Early Movie Theatres, Union Square, New York , 1912

"American moving pictures first became part of a theatrical program at Koster & Bial's old music hall on April 26, 1896. These early pictures were comparatively simple and showed sea waves or an express train in motion, or a scene on a city street.

From 1897 to 1900, the moving picture shows passed through many vicissitudes. Shows were open in the old St. James Hotel, at Twenty-seventh street and Broadway, and on Park Row, but people did not seem to go to them in sufficient numbers to create a vogue."