On this day in 1897 Thomas Alva Edison was granted a patent for one of his latest inventions, a primitive motion-picture device he dubbed the Kinetoscope. (He had, in fact, been building them for several years.) At first, Edison — usually a canny businessman — didn’t see much practical value in his contraption, a wooden cabinet with a small window through which one would watch images come to life via a running loop of film. Even geniuses make mistakes: the Kinetoscope would give rise to motion-picture projectors — which transformed what was a small and solitary experience into something large and communal — and, with it, the art form (and business) we call film. (A quick ironic aside: Edison, no dummy, soon realized the enormous commercial potential of the new technology, and it was his aggressive protection of this intellectual property that caused a small army of independent filmmakers to leave the East Coast and relocate in a perpetually sunny small town clear across the country, a place called… Hollywood. True story.)
Anyway, it might be worthwhile to take a look at some of those early Kinetoscope shorts (excerpted in the clip below) and imagine the sense of astonishment, even wonder, that must have struck a lucky viewer back then, as he or she peered through a tiny porthole and witnessed the flickering bits of magic and light. (Shouldn’t be too hard, since movie-watching is once again a solitary experience of peering at a teeny flickering image in a box.) Watch ‘em and you’ll probably laugh, as I did. But watch again and something happens: you see a moment both sweet and wry as a couple shyly osculate in "The Kiss," a quiet dignity beneath the brawny bravado in "Sandow: The Strong Man." This is the strange power of film, that an astonishing well of emotions and feelings can be stirred by a succession of images parading across our retinas. It happens when you watch "Serpentine Dances," or Gone With the Wind, or Kill Bill, Vol. 2. And it all comes back to a wooden box built by a latter-day wizard some 110 years ago.
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Now I don’t want to nitpick… but I’m going to anyway. The Lumière brothers “cinématographe” was patented in 1895. I’m not saying that they were the first, true innovators because the fact is, there were many and it is pretty impossible to know exactly who came up with this genius idea first. In the US, it is usually accepted that Edison’s kinetoscope came first, whereas Europe will usually name the Lumière brothers. (Also, it’s likely that Edison didn’t develop the technology himself but rather one of his minions did, but I guess that doesn’t really matter.) Anywho, I’ll finish by saying cinema is awesome no matter who came up with it!
Agree with Dominique. The first film exhibition — a film screening, not merely a film loop a single person watched through a peephole — took place December 1895 in France. The Lumiere Cinematograph was both earlier and superior to Edison’s Kinetoscope, as the Cinematograph could function both as a camera AND a projector. This is not a “Europe vs. USA” issue; the dates clearly show who was first.
Thomas Edison was more of a gangster than an inventor. He had goon squads that made sure his film making equipment was used, and it was certainly not the best (or first) out there. So please refrain from crediting Edison with the birth of cinema.
Those images are fascinating.
Those images are fascinating.
Those images are fascinating.
I used to work with one of Sandow’s descendants, He certainly didn’t look like Sandow the strong
Well, whichever one was truly first, I’m glad they didn’t live to see Snakes on a Plane!
What’s most fascinating has nothing to do with who was first but how far cinema has come in 100 years.
The strong man seemed very impressed with his abs, as was I.
Just think, “The Kiss” was considered pornography by some in its day.
- kch, http://moviedearest.blogspot.com/
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edison is a plagiarist, the whole world know that Lumiere Bro. were the real inevetors.