The Answer:
The first theater in the world exclusively devoted to showing
motion pictures was the Nickelodeon, which was opened on June 19, 1905
in Pittsburgh,
Penn.
The theater was the creation of Harry Davis and John P. Harris
who moved 96 seats into an empty store at 433-435 Smithfield St.,
transforming it into the world's first movie theater. The name was
based on the cost of admission to the theater (a nickel) and the Greek
word for theater (odeon).
The theater was the first to show films all day long and among
the first films shown were Poor But Honest and
The Baffled Burglar. The theater was a stunning
success and thousands of nickelodeons began appearing in cities all
across America.
Here is a newspaper
article from 1919 about the Nickelodeon.
—The Editors
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