At a table sat a fat man with a scruffy beard, visor pulled low on his forehead as he read a newspaper. He barely looked up when she dropped a nickel on the desk.

“Heya, kid. Here ya go.” He grunted and handed her twenty-five pennies from a metal dispenser. “Don’t make trouble.”

The long windowless room was dim and cool as the inside of a church. Mutoscope and Kinetoscope machines lined the walls. An odd, not unpleasant smell hung over everything—burnt dust from the peep-show lanterns, tobacco smoke, sawdust. Tattered posters advertised one-reelers, few of which could be seen in the Comique.

Glory surveyed the room, brows knitted. “Wow. I didn’t know they still had places like this.”

They walked over to inspect a Mutoscope. Handwritten cards stuck to the machines had titles like Oh! What She Did! and What She Couldn’t See. You put a penny in a slot, then peered through a lens while you cranked a handle that turned a spool holding eight hundred and fifty black-and-white photo cards. The cards flipped over one at a time, and if you cranked fast enough, you saw a flickering movie that lasted a minute or two. If you cranked slowly, you got a better look at the individual photos of naked ladies.

But the Comique had other movies, too. Most featured girls in trouble, like The Broken Doll, Lonely Villa, or The Adventures of Dollie. Pin pointed to another Mutoscope.

“Have you seen The House with the Closed Shutters?”

Glory nodded. “That was a good one!”

“I love it,” Pin said in a reverent tone. The heroine was a girl who dressed in her cowardly Confederate brother’s uniform, ordered her mother to cut off all her long hair, then rode off to deliver an important letter to General Lee. Afterward she was killed while trying to raise the Confederate flag on the battlefield. Pin hurried over to the machine.

OUT OF ORDER

“Damn, it’s busted.”

“Don’t swear,” chided Glory, swatting her with her straw hat. “Lookee here. Harriet Quimby.” She gestured at another Mutoscope:

THE ENGLISH CHANNEL FLOWN BY A LADY AVIATOR FOR THE FIRST TIME

“That’s my favorite!” exclaimed Pin.

“Me too.”

Pin jammed a penny into the slot. Heads touching, they leaned over the viewing lens. The brilliant light inside the machine flashed on as Pin turned the crank, title cards flickering.

HARRIET QUIMBY PREPARES HER BLÉRIOT AEROPLANE

And there she was—beautiful Harriet, standing beside her monoplane in her leather trousers and aviator’s cap. She adjusted her goggles as a man looked on and another man spun the aeroplane’s propeller. Smiling, she waved at the cameraman.

NEVER BEFORE HAS A WOMAN ATTEMPTED SUCH A THING!

Harriet stepped inside the open cockpit. The wind grabbed the end of her scarf as the Blériot began to move across the field on its little wheels, rocking back and forth as it gained speed.