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A bet of $25,000 was made to Eadweard Muybridge to prove whether or not a horse had at any point no hooves on the ground when racing. He had set up multiple cameras a few years later to capture the horse in motion. He set up a sequence of 12 images proving that at one point the horse had no hooves on the ground.
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Thomas Edison (of course) had become intrigued with moving picture. On October 7, 1888 he filed a patent for his idea of a Kinetoscope. William Kennedy L. Dickson, assistant of Edison's assistant, had contributed to most of the experiment. These would allow one person to look inside the machine and see motion picures.
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Edison was more or less consumed by greed. He wanted to keep promoting and selling his Kinetiscope invention and not move on to projecting a larger image for more than one person to see. Luckily in 1894, the Lumiére Brothers, Auguste and Louis were introduced to the Kinetiscope and decided to do what Edison didn't want to. By the next year they would combine a printer and a projector with a camera and called it "Cinématographe". This would become widely known.
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Vaudeville would come along around the turn of the century. These were skits containing drama, comedy, and song and dance. These would be short films lasting about half an hour.
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The first U.S. motion picture with a narrative was The Great Train Robbery. This movie lasted 12 minutes and set a new standard for film. One of Edisons employees Edwin Porter had directed it.
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A nickelodeon came aruond the time of vaudeville. They are called this because the admission to get into the theater would be a nickel. Th first one was opened on this day.
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Nickelodeon theaters were getting very popular at this time. They would attract a massive 26-million viewers each week. This number would double 5 years later. This would then be seen as a major way to make profit and would lead to people trying to make a monopoly out of it.
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Led by Edison, he formed a trust with several companies to form the Motion Picture Patents Company. They used their patents to control everything involving motion picure production. They would threaten and wreck any independent film companies that were trying to compete with them. This would establish film standards and create competition in the film industry.
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When people were trying to make movies on the east coast they had to deal with pressure from the MPPC and unsuitable weather for filming. On the west coast, if they had to stay safe from the MPPC, they would just evacuate to Mexico and hide. Also the weaher was much nicer.
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The MPPC did not want to credit actors in thir roles because they feared they would get fame and demand more money. But the West Side ain't about that. Instead they saw it as an advantage to get people to see their favorite actors in the roles they are in, making more profit.
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Famous stars at the time were Mary Pickford (Americas Sweetheart) and Charlie Chaplin who used humor and helped commuicate messages of society.
