ten machines, in a Masonic temple in Chicago. As a co-founder (with Norman Raff and Frank Gammon) of the Kinetoscope Company, which was formed to exploit Edison’s invention, Andrew Holland found himself in a lucrative position.
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