Thomas Edison, having electrified America's cities, had turned his attention to movies in 1888. At his laboratories in West Orange, N.J., he had built the world's first indoor studio, a tar-papered 50-foot box he called Black Maria, and in 1893 had begun shooting half-minute variety entertain-ments starring the day's most popular performers: dancers, jugglers, strongmen, acrobats, anything that, well, moved. Subsequently it had occurred to him to send out his camera crews to shoot street scenes: elevated trains, bicycle parades, Coney Island thrill rides. At 1155 Broadway in April 1894, he opened the world's first kinetoscope parlor, where customers fed nickels into individual viewing boxes and peered at the jittery marvels through tiny windows. This they did with great enthusiasm for a season or two, then got bored. Edison now decided it was time to invent the public theater experience: On April 23, 1896, the nation's first projection films premiered at Koster & Bial's Music Hall at Broadway and 34th St.