THE NICKELODEON PROGRAM retired song illustrators, not a single full set could be found. Even in their heyday, song slides were fragile and regularly broken, leading, exchanges to establish replacement procedures. Once illustrated songs had left the marquee, the slides were systematically trashed, We are very fortunate that collectors like John W. Ripley and Margaret and Nancy Bergh hrave preserved the few remaining song slides. Without them this essential part of the nickelodeon program would have been forgotten forever. Silence Failure to recognize the role of illustrated songs within the nickelodeon program has had serious consequences for silent film sound historiography. Ignorance or misunderstanding of the role played by illustrated songs hes led many historians to attribute all nickelodeon musical efforts to film accompani- ment. Instead of acknowledging the lead role played by illustrated songs in the nickelodeon program, his torians have retroactively applied to nickel theaters standards and expectations derived from later prac- ‘i ment” has been read as if it were written a decade later. This retroactive prejudice has deafened critics to the variety of the nickelodeon’s soundscape, Crit ics have thus missed substantial evidence of film projection without dedicated accompaniment. Mov- -s. Every reference to “music” or “accompani- ing pictures were often experienced either in com: plete silence or with only the background sound of ballyhoo music outside the theater.” Practitioners and critics alike have long insisted that silent film was never really silent. “There never was a silent film,’ claimed producer Irving Thal berg." Ditector Alberto Cavalcanti insisted that, “At no period in the history of films has it been cusiom- ary to show them publicly without some sort of sound accompaniment. In other words, the silent film never existed.” Theater scholar Allardyce Nicoll insisted in 1936 that “film never has been with: out sound accompaniment.” Organist Gaylord Carter regretted that, "People forget that silent pic- 193 tures were never silent." Museum of Modern Art film pianist Charles Hofmann chose the title "NO FILMS WERE SILENT" for a section of his book Sounds for Silents, specifying that, “Since the earliest days of the movies there has really been no such thing as a‘silent film? Music was always an integral part of the showing of motion pictures, inseparable from the visual, indispensable as accompaniment to films.” Later historians took up the chant. George Prait asserted that, “Films were never shown in si- lence: at the very least there was a piano; at the most, an orchestra.” Kevin Brownlow entitled a chapter of The Parade’s Gone By, “The Silents Were Never Silent."# Raymond Fielding stated boldly that “there ‘was never any such thing asa silent film... the silent film’ is a myth. It never existed." Library of Con- gress music specialist Gillian Anderson affirmed thar, “Silent films were always accompanied by at least one instrument." If ever a claim qualified as a received opinion, the notion that silent cinema was never silent would be it Like most received opinions, the notion that silent films were never actually silent has been passed down fom generation to generation, always dey dent on the authority of the speakers rather than on supporting evidence. Most proponents of the silent- films-were-never-silent thesis knew the feature film period of the teens and twenties better than the pre- 1910 era. As we have seen, there is good cause to be- lieve that films were only selectively accompanied during cinema's first decade. In the case of the ni elodeon there is even stronger evidence that films were often projected in silence. Reading that evi- dence requires something of an education, however. In order to interpret documents relevant to nick elodeon music, we must first learn to distinguish be- tween the ample discourse devoted to nickel theater music in general and the rather scant treatment of film accompaniment in particular, Many articles that at first seem to present ironclad © nickelodeon musical accompaniment turn out to refer instead to illustrated songs, ballyhoo music, or music played between films.""There is scarcely a pic- ence ofNICKELODEON SOUND ture theater which does not use music in some form asan adjunct to the moving picture exhibit,’ affirms an anonymous 1909 Nickelodeon arti le apparently proving beyond a reasonable doubt that all 1909 film projections were accompanied by music. The con- tinuation precludes any such conclusion: “Even where the illustrated song forms no part of the pro- gram, a piano at least is used, if for nothing more than to fill in during intermissions.”"” The term “music” here clearly refers to a musical attraction separate from the moving picture. In order to read period documents correctly, itis essential to know that the term was regularly used in this manner. Reminiscing in 1916 about Atlanta's “Twin The ater.” a nickelodeon veteran recalled that its manager “as firm in his belief that a theater without music ‘was a failure.” Far from implying film accompani ment, this statement refers to ballyhoo music, as the full text reveals: L. |. Daniels, @ successful clothing merchant, financed the theater and for several years it was the leader. A. graphophone was placed in the lobby; this was looked after by a negro boy, who did his work so well, that depariment stores within the block, threatened all manner of injunctions. Mr. Daniels was firm in his belief that a theater with- out music was a failure, and he compromised the matter by muffling the horn of the instrument With a ball of cotton, and restricting the music 10 certain hours. It would be easy to assun that a phrase like “musie of some kind was used with pictures” refers to film accompaniment, yet once again the context points to the currently more common meaning of the term “music” referring to an attraction separate from moving pictures: From the earliest days of the “store” shows, music of some kind was used with pictures. At frst the phonograph was favered because of its cheapness. Ilustrated songs had been used in entertainment 4s carly as 1904, but they were used first in cheap vaudeville houses. In the fall of 1908 they were first used in picture theaters and became quite a fixture tuntil about 1911, when they began to lose their hold on the better class of houses.” ‘To assume that references to music necessarily imply musical accompaniment for the film is to misunder- stand the exhibition practices that dominated the nickelodeon period Once we recognize the importance of independent musical features to the nickelodeon program, period instructions for running a storefront theater achieve new clarity. How should we read a 1g10 Nickelodeon suggestion that, “The usher, pianist and singer may work from 11:00 A.\. until 9:00 ex.”? Assuming that silent films were never silent, readers might reason- ably wonder who will accompany the films projected before 1:00 A.M oF after 9:00 rt. No such worry oc- cupied the Nickelodeon writer, who instead gocs on to explain thatthe pictures can be run “without the song, during the earlier and later hours.” In other words,the writer is concerned not about film accompaniment but about the program's musical feature, the pianist, serving primarily to accompany the singer and pro- luce the illustrated song. From this new perspective it is tempting to wonder whether accompanying the singer was really the pianist’ primaryduty or whether it might have been his only duty. Infact, the same col- umn explains, the theater could actually be run with- ‘outa pianist: “That the pianist may sing the song for the picture may reduce the quality of the singing, but it is a possibility of reduction in expense. That both song and pianist may be omitted isa further possibil- ys the musical feature being supplied by an auto piano or phonograph, or both.” Unwilling to do away with music entirely, Nickelodeon stresses a separate “musical feature,’ not musical accompaniment of the film. In support of this position, the article then de- scribes in detail the handling of personnel in a Chicago theater on State Street, which has no music at all during the supper hour, and only an illustrated song at other times.” Several arguments have been offered in favor of the silent-films-were-never-silent thesis. 1. The presence of a piano in the film projection space is often adduced as proof of musical accompa- rniment for the films. Noting thatPlans and pictures 194THE NICKELODEON PROGRAM. of cinemas in the first decade of the century gener- ally show a pianist as providing the sole accompani- ment,” David Robinson indirectly demonstrates this argument’: false logic.*! Presenting itself as an objec- tive reading (“these plans or pictures display a piano”), the argument dissimulates a questionable historical conclusion (“the only reason for a piano is to accompany films”). Yet nickelodeons regularly of- fered illustrated songs, intermission music, and other musical features. No conclusions regarding musical accompaniment may be drawn from the presence (or absence) of a piano. 2.As part ofa demonstration that “silent film” isa myth, Raymond Fielding echoes others in pointing out that the term was rarely used before 1926.° In fact, Fielding overstates his case. While itis true that our current term, “silent film,” referring either to an individual film or the whole of silent cinema, dates from the post-1026 era and grows out of a contrast between synchronized sound film and films requir- ing live accompaniment, other related expressions ‘were regularly used during the cinema’s first quarter- century. When Edison’s Kinetophone was featured at Ki copy immediately began to refer to all other films as “silent photo-plays”™ Stressing the contrast between dialogue-rich theater and dialogue-poor cinema, the term “silent drama” ofien appeared both in profes- sional publi popular discourse. In 1909, Yerkes & Co, claimed that its sound-effect de- vices “lift the ‘silent’ drama out of the pantomime class and give it the value of the staged play?” Adolph Zukor’s exhibition policies are said to have introduced “perhaps the greatest single phase of the ‘ith’s Nickel Theatre in Providence, advertising ns and entire advancement of the art of the silent drama. Writing against the use of lecturers and sound ef- fects, Emmett Campbell Hall insists that, “The’silent ddrama’is sufficiently attractive and clear to the intel- ligence without any audible explanations."” New York booking agent Robert Grau uses the expression repeatedly. “The silent drama changes the theatrical map,”® he says, or “Progress in the field of the silent drama has been on an unparalleled scale.” 3. With litle evidence, and ignoring the fact that film projectors were rapidly isolated in fireproof booths, historians have long claimed that music was needed to cover the sound of the moving picture projector.” While projector noise was from time to time evoked during cinema's first decade, manufac- turers and distributors as early as 1900 went out of their way to tout their projectors’ lack of noise. Dur- ing the nickelodeon period, in response to fire regu- lations, most projectors were enclosed in a booth— not quite soundproof but certainly enough to attenuate projector noise. In 1907, aiming at modest exhibitors without a fixed venue, and thus with no guarantee of projecting from a booth, Sears and Roebuck advertised that, “With the Optigraph it is not necessary to keep a piano, orchestra or other ‘musical instrument going to cover the noise while showing the motion pictures.*! The following year, the exact same text, with only the name of the appa- ratus changed, was used for the Motiograph projec- tor in the Chicago Projecting Co's catalog." Projec- tor noise did not remain the substantial problem it represented during cinema's early years, As these catalogs testify, in 1907 and 1908 film accompani- ‘ment was clearly not considered an essential part of the nickelodeon program. While some nickelodeons provided live musical accompaniment for films, substantial evidence confirms that many theaters conceived music only as a separate attraction, alternating with the film rather than reinforcing it. A 1909 Nickelodeon article on “Conducting the Nickelodeon Program,’ authored by L. Gardette, assumes such an alternating arrange- ment: With an illusirated song an accompanist is 1 quired, and this usually dispenses with the ex- pense of an automatic piano for the aucitorium, the accompanist playing during the intermissions. The operator in control of the program of the the- ater, therefore, is required to call the accompanist 28 the performance nears the close, that the inter mission music may start promptly at the close of the pictures."NICKELODEON SOUND Gardette's detailed instructions for projectionists confirm that the piano provides intermission music and accompaniment for the singer only,not the film. ‘These instructions offer unexpectedly strong and specific evidence regarding the role played by music in nickelodeon exhibition: In the intermission the pianist is on duty. The op- ‘erator, having his picture film in readiness, (0) lights his are and (2) rings for the singer. He chen (3) turns out the lights in the auditorium, (4) turns off the ventilating fans, (5) turns off the automatic “barker” and (6) projects the song slides in proper order and atthe proper instant for exch. At the conclusion of thesong he (7) shiftsto the motion head and begins to turn thecrank ofthe kinetoscope, and at thesame time, with his free hand (8) turnson the ventilating fans and (9) turnson the automatic"barker."This is the time for the accompanist’: period of rest, and as, the operator nears the end of the reel of film he (10) rings for the accompanist to be in readi- nnesss for the intermission. At the end of the mo- tion pictures he (1) projects the “Please Remai (12) turns on the auditorium lights, (03) cuts off the current from his arc light, (14) cewinds the film and (a5) adjusts the carbons of his arc, Now, ast but by no means least (16) the operator decides the length of the in termission before repeating his routine of sixteen. separate duties." "slide; then These instructions foresee no musical accompani- ment for the film. During film projection, ventilating fans would provide the only sound, along with what- ever ballyhoo music might bleed through the en. trance doors. There was clearly no expectation that the pianist would play while films were being pro- jected; in fact, the instructions specifically indicate that film projection is “the time for the accompa- 1's per David Hulfish find Gardette’s detailed instructions that in 1909 and again in 1911 he incorporated them word for word in his regularly consulted manuals, p 1d of rest.” So useful did influential writer ‘The Motion Picture and Cyclopedia of Motion Picture Work, two of the first book-length treatments of film technology and technique Nickelodeons typically handled music asa separate attraction, which successful theaters offered but which simpler theaters did without. A specialized Sears and Roebuck catalog insists that, other than the chairs, the only things needed to set up a storefront theater are “the motion picture machine, the housing, for same, and the picture screen.” The catalog’s rec- ommended outfits bear out this suggestion, listing nothing but a projector a light source, and a screen.* E.G. Aitker’s 1908 tips on setting up a nickelodeon suggest that, “Three people are all that is required for a small place”: a ticket seller, a doorkeeper, and an op- erator. Larger theaters may choose to add “a piano player and a vocalist says Aitken, butthe only duty he assigns to the pianist is to accompany the vocalist” “Agreeing, the New York Dramatic Mirror notes that," screen, a picture machine and a service of films with- out reference tothe class of service are still considered in too many cases all that is necessary for a moving, picture show."* A similar logic is followed in the ‘weekly expense sheets for various kinds of theaters in Hulfishs Cyclopedia of Motion Picture Work. One the- ater has no pianist at alls those that do always pair the pianist with a singer, suggesting that the pianist is present only to serve the illustrated song.” Evidence abounds that many theaters alternated between a reel of film projected in silence and some form of musical attraction—either an illustrated song, a vaudeville act, or (live, automatic, or recorded) intermission music. “In the year 1909)" re- lates orchestra conductor Carli Elinor, “I spent quite a bit of my recreation time in ‘nickelodeon’ theatres, in New York, where moving pictures were running continuously from early morning till after midnight, with second-grade vaudeville thrown in at matinees and evening performances.” According to Elinor, The orchestra in the pit, consisting of a violinist, a pianist and a drummer (sometimes augmented by 4 cometist and a trombone player) performed dur- ing the presentation of vaudeville only: through 196THE NICKELODEON PROGRAM the shoving of films the musicians would leave the pit and rest. No music, no sound fects, no voice washeard inthe theatre during that period.” Montiville Morris Hansford, the first film music columnist for the New York Dramatic Mirrorand the American Organist, affirms that, “The motion pic- ture was born without music, and the first pictures shown in New York had no accompaniment of any 130 Society of Motion Pi gincers meeting, si imony was offered by no less an authority than Will Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Before introducing a series of banquet speakers, Hays told the story of a Wiscomiin mer ire En- sort.””! During a lar tes chant who bought a Chicago movie theater. He then hired a little boy 1o play the piano and do the “tinkling” before and after the picture. As he sat and sold and took tickets most of the time, he watched the effect of the music on the audience— this isa true incident. After one show, he suggested to the boy ar the piano: “At the next show ‘tinkle the piano during the picture and see what hap- pens.” The boy did so, and that was the first time that musie accompanied a picture. That merchant was [eventual Universal Studies head) Carl Laemmle and the litle boy was [Barney Balaban's partner} Sam Katz,” Longtime Disney and Warner Bros. cartoon com: poser Carl Stalling had si job asa theater pianist in Lexington (Mo.), where he was born, “In those days,” he later related, “they just lar memories of his first ‘wanted a piano going while the operator was chang. ing reels. In the cities, they had two machines, so you didn’t have to wait for the next reel, but in lite towns like Lexington they yet”? These recollections are further corroborated by longtime film music columnist George Beynon, ‘who begins his chapter on “The Evolution of Picture Music” in che following manner Back in the days of the store-tront “Movies” there was noise with the picture instead of music for the photophyy. The film was run in silence except for the beating of the big drum outside, for the pur- pose of drawing the crowds to this new form of side-show. Intermittently might be heard the voice adn't gotten that far of the “barker” droning his droll catch-phrases,in- forming the inquisitive populace that for “one dime, ten cents or a tenth part of @ dollar” they could see“the greatest wonder of the age, the cin: emageaph showing—MOV-ING PIC'CHURES” ‘The greater the merits of this one-reeler, the greater the noise which accompanied it. “That was in 1903—not so far back, as we count years, but, from the standpoint of the film indus- iy, dim in the distant and distasteful past. Folow- ing closely upon the discovery that the “movie” fad could become a great entertainment institution, a few progressives installed a pi audience which arrived early and were forced to ‘wait until there were sufficient paid admissions to warrant starting the show. Those were the days ‘when “they packed “em in,” rushed the five hun: dred feet through, and began packing them in again for another speedy depletion of their dimes, During the “packing” process, the pianist regaled the seated ones with some musie, mostly apropos ‘of nothing, being an estemporization hastily im. provised from his admittedly fertile brain—that is, he admitted the fertility. “The moment the lights went out and he could no longer be seen, he refused tobe heard and took himself off to one of the back exits to enjoy a ciga rette in quiet. The shuffling of retreating feet was the signal to begin work again and, having men- tally composed @ marvelous little ditty. while under the spell of nicotine, he straightway rushed backand perpetrated it upon the piano and the in coming crowd." Every moment was filled by music, except during the projection of films. Writing a decade afier the heyday of the nick- elodeon, Beynon found aberrant the conductof a pi- anist who failed to accompany the film, During the carly storefront theater years, however, the practice ‘was common enough not to cause raised eyebrows. Before i9i0 there was no cause to report a practice still considered normative. Nonetheless, echoes of silent film projection appear in many ear-witnessac- counts. In early 1907, Views end Films Index reported. that, at Baltimore's new Wirard ‘Theatre, “No ‘graphaphone [sc] is used and the quiet and genteel appearance of the place is inviting to the many pa- trons.”” Later that year, Barton W. Currie’s assess- meat of “The Nickel Madness” led him to discoverMICKELODEON SOUND many babies in New York's nickelodeons. “Of course, they were in their mothers’ or the nursegitls’ arms. But they were there and you heard them. They didn’t disturb the show, as there were no counter-sounds, and many of them seemed profoundly absorbed in the moving pictures.””°A year later, the Ocean Grove Auditorium in Asbury Park (NJJ.) decided to try a ‘week without its normal orchestra, since its patrons “say they attend to see the pictures and don't like the time taken up by the orchestra.””? Only by reading closely do we discover that the orchestra in question played between rather than during film projections. As late as the summer of 1909, a Washington, D.C., ordinance demonstrates the absence of a general ex: pectation that films always be accompanied by music. At the time, the nation’s capital treated nickel theaters as two separate phenomena, each requiring its own license. Whereas a picture show could simply purchase a film projection license, a license to play music (of any kind) in Washington theaters required the consent of three-quarters of the residents of sur- rounding blocks. Not until June 1910 were regula. tions amended to permit singing and the playing of musical instruments as part of moving picture shows open past 10:00 rm After the turn of the decade, writers were increas ingly critical of theaters without accompaniment. In 1910 the Moving Picture World’s “Chicago Notes” noted that The 5-cent theater on State Street is doing a poor business—everyone will say because they show no vaudeville wrong. The business is poor because the pictures are shown without music, except the doceasional wheexy notes of an old organ placed in the lobby. The Lyric, ago on State Street, shows, pictures without music but instead of having an ‘organ in the lobby. they have an old. out of tune, self-playing piano near the screen, to play during the intermissions.”” ‘The same year, Filin Index columnist Clyde Martin also noted silent projection in Chicago. 1 happened to stroll into one of the largest picture y and, I believe, the ‘graph on the screen, When I entered I was sur- houses in that ‘was Bio 10.41 H. EHofiman’s depiction of 1 flmaccompaniment practice prised not to hear music. By the time I was seated Thad come to the conclusion the orchestra was ei- ther eating their lunch in the pit or had sent a rep- resentative to the box office with a request for more money. {had still another surprise coming, for, at the finish ofthe picture every one in the or- chestra sat up, took notice, and as the last ten feet of the film passed through [the] machine they struck a chord and went into the introduction of the illustrated song.®? A few months later, on tour to demonstrate the proper procedure for film accompaniment, Martin found that the Washington (Ind.) Theatorium “does not use music through the showing of the pictures.” Apparently, manager Laymon couldn't find a good piano player and didn’t want the pictures butchered hy a bad one. Surprisingly tolerant of silent projec- tion, Martin agreed, suggesting that it is better to forgo music entirely than to chance bad musical ac- companiment.* Perhaps this is why orchestras in all but the largest theaters oftea sat out the first show while the conductor plotted strategies for accompa rnying later showings. In the days of daily film changes, this of course meant many silent shows even in theaters boasting quality orchestral accom- paniment. Shorlly after Martin's Chicago experience, Moving Piciure World published “Jackass Music,” the tongue- in-cheek adventures of Lily Limpwrist, Freddy 1981 Furalehead, and Percy Peashaker® Ironically, the ruil proveked by this plea for better film music and soutid effects reveals, practice of restricting musical accompaniment to certain film genres only. One correspondent reports ‘ona theater where dramatic pictures were accompa- nied by the orchestra, but comedies were shown silent." A subsequent letter-writer explains that the local theaters rule was to avoid accompanying comic pictures, “as those pictures have a better effect with- out music Just a few months later, respected com- ‘mentator W. Stephen Bush would make precisely the opposite claim, suggesting that, Greater license may be given to effects in comic reels" Contemporary accompaniment strategies were so varied that, even within the same journal and the same year, radically divergent practices could be reported and supported. In April 191, experienced stage and behind-the- screen actor William Calhoun offered eloquent test 9 late as agit, the common mony to the variety that continued to characterize film exhibition. Shoulda manager doubt the value of vocal accompaniment, suggested Calhoun, “let him try it out by running a picture once with first-class people speaking the lines and then run the picture, silently, next show. Applause, laughter, tears will fol Jow, in the first instance and nine times out of ten the ‘silent’ gets by without a murmur”®” Though Cal- houn’s strategy is expressed in terms of dialogue rather than music, his willingness to envision radi cally differentiated exhibition practices for succe sive shows makes it quite clear that standardization hhad not yet been achieved. Similar tes from a January 1911 Nickelodeon article, which won- ders out loud how exhibitors would handle an opera film ifappropriate music were not provided. “If they were not very particular about the niceties of the profession,” opined the author, “they would proba- bly run the film without any music.”** According to longtime Film Index writer James McQuade, “As carly as 1g09 an attempt was made to play suitable selections on the piano, with dram accompaniment, for the pictures. None of these pianists at that time could improvise so as to catch the theme of the pic- imony comes NICKELODEON, 199 PROGRAM ture accompanied, with the result that patrons with ‘musical ears soon tired of such music and proferred the pictures alone." In June 19m, Film Index reflects a continuing tendency to play the “pictures alone,” suggesting that “there are many ways of giving life to your program by varying the silent run of the films’ Audiences were apparently not the least bit bothered ei tient music. her by silence or by inte ‘Trained to accept intermittent lecturer comments, sound effects, “cue” music, or voices behind the screen, the theater-going public did not yet have a reason to believe that music should be judged any different! Just as some theaters limited accompaniment to selected genres, so others used music intermittently, This practice was at first driven by limited availabil- ity of an owner sequentially serving as manager, ticket taker, singer, musician, or projectionist,and by the tendency to play only what was then called “cue music," ie., music specifically corresponding to an on-screen cue such as a bugler blowing his bugle. Pioneer showman S. H.“Hopp” Hadley suid his per- formances “consisted of five reels of pictures, an il- lustrated song sung by yours truly without accompa- rniment, and so-called music phyed on the fiddle behind the screen, ako by yours truly, when he could spare himself from the gate”" The use of o violin was ofien elicited by films concentrating on violin- ists. Whether the exhibitor used a live or recorded vi- olinist, accompaniment was always intermittent, since the violin was sounded only when a violin was played on the screen. A 1907 Indianapolis theater de- pended heavily on recorded musi [The manager] uses a Twentieth-Century Colum- bia graphophone to draw trade, and operates a Sterling Columbia graphophone behind the scene when moving pictures are being displayed. For ex- ample, when pictures of a violinist are being shown hi scenes, gi ums on a violin record behind the gan excellent effect? When the violinist is on the screen, music from the Sterling model isin the air; when no violinists to be seen, however, the only thing heard is whatever bal-NICKELODEO! yhoo music might bleed in from the Twentieth- Century mode! on the street. Between 1910 and 1912, Clyde Martin campaigned to eradicate intermittent accompaniment, which he identified with orchestral practice and the inability of orchestras to improvise or “fake” (as compared to Martin's instrument of choice, the piano). ‘A musi ian should never stop playing through the showing ofa picture,” he points out. Yet, he admits, “This great mistake that you will frequently find in the big houses as well as the small ones.” Three months later, a trip to Chicago's renowned Orpheum The- ater gave Martin cause to lend specificity to his gen- eral claim: “Here I listened to possibly the greatest advertised picture orchestra in the country and to my surprise there was three to six minutes in each picture that there was no music." As George Beynon later recalled, early orchestras typically per- formed intermittently, since “it was not expected that they should play continuously? In “Tune Recital,” Eudora Welty’s autobiographical narrator recounts young Virgie's performances as accompa- nist at the Bijou. “Some evenings, she would lean back in her chair and Jet a whole forest fire burn i dead silence on the screen, and then when the sweethearts had found each other, she would switch on her light with a loud click and start up with creeping, minor runs—perhaps Anitra’s Dance?” ‘The struggle between partisans of continuous ac- companiment and supporters of intermittent music was not immediately resolved. In a popular 1913 manual, Eugene A. Ahern, film music columnist for Moving Picture News, actually suggests stopping the music occasionally in order to “give the audience a chance to think.” Ahern condemns orchestras that play continuously, and actually makes “Play cont uuously” one of the highlighted “Don'ts” with which he concludes the book.” Silence was slow to disappear entirely from film exhibition. A 1911-1913 Commonwealth Club survey of recreational facilities in the San Francisco area identifies the following uses of music in the fifty nine nickelodeons surveyed: IN SOUND Orchestra and Vocal Mechanical Orchestra and Mechanical Orchestra Instrumental Instrumental and Mechanical Orchestra-Vocal-Mechanical No Music The strong domination of mechanical music (among theaters with music, neatly three-quarters have noth- ing but mechanical music, and almost nine-tenths have mechanical music available) reveals that “playing, the pictures” was still not the San Francisco norm in 1913. The fact that five out of fity-nine nickelodeons hhad no music atall indicates that silent projection was still entirely acceptable: many of the other theaters probably used music during intermissions only. Anationwide survey conducted by Mation Picture News reveals that even in the early twenties musical accompaniment for films was hardly a universal practice. Since this was a mailed census, requiring a response and self-evaluation from theaters, we may assume that its figures are skewed toward larger the- aters (more likely to be able to spare a staff member to answer questions) and exaggeration of musical sources (theaters are more likely to report their max- imum number of musicians, rather than to admit that on weekdays they only have a pianist, and on some days no music at all), Even with this tendency toward overreporting, the statistics are revealing. A full 5 percent of those responding indicate that their theaters have no live musical accompaniment.” Many of these theaters undoubtedly used player pi- anos or phonographs, but the large numbers in- volved suggest that even in the early twenties some theater managers were convinced they could get along without music. This conclusion is confirmed by the oral histories recorded by Gregg Bachman, which include two testimonials to silent film projec- tion. “We didn’t get to go to the theatre where they had music in North Dakota, affirmed a subject born in 1912 when asked about film music, “so 1 don't know about it. There was no piano oF organ. Just film and Pathé news” Another, born in 1915 inTHE NICKELODEON PROGRAM Springfield (Mass.), had similar memories: “So when you were going to the movies, this was early 1920s now; there was no music at the Caldwell and none at the Park. So it was a completely silent experience, Absolutely silent until the sound [films] came on.”"™ Long past the nickelodeon era, some exhibitors ap- parently remained obedient to Emmett Campbell Hall’s gn pronouncement: “If what is being shown is supposed to be asilent drama, for heaven's sake let ite silent”! What does all this signify regarding the nick- elodeon soundscape? Does it mean that nickel the- ater films were always projected in si not. Many nickelodeons offered music during film projection. Before 1910, accompaniment practice was extremely diverse, though hardly universal. Nickel theaters made room for sound practices of the most varied nature, including ballyhoo from without or ence? Assuredly within, live lectures, backstage sound eflects or voices, recorded synchronized sound, and illustrated songs. When musi sidered as the primary strategy of silent film exhibi- tion, as it always has been in the past, all these other strategies appear tributary. Recognition that many theaters practiced silent film projection returns mu- sical accompaniment to its rightful place in the nick- elodeon soundscape. Instead of representing a domi- nant, guaranteed presence, musical accompaniment of films constituted one of many regularly practiced strategies, all of which had their champions and hey- day, but none of which was guaranteed a future. Once assumed to be the only strategy for nickelodeon sound, film accompaniment was actually part and parcel of the crisis of the late aughts—just one among many possible approaches to a yet-to-be-sta- bilized entertainment phenomenon, accompaniment of films is con.