1905

Year	Event and Significance
1905	Harry Davis and John Harris opened their first movie theater, dubbing it a nickelodeon, in Pittsburgh. The opening feature was The Great Train Robbery (1903). The name for the converted storefront, dance hall or theater was derived from the cost of admission -- a nickel -- and the Greek word for theater -- "odeon."
1905	The Warner Brothers (three brothers, Harry, Sam, and Albert) opened their first nickelodeon (theatre), a building that they called the Cascade Movie Palace, in New Castle, Pennsylvania. The historical marker at the present-day site stated: "WARNER BROTHERS' FIRST THEATRE - An early milestone for the Warners' film empire was the operation by Harry, Sam, and Albert Warner of a theater her, 1906-07. It seated 99 persons, who could view three movies for a nickel. Sixteen years later, Warner Bros. Pictures was established." [Two years later, the Warners sold the Cascade and left New Castle, moving to Pittsburgh where they established their own film exchange, the Duquesne Amusement and Supply Company.]
1905	Cooper Hewitt mercury lamps made it practical to shoot films indoors without sunlight.
1905	The American entertainment trade journal Variety began publication weekly in New York City.
1905	The short action-oriented British melodrama Rescued by Rover (1905, UK) was produced by Cecil Hepworth, and was the earliest cinematic canine feature. It was a very early and notable example of creative cutting and energetic traveling shots (moving across the screen in a consistent direction) to make it more suspenseful.
1905	Director Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company's family-oriented comedy short The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog (1905) was based upon a popular postcard fad of its day, and daringly created humor from the name of the dysfunctional family. It combined live-action comedy and graphics.