It was interesting to find out just how long ago man started fiddling with the idea of moving pictures. Most of us film fans know "movie history" began, for the most part, in the late 1800s, but it's explained here that "The Magic Lantern" was invented in 1659 and that was the forerunner of things to come.
Magic Lantern shows began showing up more a hundred years later - all of this, I believe narrator Christoper Plummer said, was begun in France. In the 1790s, there was a horror show called "The Phantasmagoric," another forerunner to what eventually began to be a motion picture.
In the U.S.A., amazing progress, it was said, was made by the famous inventor Thomas Edison. He and his assistant, a man named W.K.L. Dickson collaborated on making photographs that moved, "a machine for the eyes like the phonograph for the ears." (Edison also invented the phonograph).
Anyway, this first installment of TCM's "Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood" goes way back and traces the evolution of how movies were made, and by whom, and promoted by whom. We are shown the first movie studio, peep shows, the Lumiere Brothers with their first big-screen adaptation, Edison's "Vitascope," the first newsreels, and the first blockbuster movie hit in America: "The Great Train Robbery," and the rise of the Nickelodeon.
All in all, as you can see, there was a lot of information packed into this hour-long show. I didn't mention half of it. It was very good and a "must" for movie buffs and simply for people who enjoying seeing history.
Magic Lantern shows began showing up more a hundred years later - all of this, I believe narrator Christoper Plummer said, was begun in France. In the 1790s, there was a horror show called "The Phantasmagoric," another forerunner to what eventually began to be a motion picture.
In the U.S.A., amazing progress, it was said, was made by the famous inventor Thomas Edison. He and his assistant, a man named W.K.L. Dickson collaborated on making photographs that moved, "a machine for the eyes like the phonograph for the ears." (Edison also invented the phonograph).
Anyway, this first installment of TCM's "Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood" goes way back and traces the evolution of how movies were made, and by whom, and promoted by whom. We are shown the first movie studio, peep shows, the Lumiere Brothers with their first big-screen adaptation, Edison's "Vitascope," the first newsreels, and the first blockbuster movie hit in America: "The Great Train Robbery," and the rise of the Nickelodeon.
All in all, as you can see, there was a lot of information packed into this hour-long show. I didn't mention half of it. It was very good and a "must" for movie buffs and simply for people who enjoying seeing history.