Pictured below is an advertisement which ran somewhat regularly in “Popular Mechanics” throughout 1907. Capturing the novice, “do it yourself”, attitude, which drove the early years of film exhibition, the ad promotes one of the many outfits that offered “start your own motion picture business” packages.
Companies like Amusement Supply and the Miles Brothers (profiled in an earlier post) sold all of the equipment and promotional materials necessary to launch your own cinema (initially more portable than permanent), but their true business was in renting films. A lucrative business model, once they had sold an aspiring exhibitor the startup supplies, they pulled in a steady revenue through regularly supplying the new operator with films to screen.
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