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Page Tv>ent\)-eighl 'The Digest nf the Motion Picture Industry" CAMERA! YEAR BOOK EARLY DAYS OF MOTION PICTURES This is supposed to be a history of the motion picture industry, but in- stead of a history, it will probably be just an idling at one or two places along the path that motion pictures have moved. There are two places along this path that are really dominant in their in- terest. One of these is the time when the first motion picture, in the techni- cal form that we know today, was made and projected and the other one is the first motion picture in its artis- tic form as we now have it so created. All else, either before or since, is merely academic or of a statistical nature. Of course, the germ of motion pic- tures had been discovered a long time before the idea of motion pictures as we have them came to light but doubt- less this germ played its part in the development. All the preliminary ideas, however, were as far removed from pictures as we know them as the original protoplasm is from man himself. It is perfectly true that there were little toys, Zoetropes and things of that sort, had been invented almost a century before the night the first mo- tion picture was projected, but they were toys at the best and no one in their contemporary periods thought of them as anything else. Edward Muybridge first brought photography in connection with ideas of movement but he never got be- yond the dry plate, still picture camera stage. He would take pictures of a moving object from a number of still picture cameras with threads passed across the path of the object so that the threads would be broken and an exposure made just as the subject passed the camera. In this way he would get a number of pic- tures of different phases of motion but even when connected together they gave no consecutive idea of mo- tion. It was this sort of thing that Muybridge exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair and received ;i diploma therefor. Edison in the United States, Lu- miere and Paul in Europe, all became interested in the experiments of Muy- bridge, numerous accounts of which had appeared in the periodical press of the day and they made consider- able advance. Edison, for instance, perfected a machine called the "Kine- tescope," by which a number of pic- tures showing continuous motion could be seen through a peep hole by one person. The idea of projecting pic- tures on a screen for an audience, however, seems to have been thought of and carried out first by a clerk in one of the governmental departments at Washington. This man was C. Francis Jenkins, and the date when he revealed the first motion picture on the screen to a public audience was .lune 6, 1894. and the place, his home town. Rich- mond, Indiana. That night should bulk large in our memory, not only as the epochal date in motion pictures, but as a porlen- tious event in the history of the world. Until the advent of motion pictures the nations of the world not speaking a common language had comparatively little in common so far as the peoples of these nations were concerned. Music and Art carried the same expression to the man speaking Russian. Italian or English, but they did not bring the people closer to- gether, they did not make the different nations undertand that one was just the same as another; that all were brothers in the great human family An Historical Sketch By S. E. V. TAYLOR with the same hopes and ambitions, fears and hates, loves and desires. It was the motion picture which spoke a language common to all mankind and introduces what philosophers have dreamed about and wise men have yearned for—the bond of common brotherhood. How much they have done toward creating the foundation on which the League of Nations may be erected no man can speak authori- tatively, but all of us may understand by a little thought. We see a Russian picture and we realize for the first time—those cf us who have not read deeply—that these people are very like ourselves, in fundamentals practically no difference whatever existing. Russians see an American-made picture and they real- ize the same thing. When these thoughts come as a re- sult cf this new art the barriers of race and language break down and man is ready to acknowledge as his brother the man whom before he would not admit in such a category, merely because the abyss of language loomed between them and made them feel strangers and a race apart. They have also exerted a levelling process through the world. They have brought the crowds to the throne room and the throne room to crowds. They have made nations understand that one was not material- ly superior to another as much as a better position to advertise them- selves had made some of them appear. For instance: It had been a theory in the United States for a century or more that the most uperior acting in the world w r as done by the Frencii. Motion pictures by their direct com- parison showed us in a very few years that the French had no advantage over us in this repect and the Amer- ican actor for the first time could look his brother French artist in the face without feeling an unconscious in- clination to doff his hat to a superior being. The French artist finding his feathers less brightly colored than he had always plumed them to be was in- clined to be affable and congenial and open to conviction about the points of his American brother' art. So, in a broad way. pictures have done much for the world apart from their amusement value and it is for this reason that that night of June 6, 1894 has more of interest for us than merely as a date in the history of an amusement enterprise. Jenkins had invented his projecting machine and camera in Washington during his spare hours while employed as a clerk, in the treasury department. When he had perfected his machine he had made a picture about one hun- dred feet long of a serpentine dancer and this lady, the first motion picture star, whose name was Annabel, by the way, received the munificent sum of five dollars for her entire perform- ance. Even after he ran this photo- graphic reproduction in his own room. Jenkins was not convinced that it would be interesting unless he could get life-like colors on it. So he consulted a lady—a miniature artist in Washington, by the name of Mrs. Boise—as to the possibility of doing something like that on his picture. She undertook the task, using dyes for her coloring process and working by hand finally succeeded in coloring the entire film—that is, the dress and Annabel's reddish gold hair. Jenkins relt uncertain about show- ing his achievement to any of his friends in Washington. He glowed wit!h delight over it and felt certain that he had achieved something which might sell well as a toy. So far is as known at this immediate time, he did not have the idea of com- peting with the theatre as an amuse- ment enterprise, but he wanted the opinion of others besides himself and the few people that had assisted him in the making of the film. For this purpose his thoughts turned to his home in Indiana and here he de- termined to show his picture to an audience. He reached Richmond earlv in June and his cousin, a local jeweler, was the first man he broached the subject to and made an arrangement to show the picture in his store on the night of June 6th. There was no electricity in the establishment but he had a wire run in and his brother complained considerable during the day about the interference with the regular business of the establishment but he was a good sport and allowed 0. Francis Jenkins to continue with his enterprise. The proiecting machine was placed at one end of the anartment and a six foot square of white muslin tacked across the back waU. The little audi- ence which he invited to see the pic- ture that night was composed of Jen- kin's father and mother, a few rela- tives, a small number of close friends of the family and several local news- paper men. Little did any of them realize that from this exhibition thev were about to look at. within a space of less than twentv-five years, amuse- ment castles would be erected that would compare favorable with any of the grand opera houses in the capitols of the old world. Little did they know that they were about to look at the birth of a new language which would speak as man to man among Japanese, Letts, Spaniards and Eng- lish with a common tongue: that it wou'd become one of the most dominant influences of the modern world and would almost replace all other forms of amusement enterprise. Had the manager of the local opera house been present he would doubt- less have asserted that it was entirelv a useless proposition as no one would ever pay to see pictures of dancers when they could go to his opera house and see the dancers themselves in real' life. That he would probably come himself within less than twenty- five years to run nothing but motion pictures in his house and that people would not care to see the one night stand shows on which then he set so much store, he would never believe had the nropheev been made him; the whole thing would have been too laughable and absurd for considera- tion. The little audience gathered and about half nast eight pulled down the shades of the store, fastening them at the sides with little thumb tacks to prevent stray rays from the street lights coming in and also the eyes of the curious when he turned on his powerful arc light. He had trouble getting the arc burning properly, it 1 sputtered and hissed to the great con- 1 cern of the ladies present for this was j in the salad days of even electric 1 lights and there was still considerable fear of them in the hearts of many people. Outside, the young swains walked up and down with their sweethearts, men of the town foregathered at the corners and discussed the political si- tuation; in their homes many a family sat in the idle gossip of the fami y circle and mothers yearned for a c hance for some relaxation but it cost fifty cents apiece at least to go to the opera house and they did not want to leave the children at home so the price was prohibitive to taking the family; so mother went without her relaxation. The children fumed and fretted in the monotony of their evening and father felt the sordidness of it all and had many a secret thought of his young days when he could afford to go to the theatre alone and get relief from the cares and worries of his daily life. Jenkins finally got his arc adjusted, threw open his shutter, and started the crank, and on the white square tacked on the back wall flashed Anna- bel with her voluminous silked skirts. She whirled, pirroutted and the colors gleamed and glowed in her almost transparent drapery. There was a little movement in the group of spec- tators, a half uttered exclamation of surprise on the part of a few. and they leaned forward to see better whence this vision came. None for the moment thought of turning and lookfing back at the little open project- ing machine. Here was something, so new. so different, that it must be a trick. Surely, despite the jerkiness of this lady's movements, she must be a reality and not a shadow. They had seen photographs, plenty of them, their family had its family album hut this surely could have nothing to do with photography despite Jenkins' little preliminary lecture in which he had given them some iHea as to the modus operandi of his exhibition. A newspaper man studied the edges of the area of light. Jenkins probably had a glass window concealed there and it was really a woman dancing on some little, improvised stage. So, while the light sputtered and hissed, and Jenkins cranked away, they studied that screen with no thought of the machine back. Ami then, with a slip and creaking groan, the machine stopped, the light went out, and the exhibition was at an end. Jenkins turned up the large oil lamp which had been turned very low on a counter just back of him and stepped forward smilingly toward the knot of spectators. He insisted that the entire performance had emanated from the machine at his back—they could not believe it. One of fhe news- paper men even laughed and said he dared him to show them the hack wall. Jenkins, delighted at the mystifving success of his invention, was nothing loath and pulled down the sheet. There was the blank wall. His cousin and the newspaper man sounded it all over, then went out the back door and looked at fhe wall from the rear. There was no glass window there and apparently no means by which any trick could be worked. They came back in the room and Jenkins was explaining the machine and showing the film with the little picture on it. The group looked and listened but still were incredulous. They expressed their praise and their delight and then broke up into little