On a hot summer day in 1905, at 433 Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, two men named Harry Davis and John P. Harris turned an empty storefront into something extraordinary.
They filled the space with 96 borrowed seats from a theater down the road, hung a white sheet at one end to serve as a screen, and added a piano and a projector. The setup was modest, but their creative thinking helped invent the movie theater business by giving people a new way to experience moving pictures.
They called it the Nickelodeon. Admission cost just five cents.
June 19, 1905, was opening day. Approximately 450 people came through the doors, and those 96 seats became the beginning of something much larger than the storefront itself.
From eight in the morning until midnight, the projector kept running and audiences kept coming. What had once been an empty space became a destination.
The idea spread. By 1908, an estimated 8,000 nickelodeons operated across the United States. By 1910, approximately 26 million Americans were visiting these theaters each week.
More than a century later, the scale is remarkable: worldwide movie ticket sales were estimated at approximately $33.6 billion in 2025.
Moving pictures already existed when Davis and Harris opened their theater. Audiences had seen them as part of vaudeville programs. Davis and Harris made movies the main attraction, giving people an affordable place to enjoy short films. Their Nickelodeon helped turn a curiosity into a regular entertainment experience.
Their story captures how inventive thinking and new ideas can begin by seeing fresh possibilities in familiar things. Davis and Harris brought existing technology and everyday objects together to create an experience people wanted.
Today, just over 10 miles away from where theaters were invented, that same spirit of imagination continues here inside Davison’s invention factory. Located at 585 Alpha Drive, Davison’s invention factory is known as America’s Largest Invention Factory, a place where creativity provides the setting for exploring new ideas and bringing them into reality for idea people all over the world.
People come to Davison with invention ideas inspired by everyday experiences: a frustrating task, an unmet need, or a moment when they wonder, “Is there a better way?”
That question gives creative thinking a purpose. It encourages someone to look more closely at a familiar object, reconsider a routine, or imagine how a product could work differently.
Through design and development services, Davison helps people explore, communicate, and invent product solutions and innovative app concepts. Through pre-development, brainstorming, product design, prototyping, and more, the goal of the Davison inventing method is to bring ideas to the real world.
Every invention idea has a starting point. For Davis and Harris, it was an empty storefront and a different way to show movies.
For you, it might be something you noticed this morning.
What everyday experience will inspire your idea?
Sources:
- HISTORY: Pioneering Nickelodeon Theater Opens
- University of Pittsburgh Press: Nickelodeon City, via JSTOR
- Government Street: the movie business
Written By: Lola M. Mattiello