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Eadweard Muybridge
The first person to create motion photograph, showing how people and animals move. -
Etienne Marey
Created a camera that took 12 pictures per second. This camera was shaped like a gun. -
Period: to
Thomas Edison and M.K Dickson
Developed a Kinetoscope, a moving picture device where the film past behind a peephole. This was only used for a single viewer. Edison presented his kinetoscope at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. He recieved patents for his camera. Edison then created his first motion picture in New Jersey. Later on, coin operated kinetoscopes showed up in a New York City amusement park. -
Lumiere Brothers
Louis and August created a film projecter where motion pictures could be viwed by many people. They presented their first commercial in Paris. -
Edwin S. Porter
Made films that told a story, starting with The Life of an American Fireman and The Great Train Robbery. -
Nickelodeon
Fantasmagorie
The first nickelodeon was opened in Pittsburgh. They used Cooper Hewitt to make it efficient to shoot movies indoors. The first animated cartoon is produced. -
Theatres
There are over 9000 movie theatres in the United States. The only movies were about 10-12 minutes long and nobody knew the actual names of the actors. -
Carl Laemmle
Laemmle developed his own motion picture company and started the star system by hiring one of the anonymous actresses, Florence Lawrence, and beginning the huge publicity campaign. -
Major Studios
Carl Laemmle creates Universal picture, the very first major studio. Adolf Zukor creates Famous Players; Mack Sennett starts the Keystone Film Company; and Mutual Film Corporation is formed. -
Lincoln Motion Pictures
The first African American owned film studio is made. The indepentdent African American film maker, Oscar Micheaux makes the Micheaux Film and Book Corporation. -
Sound
Lee Deforrest finds a way to record sound on the edge of a film strip. Western Electric and Warner Bros. agree to make a system for films with sound. Warner Bros. movie Don Juan contains music but to verbal speaking. -
Speaking
Wait a minute, Wait a minute
Warner Bros. production, The Jazz Singer, has the first film with spoken words. "Wait a minute, waita minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet." This was created by recording sounds on discs. -
Mickey Mouse
Mickey is popularized in the animated cartoon Steamboat Willie. -
Talkies and Cartoons
Steamboat Willie
Paramount Pictures states that it will only produce motion pictures called "Talkies". Walt Disney's Galloping Gaucho and Steamboat Willie are the first animated cartoons with sound. -
The Code
The motion pictures industries adopt the Production Code, a new set of guidlines that tell you what you can and cannot put into movies. -
Words
The movie industry starts to dub in dialogue of films exported to foreign countries. -
Children
The Payne Fund Study argues that films shape children's behaviour. -
To the drive-in
The first drive-in movie theatre opens in New Jersey. -
Anarchy
Warner Bros. become the first film company to shut down its German distribution office to protest the Nazi's anti-Semitic policies. -
TV
RCA begins experimental television broadcasts from the Empire State Building. -
Snow White
Walt Disney produces it's first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. -
Push Back
Warner Bros. proceeds with the making of a film called Confessions of a Nazi Spy, even though Germany counts for 30% of Hollywood's foreign profits. -
Broadcast
The first commercial television station begins broadcasting. -
Wartimes
Nelson Poyter of the Office of War Information Motion Picture Bureau says that Hollywood's guiding principle should be "Will this picture help to win the war?" -
Set and Costumes During War
The War Production Board imposes a $5000 limit on all set construction. Wartime cloth restrictions are imposed, prohibitng pleated cuffs and trousers. -
Slavery
The NAACP accuses The Walt Disney Company of romanticizing slavery in the film The Song of the South. -
3-D
Hollywood introduces Cinerama and 3-D. -
Disney TV
The Walt Disney Company begins to produce television programs. -
The Kiss
The first kiss between and white actress and a black actor happens in Island in the Son, when Joan Fontaine kisses Harry Belafonte. -
Smell-O-Vision
A movie features "Smell-O-Vision." -
Cable
HBO begins on cable television. -
Cassette
Sony introduces Betamax, the first videocassette recorder for home use. It costs $2,295. -
Women on the Rise
Sherry Lansing becomes the first woman to head a major studio when she becomes president of 20th Century Fox. -
Cable
Half of U.S. homes receive cable television. -
Video Tapes
Americans spend $12 billion to buy or rent video tapes, compared to just $4.9 billion on box office ticket sales. 76% of homes have VCRs. -
Dreamworks
Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen form the film studio DreamWorks. -
Titanic
Titanic, which premiered in 1997, becomes the highest grossing film in Hollywood history, earning $580 million domestically. -
The Blair With Project
The Blair Witch Project, which cost $30,000 to make, grosses $125 million, making it the most profitable film in Hollywood history.
