2. The History of the Movies in America Part One The Silent Era

3. From the Top 1830’s “Persistence of Vision” Invention of Photography (Daguerre) Electric Power Creation of Celluloid (1 st commercial plastic) Invention of the Incandescent Light Bulb The Desire for $$$

4. Eadweard Muybridge 1830-1904 One of the first to show “moving pictures” Wagered that a horse leaves all four of its feet Created the Zoopraxiscope to prove it

5. Galloping Horse

6. Edison and the Kinetoscope

7. Edison realized motion pictures could attract a paying audience Coin operated box that would show amusing films 1 st copyrighted film April 14, 1894 - “The Sneeze” Opposed to showing movies on a screen - felt that you would lose money

8. The Sneeze

9. The Lumiere Brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere – French Inventors Created the Cinematographe (1895) Showed movie on a screen Overnight sensation One film of a train pulling into a station terrorized the audience However, audiences soon tired of the format

10. Georges Melies (1861 – 1938) French Theatre Magician First to use the fade-in/out and dissolve Made over 500 films “A Trip to the Moon” (1902) most famous Used far off stationary camera with single POV His style became outdated and he soon became bankrupt

11. A Trip to the Moon (1902)

12. Meanwhile – Back in the USA Edison – Angered by misjudging the potential of the “flickers” acquires the rights to the Latham Loop and Vitascope starting a 12 year Patent War Creates the MPPC (Motion Picture Patents Company) which corners the market on cameras, projectors, and production companies - enforced with armed henchmen who bullied independent film makers Independents move to Southern CA to avoid conflict Audiences flock to the Nickelodeons (due to the 5 cent admission price) Low cost appealed to the working class Soon became appealing to the middle and upper classes through the works of Edwin Porter. His Epic “The Great Train Robbery” was an astounding 12 minutes long and introduced the concept of a “story-driven” movie

13. The Great Train Robbery (1903) First Western First to use editing as a storytelling technique One of the first to use panning and close-ups Moved from documentary to narrative Based on a true robbery by Butch Cassidy

14. 1905 - 1915 Nickelodeon attendance exceeds 2 million in over 10,000 movie houses Carl Laemmle creates the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP) separate from MPPC Censorship begins in Chicago and NYC William Fox and company successfully break MPPC’s control with Federal Anti-Trust suit MPPC’s decline also due to audience’s growing desire for multireel films (features) signaling the end of the nickelodeon Movies of any significance made in France, until Griffith’s Birth of a Nation changes everything

15. The Players D.W. Griffith Cecil B. Demille Mack Sennett

16. D.W. Griffith (1875 – 1948)

17. “Father of Motion Picture” pioneers the process of actor rehearsals due to his naturalistic acting styles Started with the Edison Company as an actor Joined the Biograph as a director and became a huge success Refined such techniques as cross-cutting, camera angles, artificial lighting, realistic sets, flashbacks, split screens, soft focus, dissolves, fades, and irises Made over 450 movies with Biograph

18. D.W. Griffith (1875 – 1948) The “art” films of Europe and the hour-long “superspectacles” of Italy made him extremely envious He quit Biograph to work on his three-hour masterpiece “Birth of a Nation.” It’s racist tones caused controversy and protest He made “Intolerance” in self-defense. Long and confusing, it was his first “flop” he never recovered Entrenched in the studio system he lost touch with popular tastes and faded into obscurity

19. Birth of a Nation (1915) Based Thomas Dixon Jr.'s anti- black, bigoted play, The Clansman Its release set up a major censorship battle over its vicious, extremist depiction of African Americans. Unbelievably, the film is still used today as a recruitment piece for Klan membership. 3 Hours long (longest film to date) Black characters in leading roles are played by white actors in blackface

20. Birth of a Nation (1915) It was one of the biggest box-office money-makers in the history of film, due to its charge of $2 per ticket. It made $18 million by the start of the talkies. The subject matter of the film caused immediate criticism by the newly- created NAACP and renounced as "the meanest vilification of the Negro race." Riots in Boston and Philadelphia. Chicago, Denver, St. Louis and other major cities refuse to show it

21. Birth of a Nation (1915) Film scholars agree, however, that it is the single most important and key film of all time in American movie history Introduces & refines camera angles, traveling shots, artificial lighting, realistic sets, flashbacks, split screens, soft focus, dissolves, fades, and irises. Makes Lillian Gish a star

22. Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1951)

23. Both Parents were playwrights Enrolled in the Academy of Dramatic Arts (under David Belasco) 1913 Formed the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co. with Jesse Lasky and Sam Goldwyn (later became Paramount Pictures) Perfected the switch from short films to feature length films Often credited with making Hollywood the “Motion Picture Capital of the World”

24. Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1951) Gained fame with romantic comedies that were considered racy for the times With Hollywood under pressure to clean up its image, switched to Biblical Epics (featuring the same saucy scenes with a morality tag at the end) Notable silent films of the time period (Ten Commandments 1923 and King of Kings 1927) Showman and Self-Promoter he embodied the image of the ultimate director (baggy pants and megaphone) As film transferred to the talkies, his movies became epic masterpieces

25. Ten Commandments (1923) Among his Epics are…

26. Cleopatra (1943)

27. Samson and Delilah (1949)

28. Greatest Show On Earth (1952)

29. Ten Commandments (1956)

30. Famous Quotes "The public is always right" "You are here to please me. Nothing else on earth matters." -C.B. to his crew "Give me any two pages of the Bible and I'll give you a picture."

31. Mack Sennett (1880 - 1960) The King of Comedy

32. Mack Sennett (1880 - 1960) Born to Irish Immigrants Began show business career working in burlesque and film career with bit parts in Biograph pictures He and two bookies start Keystone Studios in 1912 Perfects the “slapstick” comedy short, working with location and situation rather than a script His company contained mostly circus performers and vaudeville performers including the Keystone Kops, Fatty Arbuckle, and Charlie Chaplin With talking pictures his movies become B-Grade and by 1935 he is out of business Directed 300+ films and produced over 500+ films

33. The Star System Previously, actors preferred anonymity which meant studios did not give screen credit nor pay them very much This all changed when Carl Laemmle (IMP) lured Florence Lawrence away from Biograph, where she was known simply as the “Biograph Girl,” creating false rumors of her death and then promoted her return as the “IMP Girl” and making her name a household word From then on, movie-goers flocked to the movies to see their favorite stars, creating a permanent shift in movie control.

34. Stars of the Silent Screen

35. Florence Lawrence America’s 1st Movie Star The Country Doctor 14 minutes, D.W. Griffith, Biograph Studios, also Mary Pickford

36. Mary Pickford (1892 –1979) America’s Sweetheart Honorary Oscar - 1976

37. Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) The Kid (1921) 53 minutes

38. Harold Lloyd (1893-1971) Compilation Compilation

39. Buster Keaton (1895-1966)

40. Fatty Arbuckle (1887-1933) ‘Hollywood’s first scandal’ One of the Keystone Kops

41. Keystone Kops

42. Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. The King of Silent Hollywood

43. Clara Bow The “It” Girl

44. Rudolph Valentino

45. Dorothy & Lillian Gish

46. Theda Bara

47. Lon Chaney The Man of a Thousand Faces

48. Tom Mix

49. Louise Brooks

50. Greta Garbo

51. All Good Things Must Come To An End…

52. Sources Naughton, John and Adam Smith. Movies – A Crash Course. Ivy Press, NY, 1998. Corey, Melinda and George Ochoa. The American Film Institute Desk Reference. DK Publishing, Inc., NY, 2002. http://imdb.com http://www.doctormacro.com/