{"id":95,"date":"2020-06-08T17:27:49","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T17:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/?p=95"},"modified":"2020-06-08T17:54:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T17:54:12","slug":"1888-1909-the-kinetoscope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/2020\/06\/08\/1888-1909-the-kinetoscope\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201c1888-1909\u201d- The Kinetoscope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Thomas Edison and his employee, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, were credited for making many new inventions in filmmaking during this era. They created both the kinetoscope and the kinetograph. The kinetoscope was a four-foot-high box that played film reels on a loop.[1]<\/a> The viewers paid a nickel to watch a film through the box\u2019s lens peephole. [2]<\/a> The kinetograph was the first film camera, which used 35mm film. Both Edison and Dickinson created many films, using the kinetograph, at Edison\u2019s studio in West Orange, New Jersey. [3]<\/a> \u00a0These films include Dickson Greeting, Men Boxing, Duncan Smoking<\/em>, and many other shorts.[4]<\/a> However, the films were only shown at exclusive events. For example, Dickinson Greeting, <\/em>which was filmed in 1891, was only shown to members of The Women\u2019s Club of America.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

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Edison’s Kinetograph. Photo Courtesy from Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica. https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/Kinetograph#\/media\/1\/318205\/97822<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The first kinetograph film publicly shown was Blacksmithing Scene <\/em>on May 9, 1893, at an event at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.[6]<\/a> The success and popularity of the kinetograph grew throughout the US over the next year as evidenced by the story told by Edison\u2019s secretary, Al Tate. On Saturday, April 14th<\/sup>, 1894, Tate, along with his brother and Tom Lombard; who worked for the Chicago Central Phonograph Company, were tasked to set up the kinetoscope parlor to ensure it was ready for its opening on Monday. They finished around 2 pm and planned to celebrate by going to Delmonico for dinner. However, Tate noticed the number of people standing outside of the kinetoscope parlor and had an idea.[7]<\/a> He told his brother and Mr. Lombard \u201c\u2018why shouldn\u2019t we make that crowd out there pay for our dinner tonight.\u2019\u201d[8]<\/a> So, they decided to open early and planned to be finished by 6 pm. They thought by 6, they should have enough money to pay for dinner. However, due to the number of people there, the three of them sold about 500 tickets and did not close until 1 am.[9]<\/a> The parlor was a huge success and Edison later wrote to the Holland Bros., who owned the parlor, that \u201c\u2018I am pleased to hear that the first public exhibition of my Kinetoscope has been a success under your management, and hope your firm will continue to be associated with its further exploitation\u2019\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cm5g7CfXYYE<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This parlor was the first time that the kinetoscope was available for mass consumption. The films shown at the parlor were some of the first films to be publicly consumed. They were ten films totaled available to watch; one of them being Blacksmithing<\/em>. The other films were Sandow<\/em>, Roosters<\/em>, Bertoldi<\/em> (Mouth Support)<\/em>, Bertoldi (Table Contortion)<\/em>, Horse Shoeing<\/em>, Trapeze<\/em>, Wrestling<\/em>, Barber Shop<\/em>, and High-land Dance<\/em>. [11]<\/a> For those who are confused with Sandow <\/em>and Bertoldi<\/em>, the title referred to the names of people. Eugen Sandow was a German bodybuilder and the film shows him flexing his body.[12]<\/a> Ena Bertoldi was a contortionist and the films showed her performing her acts.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QWLDe31ni_E<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 When people think of films today, they don\u2019t imagine sticking their face into a pair of goggles, attached to a wooden box. Nowadays, films can be watched anywhere and anytime. They are even companies now, like Quibi, that make content solely to be watched on phones. Even though the means of watching films are ever-changing, when people ask, \u201cwhat was the first film\u201d, they may be asking \u201cwhat was the first film in the theater?\u201d To answer that, the question \u201cwhat was the first theater?\u201d should be answered first.<\/p>\n

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Banner Photo Courtesy from the American Society of Cinematographers. https:\/\/theasc.com\/asc\/asc-museum-kinetoscope<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Andre Gaudreault, ed.,\u00a0American Cinema 1890-1909: Themes and Variations<\/em>\u00a0(Chicago: Rutgers University Press, 2009), 7.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Paul Spehr,\u00a0The Man Who Made Movies: W.K.L. Dickson<\/em>\u00a0(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008), 299.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Gaudreault, American Cinema<\/em>, 24.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Spehr, The Man Who Made Movies<\/em>, 210.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Spehr, The Man Who Made Movies<\/em>, 212.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Spehr, The Man Who Made Movies<\/em>, 296; “National Film Preservation Foundation: Blacksmithing Scene (1893),” National Film Preservation Foundation: https:\/\/www.filmpreservation.org\/preserved-films\/screening-room\/blacksmithing-scene-1893.<\/p>\n

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[7]<\/a> Spehr, The Man Who Made Movies<\/em>, 309; Gaudreault, American Cinema<\/em>, 23.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Spehr, The Man Who Made Movies<\/em>, 309.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Gaudreault, American Cinema<\/em>, 23.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Spehr, The Man Who Made Movies<\/em>, 309.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Deac Rossell, “A Chronology of Cinema, 1889-1896,”\u00a0Film History<\/em>\u00a07, no. 2 (Summer 1995):\u00a0127.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Spehr, The Man Who Made Movies<\/em>, 325-327.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Spehr, The Man Who Made Movies<\/em>, 328.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Thomas Edison and his employee, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, were credited for making many new inventions in filmmaking during this era. They created both the kinetoscope and the kinetograph. The kinetoscope was a four-foot-high box that played film reels on a loop.[1] The viewers paid a nickel to watch a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4346,"featured_media":98,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[318521],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/edwarmar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}