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It started with a bet
A bet of $25,000 was made between a few men that they couldn't catch a picture of a horse galloping but while all four feet were in the air. -
Kinetiscope Parlors
A place where people went to look at the "moving images" -
Cinematographe
Thomas Edison wanted to make more money by making people pay to see the moving images. individually. Not like theatres.
However, the Lumiere brothers in France, did exactly what Edison didn't want to happen. They wanted to screen the moving images for an audience. -
Short films
In the same year that the Lumiere brothers invented cinematographe, they started producing short films that lasted 30 to 60 seconds. Short films such as a man falling off a horse and a child trying to catch a fish in a fishbowl. -
Nickelodeons
Small storefront-type theaters that held one or two vaudeville acts that wen along with featured films. Featured films began having piano music and sound effects. Films did not have sound until the 1920s -
The Great Train Robbery
It was the first U.S. narrative film. It involved a real story line. It lasted 12 minutes. -
West Coast
Hollywood is in Los Angeles because the tiny independent film makers sometimes needed to make a run for Mexico whenever Edison and his gangs were coming after them. -
Popularity of Films Was Expanding
Thomas Edison attempted to form a monopoly thorugh film with the Motion Picture Patents company (MPPC). They would raid into other film competitors homes and smashed their equipment and the employees were threatened. -
Actors & Actresses
Edison didn't want superstars, but people in Hollywood made superstars like Shirley Temple and Charlie Chaplin. -
Charlie Chaplin
One of many good actresses, he used his films to show messages to society about the good and evil and the haves and have-nots.
