The History of Movies

By: Jason Petrina



Movies are one of the most popular, if not the most popular, forms of entertainment today. Whether you’re looking to curl up at home by the fire and watch a classic black and white movie on cable or you’re planning to take the special new someone in your life out for a great first date; movies are the way that many Americans plan to unwind.

Although it may be hard to believe, movies are a form of entertainment that have only been enjoyed for a little over a century and much of that time period was dedicated to what we would now largely view as antiquated films and movies.

So, how did America’s love affair with movies and the silver screen begin? You may be aware that some of the earliest movies were first distributed in the 1920’s but movies actually pre-date even this early timeframe.

In reality, inventors were working on ways to create what would become the forerunners of movies as early as the 17th century. Of course, these inventions were largely shadow shows and magic lanterns, but the premise was very much the same and derived from a concept known as persistence of vision. It was this concept that would eventually lead to the development of motion pictures and the movie industry as a whole.

Experts on the subject of movies largely agree that while numerous inventions were experimented with as early as the 17th century, it was not until 1832 that the first motion picture show was demonstrated. Surprised? Actually, this first show was quite far removed from the movies we know and love today. It was based on the invention of a device that came to be known as the fantascope and allowed individuals to view a moving picture show through a slotted disk.

The development of photography and the first daguerrotypes a few years later did much to improve the experimentation with moving pictures and before long the first 15 minute movies were being shown in France in 1877. These first movies were created by French inventor Charles Emile Reynaud and were projected with a device featuring a mirrored drum and picture strips.

Two years later, a gentleman that most of us are quite comfortably associated with; Thomas Alva Edison, introduced the first incandescent light bulb. This was a major stepping stone in the development of movies, as the new light bulb would eventually be used to operate film projectors.

Throughout the latter part of the 19th century, experimentation with moving pictures and new devices continued to evolve into the development of the movies that we now enjoy today. In 1882 experiments were conducted with a newly developed camera that would allow operators to take multiple photographs every second of moving objects.

Thomas Edison entered the scene once again in the late 1880s and galvanized the development of movies by developing a device that would synchronize film projection with sound. This proved to be a major breaking point in the development of movies as the world’s first film production studio was constructed near Edison’s laboratories and the first motion pictures were produced in 1893. The following year, the first commercially exhibited movies were issued for the token charge of 25 centers per admission. As can be expected, these first movies were a hit and before long patrons began flocking to the parlor that had been specially designed for the purpose of exhibiting the movies. And so it was, that even before America had reached the end of the 19th century or even entered the 20th century, her love affair with movies began.


Jason Petrina is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com