Nickelodeons and Black Vaudeville

"Amanda Thorp was a theater entrepreneur influential in bringing Black vaudeville and early movie theaters to Richmond, Virginia, and more widely to the southeastern US. Thorp, a White woman, opened theaters and nickelodeons exclusively for Black patrons during a period of entrenched segregation and outright opposition to Black patronage in the South. And though Thorp's mission was not expressly philanthropic, she nonetheless expanded access to early movies when demand for the silver screen had just begun to rival the theater business. Wong sheds light on Thorp's early life in Ohio, her travel to a culturally nascent Richmond, and her remarkable contributions to theater culture in the South"--