Experiments and Innovations, 1877-1900
| Just as with today's evolution of the Internet, the turn of the last century brought the birth of a new technology--the moving picture--and with it, a host of questions about how best to exploit and apply it. Then, as now, cutting-edge entertainment media held vast economic and artistic potential, but remained so high-tech that producers and users weren't quite sure how to employ it to its full potential. Just like the content on today's World Wide Web, moving pictures at the start of the twentieth century were hit-or-miss propositions that took advantage of the entertainment possibilities of the medium but failed to differentiate themselves from the media they grew out of (in the movies' case, theater and photography). By tracing the development of the American movie from its first technological advances, through the growth of a cinematic narrative language, and into the metamorphosis of an entire industry, we see the blossoming of the American film and the rapid-fire creation of an art form. Inventors
 | | Photographic History Collection, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution |  Early experiments in photography at the end of the nineteenth century by Eadweard Muybridge (pictured above) and Etienne Jules Marey helped lay the groundwork for the motion picture. |
The first moving pictures didn't really move--they were still photos projected so quickly that they appeared to be in motion. In 1877, California governor Leland Stanford made a $25,000 bet with a colleague that when a horse trotted, at some point all four hooves left the ground at the same moment. To prove his theory, Stanford hired Eadweard Muybridge, who set up 12 electrically operated cameras in a row along the horse track, rigged with wires to set off the camera as the horse went by. When projected, the series of photos created the illusion of movement--and won Stanford's bet. Muybridge experimented with this multiple-camera system for years, but never jumped to the next level: single-camera motion pictures. It took until 1882 for Parisian Etienne Jules Marey to construct a camera that could take multiple photos per second. Shaped like a gun, the camera "shot" twelve images each second. He called his invention chronophotography, and improved it six years later by using paper roll film inside, rather than the original glass plate, thus allowing for faster exposures. With this, the truly moving picture was born. Other inventors, including Thomas Alva Edison, worked on short-subject films as early as 1894, but it wasn't until 1895 that the first large-screen projector was created. On December 28 of that year, brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière held the first public film screening. At this point, it was the novelty of the motion picture, not the artistry, which impressed audiences. They were captivated by the "film" Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, a short documentation of a crowd of people walking by the camera. The Lumières' camera was portable and not only shot and printed but also projected pictures, allowing the brothers to create and exhibit films on the fly. The film width they used (35mm) and speed (16 frames per second) became the industry norm until the onset of sound. Narrative beginnings
Although the films shown by the Lumières were thrilling--one, depicting a train rushing headfirst toward the camera, caused audiences to screams in shock--they still lacked much of a narrative drive. The brief films focused on recording scenes from everyday life, void of storyline or craftsmanship. Shorts remained mini-documentaries until the involvement of Georges Méliès, a French inventor and magician who transformed moving pictures into moving stories. Méliès' fascination with cinema was born of a happy accident. While shooting, his camera jammed; when the film was projected, an optical illusion was created and the object being photographed seemed to disappear instantaneously. Thereafter, Méliès incorporated such "trick shots" into stories, including such cinematic devices as the fade out and fade in, the dissolve, and the use of stop-motion photography and the origin of animation. Aside from the innovative uses of the camera, however, he shot his filmed narratives as one would watch a theatrical play. The camera stayed in one position, recording a staged production, one full scene at a time. In 1902, Méliès directed his masterwork, the psychedelic A Trip to the Moon. Just under 14 minutes and around 30 scenes, it depicts a rocket ship landing in the eye of the man in the moon, and features chorus girls, space creatures that appear and disappear, and an undersea landscape. Méliès' narrative experiments inspired budding filmmakers worldwide. Particularly stirred was Edison, who was in the midst of playing around with celluloid roll film in a battery-driven camera. He incorporated more fanciful imagery into his own moving pictures, which he showed in a peephole machine called a Kinetoscope. Kinetoscope parlors (storefront locations) opened nationwide around 1895 to exhibit the 90-second, unenlarged pictures. With the talented William K. L. Dickson as his collaborator and George Eastman's celluloid film as a tool, Edison created what was to become the industry norm: 35mm film with newly perforated sides to help it roll smoothly past the shutter. In addition, Dickson opened the first movie studio, called the Black Maria, a small, dark room with a retractable roof that could rotate to catch the sun, necessary for lighting images naturally. For years to come, Edison, a forceful and ambitious man, would dominate American motion-picture development and, in effect, initiate one of the most influential American industries. Distribution and exhibition
 | | U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Edison National Historic Site | | In addition to more than 1,000 patents and such revolutionary inventions as the incandescent light bulb and the phonograph, Thomas Edison made tremendous progress in the motion picttre world. |
Between 1890 and 1910, movies moved from technological experiments to mass entertainment. America at the turn of the century saw the flourishing of cities: busy, rapidly growing urban centers characterized by class divisions, vertical architecture and groups of working people ready for escapist amusement. Early movies found an audience mainly as part of vaudeville shows and in penny arcades, lasted only seconds and contained very little plot. The first American screening for a paying audience occurred on April 23, 1896, in New York City, and nine years later, the first nickelodeon opened in Pittsburgh, PA. Nickelodeons, so named for their five-cent entrance fee, began as crude storefront theaters in which a patron watched 10-60 minutes of filmed short skits, typically including a melodrama, a comedy and a novelty piece. This neighborhood theater model grew wildly popular, and they numbered about 10,000 by 1908. Movies were considered strictly working-class at this time, and accordingly featured crowded, standing-room-only accommodations and sensational topics such as infidelity, seduction and crime. Soon, however, the success of the moving picture roused the interest of businessmen, who realized that the real money lay with attracting a middle-class audience. Exchanges emerged, or distributors who bought shorts and then rented them to exhibitors at lower rates. With their profits, exhibitors upgraded, providing such extras as pianists to accompany the films, peanuts and popcorn for sale, and comfortable seating. Women, with their flexible schedules and pocket change, were specifically courted with kids-watch-for-free specials and afternoon screenings. With an eager audience and a system of distribution in place, the burgeoning industry clamored for new, improved product. In a short time, trick photography and staged documentaries had lost their shock value. The movies needed to evolve to the next level--a true narrative medium. |
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