The Denkikan Movie Theater, previously an exhibit hall of electric gadgets, became Japan's first permanent movie theater in 1903. By 1930 Asakusa had fourteen movie theaters which drew crowds from throughout Tokyo and made movies among the first forms of popular mass entertainment. Silent films, and then films narrated by a live narrator or benshi filled movie houses. Benshi were storyteller artists who did the vocals for all roles on the screen as well as explain the story, all in a cadenced 5-7 syllable count. Talkies doomed this art from the 1930s.