1 The first celluloid roll film was developed in 1887 by Hannibal Goodwin, an Episcopalian minister from Newark, New Jersey.
2 In 1891 Thomas Edison’s company demonstrated the Kinetograph, the first motion picture camera, but never got around to creating a projector for playback.
3 Instead, the company acquired manufacturing rights to a machine called the Vitascope. One of the conditions of the deal was that Edison be credited as the inventor.
4 Some things never change: Edison’s early film loops included one showing “cooch” dancers; another reenacted the decapitation of Mary, Queen of Scots—arguably the first horror flick.
5 In 1908, after indecency complaints, New York City closed down all Kinetoscope (peep-show) movie parlors.
6 Three decades before The Jazz Singer, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson created a film short with synchronized sound. It showed two men dancing as he played a violin.
7 Many familiar movie sounds are simple ...
