Difficult as it may be for today’s film-goers to imagine an era before the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences existed to give annual awards, the movie industry was already mature when the first Oscars were handed out in a Los Angeles ballroom in spring 1929.

In fact, the public for more than 30 years was treated to glimpses of strange people doing odd things in far-off places via Thomas Edison’s amazing Vitascope. The 50-second “peep show” of 1896 turned into the one-reel narrative of 1903, leading to the full-fledged feature film a decade later.

Of course, Waco was not immune from the hullaballoo from Hollywood. One of the earliest of the film capital’s theater tycoons was a Texan named Thomas Lincoln Tally (some sources also spell it Talley), a cowboy from Waco.

The Crystal, an early nickelodeon of Waco, advertises some of the films of silent actor Ben Wilson (1876-1930), who launched his prolific career in 1911.
The Texas Collection at Baylor University photo

He was inspired to get into the movie industry by the bang-up business he observed around 1896 at a flicker show presented by “Winnie Brothers Kinetoscope Parlor.”

The story goes that after a season on the range, he rode into Waco one day and was amazed to see not only pictures that moved, but people paying for the privilege to gape. Fired up by the profit potential, he set out to learn the business.

By 1902, he headed west, where his family owned a phonograph parlor, with one of Edison’s machines — known by then as kinetoscopes, from the Greek root words for “moving pictures” — and a cache of films he acquired for $250 (about $6,400 in today’s dollars).

Once in Los Angeles, Tally opened a 200-seat storefront operation, the Electric Theater, famed now as the first permanent theater in America to exclusively exhibit movies. He charged patrons a whole dime to enter — in an age when average hourly wages were less than a quarter.

Tally later was co-founder of First National Pictures. He was the first showman to present a color film in 1912, and the first to sign rising stars Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford to movie contracts.

In Waco, one of the first reported public movie airings in early 1897 was a two-reel comedy spooled from the balcony of the Majestic Family Theatre on North Fourth Street. Proprietors hung a bed sheet above the stage. Demand was so high for the attraction that they were able to sell seats on stage behind the screen, where the action could be observed in reverse.

The Dixie, given credit by Texas historians as the first full-time nickelodeon in Waco, opened in 1908 — one of about 8,000 such amusement parlors across the nation to offer cheap entertainment to the masses.

Owned by William L. Terry, it was among the first such venues in the state to have an on-site popcorn machine and an automatic player piano. Its success led to a movie house war as other merchants rushed to covert storefront footage into picture shows.

Another early visionary, a Greek immigrant named Louis Santikos (1892-1984) first came to Waco in the early 1900s to make his American dream come true. He was working at a local grocery when he spotted the long lines forming at the Rex Theatre, a nickelodeon across the street.

Sensing a commercial bonanza, he pooled his savings to acquire the Rex in 1911.

The Dixie, given credit by Texas historians as the first full-time nickelodeon in Waco, opened in 1908.
The Texas Collection at Baylor University photo

Fred A. Gildersleeve, Waco’s premier commercial photographer, snapped this “merchants matinee” at The Cozy Nickelodeon, circa 1910.
The Texas Collection at Baylor University photo

Later, Santikos was lured by San Antonio businessmen to move to that city and build an entertainment empire – a family business his descendents have maintained since before World War I.

Some of the other early nickelodeon names in Waco included The Crystal, the Rex Theatre and The Rialto. By 1910, Waco had seven such palaces, including The Ideal (a converted hat shop owned by Mrs. Henry Lingsweiler), The Huaco (owned by Paul C. Negroponte), the Cozy Nickelodeon (founded by merchant Paul Jacobs) and the Elmo, (operated by J.A. Lemke).

According to Texas media historian Richard Schroeder, the Cozy and the Elmo, 604 and 606 Austin Ave., respectively, shared a common lobby — a mini-multiplex, if you will. Black audiences had their own venue, too — the Gaiety (some spelled it Gayety).

The city’s nickelodeon entrepreneurs also branched into open-air entertainment, a progenitor of the drive-in theater. Cheap to build and operate, they were a hit with the businessmen eager to make a fast buck.

With four simple walls in a field, a large bed sheet for a screen, some kitchen chairs or plank benches for seating in front of the projection platform, these roofless venues provided an alfresco alternative to the tightly packed darkened halls — albeit with the simmering summer heat and insects.

The Box Brothers, Pat and Doc, operated the Vendome, 120 N. Sixth St., and the Air Dome Royal, 513 Franklin Ave.

As the stories told by movie-makers grew more complicated and the one-reelers transformed into multi-reel spectacles (thanks to the likes of D.W. Griffith in the mid-teens), movie house operators began to craft pleasure domes for the comfort of customers who were willing to pay twice as much for a show of two or more hours.

Competition among owners vying for film fans led to the establishment of dedicated cinemas of opulent design and function, with posh restrooms, plush seating, fancy plaster decor, and large orchestra pits for musical accompaniment. Waco’s Hippodrome, started in 1914 as a vaudeville house but easily converted into a movie palace, was one such place.

The Texas Collection at Baylor University holds many images from the 1920s and 1930s of the creative approaches taken by proprietors of the Waco Theater (as it was known then) to advertise the films. Professional artists were hired to paint beaver board cutouts and other three-dimensional elements to draw patrons into the silver screen experience even before the lights were dimmed.

Additional sources: MySanAntonio.com; The Texas Collection at Baylor University; Handbook of Texas Online; Spare time in Texas: Recreation and History in the Lone Star State, David G. McComb (2008); Before the nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company, Charles Musser (1991); Lone Star Picture Shows, Richard Schroeder, (2001).

A sign painter at the Waco Hippodrome crafted a clever tie-in for the 1923 Harold Lloyd comedy Safety Last, posing the thrill-seeking comic in several poses as he “climbs” the proscenium arch.
The Texas Collection at Baylor University photo

The shadow of photographer Fred A. Gildersleeve (lower right) can be seen in this sunny depiction of the advertising crew behind Majestic Family Theatre, which projected the first motion pictures in Waco, in early 1897.
The Texas Collection at Baylor University photo

Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store, where Dr. Pepper was created in 1885, uses its window to advertise the 1923 flick Scaramouche, starring silent film heartthrob Ramon Novarro.
The Texas Collection at Baylor University photo