On the grounds of his
Menlo Park laboratory, inventor Thomas Alva Edison and his right-hand man, William
Kennedy Laurie Dickson, designed America’s first motion picture studio.
While many believed that Dickson was really
the brains behind the operation, Edison was still the boss after all and
demanded his due credit.
They called their
creation the Revolving Photograph Theater, or more formally, The Kinetograph
Theater, when it opened in early 1893.
With
a total cost of $637.67, the odd-looking building would not have won any
architectural prize for beauty.
Wrapped
in black tar paper on the outside, the austere structure’s interior was also painted
black to ensure that filming resulted in the sharpest of images.
It was no wonder that Edison’s employees
began calling the unwelcoming place ‘The Black Maria’—a contemporary term that
referred to another inhospitable spot—a police paddy wagon.
Lacking indoor
lighting, sunlight was a crucial element in those early days of filmmaking so the
studio’s hinged roof opened via a series of ropes, pulleys and weights. The building itself even sat on heavy rollers
allowing it to rotate and follow the sun’s movement throughout the day.
All of the action
occurred on a single stage and was captured by a Kinetograph (early camera) that rested on a
nearby table. The table was mounted on tracks allowing limited camera
movement. Films were approximately 50
feet in length and ran for about one-half minute. With Dickson acting as producer and often directing
as well as manning the Kinetograph, subject matters included anything or anyone
that might entice a spectator to take another look when visiting their favorite nickelodeon or peep show.
Sports were highly
favored. Even boxing champion James J.
Corbett took on his challenger Peter Courtney inside The Black Maria. Corbett knocked Courtney out cold right in
front of the camera on September 7, 1894.
Agile gymnasts, flexible wrestlers and quick-footed fencers also
performed at the studio. Even strongman
Eugene Sandow, often referred to as ‘The Modern Hercules’ and the ‘Father of
Modern Bodybuilding’, flexed his considerable muscles on film.
Animals mimicking humans
were another crowd pleaser. Dancing
bears, boxing cats and drum-beating elephants almost always brought spectators back
for another peep. Celebrated names also
graced the laboratory grounds. Wild West
stars Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley both took aim and demonstrated their
sharp-shooting skills complete with smoking guns. And those that couldn’t shoot straight simply whirled
their guns. Rifle twirler Hadji Cheriff who
was better known as Sheik Hadji Tahar, left the live stage long enough to
perform part of his high-speed act at Edison’s studio. Exotic dancer Little
Egypt, with her titillating hips, shimmied her way around the camera. Even Ena Bertoldi, a female contortionist, happily
twisted her limbs inside The Black Maria.
Despite the wide
assortment of subjects, it was a simple sneeze and an ordinary kiss that many spectators
liked to see again and again. When it
was originally filmed, Edison
Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894), the footage was only supposed to
illustrate an article appearing in Harper’s
Weekly. The moving picture featured the
mustachioed Fred Ott, Edison’s chief mechanic, as he inhaled a pinch of snuff,
which resulted in a substantial sneeze.
As viewers experienced a good laugh, Edison had the film officially
copyrighted.
While Fred Ott caused
giggles, stage actors Mae Irwin and John C. Rice set off some moral outrage—but
that didn’t hamper ticket sales.
Re-enacting a scene from their hit play The Widow Jones, the pair
engaged in what seemed a tender conversation resulting in a kiss that lasted a
scandalous 15 seconds. The film, so
brazenly called The Kiss (1896), was condemned for such a lewd
display. Many declared it unfit for any decent
citizen to view. Some even thought the
police should be summoned. Of course,
the negative buzz didn’t stop the paying patrons who just couldn’t help
themselves despite, or perhaps because of, the ballyhoo.
Eight years
and hundreds of films later, America’s first movie studio had served its
purpose. Edison shut the place down opting
for a modern filming facility in New York.
In 1903, he demolished the building, but the fledgling industry he launched
there was about to soar.
