The History of Movies - Trevon White

Start of it all

Dec 31, 1878

Eadward Muybridge made a $25,000 bet. The bet was that a horse runs at full speed are all four hooves off the ground? Muybridge had to prove it, so they set up several cameras on the horse and he was right.

The Start of It All

Dec 31, 1878

Eadward Muybride made a $25,000 bet. He and his friends were watching horses and he noticed that all 4 hooves were off the ground. The bet was if the hooves were off the ground. He set up cameras and he was right and they noticed an optical illusion.

Peephole Kinetoscope

Dec 31, 1891

Thomas Edison would come to create what he called a peephole. He would also invent the projector first. But, decided he would get more money by having one person watch

Lumièr Brothers

Dec 30, 1895

The Lumièr Brothers would be the ones to publicly put out the projector. They would call it "cinematographe". They would make many short films using it.

First movie theater

Dec 31, 1895

A Kinetoscope Parlor. They would set up kinetoscopes and people would have to stand over them. There were only audiences of one for each. They called these moving images because they were optical illusions

Very First Movie Theater

Dec 31, 1895

It was a Kinetoscope Parlor. They could only stand -because there were no seats- one audience member per kinetoscope. They called it a moving image

One of the First Movies

Dec 31, 1895

One of the first movies was a train coming to the screens. They started producing a series of short films that lasted 30 - 60 seconds. People would get scared and injure themselves trying to get away.

Nickelodeons

Dec 31, 1896

Originally called vaudevilles. Vaudevilles were small theaters that featured short dramatic skits. They would expand into Nickelodeons because it cost a nickel to watch

The Great Train Robbery

Dec 31, 1903

The first movie with an actual plot was called "The Great Train Robbery". Which was created by Thomas Edison. It was only 14 scenes and lasted 12 minutes which was an epic at the time

MPPC

Dec 31, 1908

Thomas Edison would create the Motion Picture Patents Company. They owned film stock, all the actors/ actresses essentially everything. They would be the monopoly that he wanted

Corruption

Dec 31, 1909

The MPPC would come to be a corrupt business. If someone tried to make a movie of their own they would threaten them. Not only that, they would raid the independent studios and would break equipment, sometimes the actors legs

Monopoly

Dec 31, 1910

The nickelodeon theaters were attracting 26 million viewers each week. 5 years later that number more than doubled. They realized it could be a huge moneymaker, not just an art anymore.

East Coast to West Coast

Dec 31, 1915

The East Coast did not have good lighting. The MPPC were not close to the West Coast and if they did come they could hide in Mexico to get away from Thomas Edison. MPPC wanted to keep actors anonymous, West Coast wanted the fame.

Famous Actors

Dec 31, 1919

Mary Pickford was called America's Sweetheart. Charlie Chaplin was also a very famous actor. He first made $150 a week then over more than a million dollars a year.