The nickelodeon was a type of indoor exhibition space that was dedicated to showing projected motion pictures. These can be considered the beginnings of cinemas. Nickelodeons were cheap (they charged a nickel) and were particularly popular in the early and mid 1900s. This was due to several advantages.
First of all, nickelodeons were very affordable, which made them appealing to a wide audience. This came at a time when the urban middle class was rising. Moreover, these theatres offered a continuous selection of short films, which meant that they provided leisure activities at almost any time. The owners relied on "film exchanges" to have access to a wide variety of new films. This meant that the same audiences would keep coming back, as the content provided was new. This was a great advantage to the patron.
The first one can be seen either way. For me, I saw a vase first. In all of the pictures, the black drawing is considered the positive space and the white background behind it is considered to be the negative space. If you look at the vase picture again and imagine the background to be the black portion, you see two faces.
Hope this helps! :)
