“Will it play in Peoria?” How many times have you heard that term? When talking in circles about the audience for independent film, it comes up often. “Sure,” they say, “indie films do great in Los Angeles, New York, or even in San Francisco, but will it play…” You get the picture. As a Midwestern transplant, I always wondered why anyone would gauge the potential success (or failure) of a film on a small town in Illinois with a population of 112,000.

This past weekend I heard this phrase yet again, but this time in another small Midwestern town, Saugatuck, Michigan, at the Waterfront Film Festival. I overheard two older women discussing the films they had seen that day, and remarking how they’ve attended every year because this was the only opportunity to see indie films all year long. “After all,” the woman said, “Will it play in Peoria?”

Curious, I had to get to the bottom of this. So, of course, I turned to Google. Much to my surprise, this phrase dates back to the early 1920s in the vaudeville era, originated by Groucho Marx who first asked this question when he was putting together a new act. He believed if a show could play in Peoria, it could play anywhere in America.

Over the years, Peoria was deemed the perfect place for a test market not only for films but for consumer products, politicians, and concerts. Bob Dylan and Robert Plant have launched concert tours there. At one time, Peoria closely reflected the diversity of the United States population in terms of race, income, age, business interests, and educational background. And while they are still considered an ideal test market, cities such as Albany, Santa Barbara, and Greensboro are more commonly used.

And just in case you were wondering, Peoria only has three movie theaters in town which were all playing studio films. In fact, there were only two independent films playing within a 50 mile radius. So will it play in Peoria? Probably not.