Robert Paul's Animatograph birthed the cinema hall

Before we had to mortgage a house for theater popcorn, Robert W. Paul was hijacking British music halls with his Animatograph. In 1896, Paul figured out that instead of making people squint into tiny peepshow boxes, he could project moving images onto a screen and charge a whole room of drunk Victorians at once. It essentially established the theatrical release model we are still chained to today.