Yesterday I went and saw
Shrek, The Final Chapter and like all things this got me to thinking about history (I know that's pretty much all I do, but at least I think about something). When was the first motion picture taken, and of what? How did it become big? Did people think it would be a fad that would die out? (This seems to happen a lot in history.) What was it like going to the pictures in the 1930s, '40s and '50s? How much did it cost? Was their popcorn? Who were the stars of the day?
So with all these questions in mind (and at least a dozen more) I started my search. This is what I came across:
In the late 1800s the first film was... filmed. We're not exactly sure what it was but the first commercial movie was a motion picture of Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope. Ironic, isn't it? (For those who don't know a Kinetoscope is a device from way back and was used to view images through.) It would be a few decades before film and sound happened together. The person who demonstrated motion picture was a man by the name of Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge's job description was to take a picture that was still, but yet still filled with motion. He then started taking pictures quickly and when viewed by an audience would make the pictures go by in rapid succession therefore making the pictures appear that they are moving. How exactly did he take these pictures? He didn't have a film camera, in reality he had several still camera's all lined up in a row. This led inventors later on to make a device that could take pictures rapidly rather than having several cameras.
Films did not become a popular thing until, surprisingly enough, vaudeville. In between shows short, silent films were shown.
In 1910 Hollywood was born. A director and a group of actors filmed a movie in Los Angeles, during the filming process they stayed in a nearby town called "Hollywood". A company called
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, which incidentally was the first American company completely devoted to film, stayed in or near Hollywood for several years to film different movies. In 1913 when word spread to New York about the success of the films in Hollywood it quickly became the place to go to film.
The first theater to ever open that was devoted solely to motion pictures was Nickelodean. It was opened on June 19th, 1905. The name was based on how much it was to get into the theater. A nickel. Of course the only pictures shown in this theater were silent, but it was well worth a nickel. By 1907 over 3,000 Nickelodean theaters had been opened across the country.
The first movie to ever have sound was a movie called
The Jazz Singer. Despite what you may think almost the whole movie is silent, except for one short scene. But that one scene made history and turned the filming industry upside-down. The movie
Singing in the Rain tells a story of how everyone in the filming world went into shock after the invention of movies with sound. They had to work hard at trying to get the right microphones, and make sure the sound was even and not too soft or too loud. The Jazz Singer would change the motion picture world... forever.
Alright... enough of the history of cinema. Now onto the history of the experience of going to the theater.
It was the 1930s and the whole country was in the midst of a Depression. Oddly enough going to see a movie helped, people. During the Depression people enjoyed seeing films because it was nice to watch people who lead glamorous lives and weren't suffering with money or starving. In some small towns, once a week, they would show a movie for free. They would project it on the side of a building so people would come by to watch. This was done to get people in the town and, hopefully, buying things. It was estimated that about 27 percent of Americans were going to a movie theater every week.
By the 1940s going to see a movie was the thing to do. For 25¢ you could go see any movie, and maybe, if you were lucky, a double feature. Concession stands inside theaters were not popular for sometime, but many popcorn and candy and peanut vendors flanked the entrance of movie theaters across the nation.
It's pretty fascinating watching those old films. What was considered beautiful or handsome has changed much in the past forty years. The actors mannerisms and acting are so different as well. And the fact that a colored movie was a rare treat is odd to us today as well. Movies such as
Gone with the Wind and
the Wizard of Oz were special because of the color.
So now that you all know all this history about cinema you should get yourself some popcorn, a lemonade or hot chocolate, grab a blanket, settle down on the couch and watch an old black and white.
