Why did the film become successful at the beginning of this century?

Can you imagine the earliest films? Now I’ll tell you something about them. The earliest films were short, lasting only one minute or less. People could, for one cent, see simple action films of trains, cars, crowds, on city streets, and similar subjects. Soon 20-minute pictures of pieces of news were being shown in theatres at the end of the regular stage show. Later, films used a new method. They put the beginning of one scene upon the end of the scene before so as to tie a story together. In 1903 a film was made about a story. Much of the action took place at the same time -- The prisoners escaping, the men meeting and planning to catch them -- and the scenes moved smoothly, back and forth, from one scene to another, instead of unnaturally showing each scene separately. This was the earliest successful film. A short time later, theatres showed for five cents a whole hour’s pleasure of short films. These films were simple and rough. But at that time people liked these films very much.