Hello, my name is Ellie and I am currently in CINE335 taught by Professor Aronson and Mrs. Peterson. Fortunate for me, I happened to select two Eugene theaters, the Nickelodian and the Lyric Theater, both of which came with a "shell" of information. In other words, I large chunk of research has already been completed on both theaters due to their locality and highly specialized information sources. As a senior in their final term of education, this was quite the welcomed discovery to make! However, unlike my classmates, my challenge now lies more about information presentation and creating a more cohesive narrative rather than information sourcing and citing.
First and foremost, I feel a mystery on my hands. Both the Nickelodian and Lyric Theaters were open for incredibly short windows of time, about a year apart from each other. The Lyric was open for a whopping 40 days before it shut down, barely outlasting the Nickelodian that opened April 1st of 1908 and didn't even making it past the 30th. Positively astounding. As I work through the previous citations and work to find new ones, I absolutely must know what the final nail in the coffin was for both theaters. Off the top of my head, there are numerous factors that could have contributed, the most likely culprits being local competition, fad behavior, cheap admission and high overhead, and consumer distaste. Eugene has had quite a number of theaters over the decades, as you've probably discovered through this website as well. The competition with such well-established theaters is a formidable challenge for any new business, and it's likely both the Lyric and Nickelodian could not withstand them. We also know the popular period for Nickelodeon entertainment was between 1901-1910, both of these theaters opening at the back half. People were probably bored of the format, and the theaters didn't do enough to keep them entertaining and fresh. Any new business has many expenses they're trying to recoup, and when admission is 5 cents not maxing out the theater every showing means a large sum of estimated income not being me, likely contributing to an early bankruptcy. And finally, we do not know what the actual theaters were like. Maybe they were nasty, and smelly, and people came in super drunk and started fights. The atmosphere is very much a factor in a business's success, and on top of these other reasons we will be going through the archives, trying to find the solid answers to why these theaters burnt out so quickly.
Stay tuned!
