Vaudeville theatres establish permanent relations with motion picture exhibition services. Biograph introduces a new tripod head that allows quick, smooth panning of the camera. Although the vast majority of films still consisted of one shot, multi–shot films now began to be included in the catalogues of film companies….
The sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor gives rise to a multitude of Spanish–American War films. Edison files a patent–infringement suit against the Biograph Company. Edison’s lawyers visit two theater producers and warn them against exhibiting foreign films in America. Germany produces its first film….
The American Mutoscope Company (later renamed the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company and frequently called the “Biograph Company”), marketing their own films and their new biograph projector, becomes the foremost motion picture company in the U.S. In Paris a catastrophic fire breaks out at the Bazar de la Charité’s…
Charles Raff and Frank Gammon buy the Jenkins–Armat phantoscope from Thomas Armat on behalf of Edison. They rename the projector “Edison’s vitascope”, and it is hailed as Edison’s latest invention. By selling exclusive vitascope exhibition rights for specific territories, they make a windfall profit. Charles and Emile Pathè found…
From April 1894 through February 1895, Edison’s kinetoscope and film sales exceed $177,000. Thomas Armat and C. Francis Jenkins patent a motion picture projector that they call the Phantoscope. In September, at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, they arranged to exhibit Edison kinetoscope movies using their Phantoscope projector…
The Holland brothers open the first kinetoscope parlor in New York City on April 14. In one year they have gross receipts of over $16,000. Senator Bradley forbids the projection of one of Edison’s films that shows the dancer Carmencita’s undergarments as she dances. This is the first case…
Edison builds a film studio on the grounds of his laboratories in New Jersey to produce films for his kinetoscope machines. The studio is called “The Black Maria”, a slang term for a police patrol wagon that the studio is said to resemble. Significant Films: “The Blacksmith Scene” becomes…
A peephole–viewing machine is unveiled by Edison during a convention of the Federation of Women’s Clubs. The motion picture in the viewing machine shows a man bowing, smiling and taking off his hat. Edison calls his motion picture camera a kinetograph, and his peephole–viewing device a kinetoscope. He prepares…