C.O.C.A. Times

Mutoscope, a drop card device marketed in1896 by
the American Mutoscope [and Biograph] Company,
New York. This concern fitted up parlors in New
York, Washington, Philadelphia and Baltimore,
with plans to sell the locations outright. However,
their asking price found no takers, and the company
was compelled to operate the parlors. However, the
Mutoscope caught the public fancy and the gross
receipts during the first years of operation not only
covered what the company had asked for the parlors
but paid rental costs as well. Soon the Mutocopes
were invading phonograph parlors, and, in the face
of this competition, the price of a Kinetoscope
dropped to $100.
In 1894, Mitchell H. Mark, who had been in the
hat business in Buffalo, purchased a run-down
phonograph parlor in that city. This location was
suffering from both the depression and a lack of
showmanship. Mark installed Kinetoscopes, re-
christened the parlor "Edisonia Hall," and adver-
tised his attractions. Soon he was earning a com-
fortable, though by no means a conspicuous, liveli-
hood. Both he and his brother, Moe Mark, branched
out into varied theatrical ventures, but they always
remained in the arcade field.
The Marks's first break came when the Pan-
American Exposition of 1901 brought the crowds to
Buffalo and their People's Arcade on Main Street
earned some $35,000. As a result of this flood of
business, Mitchell Mark conceived the idea of get-
ting volume patronage on coin machines by lower
prices from a nickel to a cent, and by locating where
throngs of passers-by would insure a continuous
patronage. He called his new parlor a "Penny
Arcade" and after its initial success in Buffalo,
decided to test the idea in a New York City uptown
location. When this proved a hit, Mark moved into
New York's Union Square, one of the city's busiest
thorofares [sic] , where, in 1903 the penny arcade
came into its own.
John McCullough. While the high cost of the
machine ($150) precluded any overnight growth,
phonograph parlors were putting in their appear-
ance in the larger American cities. [Figure 1]
Edison Helps Out
Along with the rest of the entertainment world,
the infant phonograph parlor was hard hit by the
disastrous depression Of 1893, and operators began
to hunt for some novel attraction to stimulate busi-
ness. Edison, who had given his talking machine
eyesight with the Kinetoscope a peep-show using
50 feet of film was persuaded to develop this sight
device for commercial exploitation. The new
machine made its debut in 1894, when a group was
displayed at a Kinetoscope Parlor in New York. He
patron glued his eye to a lens and saw a series of
jerky flashes of action. Slot devices were soon
added to the machines, and coin operators had a
new Edison wonder for the public. At first the
Kinetoscope was exhibited by itself, but, as the
phonograph parlors had control of the best loca-
tions. It was natural that the two coin devices were
featured together where their joint efforts coaxed a
flood of nickels from patrons. Kinetoscopes were
like coin-phonographs, an expensive investment,
selling at $200. [Figure 2]
Parlor operators of this period traded on the pub-
licity that Edison had garnered in the press as the
"Wizard of Menlo Park," and no parlor was consid-
ered complete without a huge bust or picture of the
famous inventor. [Figure 3] Some of the operators,
with a flare for showmanship, persuaded Edison to
sell them a coin-operated X-Ray outfit, consisting
of a five-inch induction coil and three tubes. This
device, or a rival Catho-scope made by the
Hammerschlag Company in New York, was used to
add a scientific atmosphere to the offerings of the
phonograph parlors which began to adopt names
like "Wonderland." A few of these locations
merged with or became part of Dime Museums, but
the vast majority retained their "parlor" status.
Machines from England
During the 1880's a number of coin entertain-
ment devices found their way to the United States
from England, traveling in the wake of the success-
Mutoscope Arrives
Edison's Kinetoscope soon had a superior in the
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