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"A well equipped picture exhibition requires the services of ten people.
By this is meant the working force of a 'store
show,' not a theatre."
Theatre name and location unknown.
The Law of the West was released in 1912.
"The list includes a piano player, a drummer, a man at the lantern and his assistant and two ushers only. Their wages average
about $200 a week.
With 10,000 such shows the payrolls would be $2,000,000 for a force of 100,000 persons.
Into
the box office of these moving picture shows at least $3,000,000 is passed in dimes and nickels every week by American pleasure-seekers.
The
average store show takes in $300 a week, the proprietors counting on an audience of 200 for each performance.
With
one-half of the $3,000,000 representing nickel admissions and one-half tickets costing a dime, the receipts would indicate
that 45,000,000 persons visited these shows every week or nearly every other person in the United States."
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