Meadow Grove, Neb., boasts that it is the U.S. birthplace for free outdoor movies.
To boost business in 1925, the Madison County village began showing movies with an arc-light projector on the outside of Meadow Grove's city hall, on a specially constructed screen. It was a success.
Rodger Jordann, a lifelong resident of Meadow Grove who knows a lot of the town's history, said the films brought as many as 2,000 people to the town of fewer than 400. The early movies were black and white, silent films.
The first film was shown June 25, 1925. Jordann said the idea spread to other U.S. towns, and five years later, the first drive-in movie theater appeared in New Jersey.
Meadow Grove's free outdoor movies ended in 1967. But the tradition is being revived, Jordann said. The town is planning its second act in August or September.
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