1. History of Film
The first machine patented in US that showed moving pictures was the zoopraxiscope or “wheel of life.” It was patented in 1867 by William Lincoln. Even though you could watch moving pictures through a slit in the side, it wasn’t near to what we are used to today.
Zoopraxiscope

2. In 1894, the Edison (yes, Thomas Edison) company demonstrated the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. In 1896, Edison showed off the improved Vitascope projector; it was the first commercially successful projector in the US.
Kinetoscope
Vitascope

3. The Lumiere brothers are credited with the invention of the first motion picture camera in They were inspired by Edison’s work. In truth, many others made similar inventions around the same time. The Lumieres’ portable motion-picture camera was called the Cinematographe.
This machine could film, process and project moving pictures! This invention made motion pictures very popular; the Lumiere brothers were the first to present projected, moving, photographic pictures to a paying audience of more than one person.
Cinematograph

4. One of the Lumieres’ viewing audience, Georges Melies, was inspired to take motion pictures even further. Melies developed his own camera after the Lumieres would not sell their Cinematographe to him.
Melies went on to be a pioneer in special effects as well as introduce the idea of narrative storylines. He introduced hand-tinting, dissolves, wipes, the use of mirrors, stop motion, slow motion, and fade outs.
Georges Melies

5. As a side note, early actors in movies were called flickers.
Inventor Edwin S. Porter of the US took film editing and telling narrative stories to produce one of the most influential films of the time, The Great Train Robbery (1903), which was a 14-scene, 10-minute long film based on a real-life train heist. It was filmed in New Jersey in the cold of November.
As a side note, early actors in movies were called flickers.
Edwin S. Porter
Still from The Great Train Robbery (1903)

6. Motion pictures soon became an entertainment medium
Motion pictures soon became an entertainment medium. Soon small storefront theaters called nickelodeons became very popular.
No more nudity?!?!
Newspaper critics denounced movies as morally objectionable and the cause of social unrest—they called for censorship.
Nickelodeon theater

7. D. W. Griffith is one of the greatest American pioneers in film
D.W. Griffith is one of the greatest American pioneers in film. Griffith was an unsuccessful actor who tried his hand at directing movies. He used film in new, more functional ways with camera movement, split-screens, flashbacks, fades, irises, cross-cutting/parallel editing, experimental lighting, and shading.
D.W. Griffith
iris wipe effect

8. The 3,000-seat Strand theater opened in New York City in 1914.
The biggest names in the budding movie industry got their start through nickelodeons. Sam Goldwyn, the Warner brothers, William Fox, and Louis B. Mayer are just a handful.
Universal Films—later Universal Pictures—became the first major, long-lasting film studio in Urban populations were hungry for this cheap form of entertainment.
The 3,000-seat Strand theater opened in New York City in 1914.
Sam Goldwyn
William Fox
Louis B. Mayer
Strand theater

9. The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) monopolized film production and distribution, pooling everyone’s patents to protect film copyrights and fight movie piracy. At the same time, they limited directorial freedom, charged fees to theaters and studios using their films and equipment and refused to give screen credits to players.
What seemed beneficial at first turned into pain in the heinie for film makers.
MPPC Big Wigs
Kalem Film Company

10. As a result of the MPPC, film makers fought back and sought places free from MPPC interference. Southern California was one of these places. Sunlight, cheap property and exotic locations were plentiful. In 1910, the first film was made in Los Angeles—In Old California (D.W. Griffith). By 1912, 15 film companies were operating in “Hollywood.”
Paramount, Fox, Universal and other companies filed an anti-trust suit against the MPPC in 1912; it was eventually disbanded.

11. We’ll always have Portland!
As you would probably guess, the motion picture industry took off. During the years between the end of WWI and stock market crash, the sky was the limit for Hollywood and other movie-producers.
Think about how far film making has come since then.
Casablanca (1942)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978)

12. Looming in the distance above Hollywood, California, the Hollywood sign stands as an icon to Hollywood and the film industry. Its history is interesting…
Although the booming film industry played a large role in the development of “Hollywoodland,” the Owens Valley Aqueduct System, led by William Mulholland was the main catalyst, since the system would divert water from the Owens River to hydrate this new community.

13. The Owens Valley farming community was not tickled by this turn of events, allegedly dynamiting the aqueduct in Despite this, the water flowed, and Hollywood flourished. Hotels and apartments rose along the boulevards.
The film aristocracy created suave restaurants, nightclubs and fancy movie palaces, which completed the Hollywood landscape..

14. Each of the 13 letters was 30 feet wide and about 45 feet high; made of sheet metal squares, wood scaffolding, pipes, wires and telephone poles—all of which had to be dragged up Mt. Lee.
The sign was originally only meant to last a year and a half but has survived nine decades now.
The sign was originally built and erected on Mt. Lee in 1923 for $21,000 by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler as an advertisement for his Hollywoodland real estate development. However, the sign soon became a giant marquee for a still-growing, glamorous film city.

15. In the 1940s, the Hollywoodland real estate company went out of business, and the city wanted the sign to reflect the community, so the “LAND” was removed from the sign.

16. The sign showed signs of wear and tear in the late 40s and was fixed up a bit, but the elements soon took their toll, and the sign was in serious disrepair in the late 1960s.
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner came to the rescue, raising enough money to have the sign rebuilt in 1978.

17. The new sign was made of concrete, enamel and steel--built to last.
The Hollywood sign received a fresh coat of white paint in This is how it looks today, still an icon of an ever-changing film industry.