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 Image: Photo of man using Edison Kinetophone circa 1895 - Wikimedia -https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3072347
Early History of Motion Pictures in New Jersey
The motion picture industry has deep roots in New Jersey. Thomas Edison, who is often credited with inventing the motion picture camera and projector, which evolved from his laboratory's invention of the Kinetograph (a motion picture camera) and the Kinetoscope (a peep-hole motion picture viewer). Most of this work was performed by Edison's assistant, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, beginning in 1888. Motion pictures became a successful entertainment industry in less than a decade, with single-viewer Kinetoscopes giving way to films projected for mass audiences. Edison also established the world's first film production studio, the Black Maria, in West Orange in 1893, which produced many of the earliest motion pictures. The Black Maria was closed in January 1901, and Edison demolished the building in 1903, but a replica is open to the public at the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange. The earliest surviving copyrighted motion picture, the Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze is a short film made by W. K. L. Dickson submitted for copyright in January 1894. Sometimes referred to as "Fred Ott's Sneeze," it is one of the world's earliest motion pictures and America's best known early film production. The film shows Fred Ott, an Edison employee known to his fellow workers in the laboratory for his comic sneezing and other gags. Although The Sneeze was the first film submitted for copyright, two other Edison experimental films--'Dickson Greeting; filmed in May 1891 and 'Newark Athlete" in May or June 1891--actually predate The Sneeze. Edison also pioneered the use of film to depict newsworthy current events, such as the Spanish-American War of 1898. Cameramen working for Edison would travel to Florida and Cuba to film some scenes, but actual battles were not filmed on site, with reenactments of key engagements filmed in New Jersey, usually using National Guard troops. In 1903, "The Great Train Robbery", a ten-minute long action narrative film is considered the first to successfully establish continuity of action by combining related, but noncontinuous, shots into a cohesive sequence. The film’s story depicts four bandits who stage a train robbery and are eventually tracked down and defeated by a local posse. It was filmed in November 1903, with portions at Edison’s New York City studio and also at outdoor locations in New Jersey at Essex County parks and along the Lackawanna Railroad, likely between Denville and Dover, intended to portray the American West. The film's final scene showed a gunman shoot directly at the camera. Edison's company ceased film production in 1918, but the Library of Congress maintains a collection of 341 Edison films, with the earliest example a camera test made in 1891, Other films produced by Edison include: Blacksmith Scene (1893) Washing the Baby (1893) Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, also known as Fred Ott's Sneeze (1894) The Boxing Cats (Prof. Welton's) (1894) The Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894/95) Fun in a Chinese Laundry (1896) Sioux Ghost Dance Buffalo Bill's Shooting Skill Cripple Creek Bar-Room Scene
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