The origin of the name Nickelodeon (the TV network)

[Green_Bean]

@terentii

Gee, wouldn’t it be a real bitch if kids were, like, you know, motivated to actually look something up in the dictionary? :dubious: :rolleyes: :smack:

Why would they even think it was something you could look up in a dictionary? I explained it to my kid once and he was surprised that it meant anything but the name of the channel.

[furryman]

If you ever visit the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine FL, they have some absolutely amazing Nickelodeons. Mechanical musical instruments that play songs using long perforated cards, Kind of like the really early computers.

[Wendell_Wagner]

Here are several senses of the word Nickelodeon:

Nickelodeon (disambiguation)

[Wendell_Wagner]

The early movie theaters were called nickelodeons because it cost a nickel to get in and there was a famous theater called the Odeon in Paris. The name of the theater comes from the classical Greek word “odeon” for a theater. There are now other theaters called the Odeon.

[Tom_Tildrum]

It’s a little anticlimactic to learn that the origin of the name is just that they paid someone to come up with something.

[Flywheel]

@Tom_Tildrum

It’s a little anticlimactic to learn that the origin of the name is just that they paid someone to come up with something.

“The story of how two brothers, and five other men, parlayed a small business loan into a thriving paper-goods concern is a long and interesting one. And, here it is: it all began with the filing of form 637/A, the application for a small business or farm…”

[Wendell_Wagner]

Tom Tildrum writes:

> It’s a little anticlimactic to learn that the origin of the name is just that they paid
> someone to come up with something.

I’m not sure what you’re talking about here. By “they paid someone to come up with something,” do you mean that people paid a nickel to get into a theater (an “odeon”)? That’s anticlimactic? You’re going to be disappointed by life in general, I think. That’s what usually happens when you look for the etymology of a word. You eventually get back to something mundane.

[Tom_Tildrum]

@Wendell_Wagner

Tom Tildrum writes:

> It’s a little anticlimactic to learn that the origin of the name is just that they paid
> someone to come up with something.

I’m not sure what you’re talking about here.

I was referring to the OP.

@tvguy1979

GUS HAUSER (Creator of Nickelodeon): We had an outside firm who counseled us on various names we could use. At the end of that session, I sat in the room and one of the things on the list was Nickelodeon. I said, “Let’s do Nickelodeon.” And that was it.

When the thread title promised the origin of the name, I thought it might involve a unique story, or some personal connection. Instead it was a transaction where one corporation asked another to generate a list of names. Someone went down the list and picked one.

I don’t mean to sound critical of the OP. It’s interesting in a historical sense; it just doesn’t have soul.

[Wendell_Wagner]

In general, a story that has soul is a lie.

[tvguy1979]

bump

[Kimballkid]

Why? The topic is pretty played out.

[Hail_Ants]

All I can add is that twenty plus years ago this was the answer to Final Jeopardy. The question (answer, whatever) was something like, “This current TV network gets its name from an old word for movie theater”. I got it wrong, I could only guess ‘Cinemax’…