Historical Nonfiction

That is arguably the most important sneeze in history. Those grainy images are stills from the first motion picture ever. It was submitted by Thomas Edison to the Library of Congress to support Edison’s copyright for making motion pictures. It was taken in his research lab in Orange, N.J. on January 7, 1894.

To see the movie, viewers looked through a peephole into a box that Edison labeled the Kinetoscope. These early “Peep Shows” featured short reality films of everyday activities such as crowd scenes, firemen at a fire or a couple kissing. The films soon became much more risqué – often featuring women doing exotic dances in which their ankles (and sometimes other prohibited parts of their anatomy) were clearly visible.

Edison opened a number of viewing parlors in Manhattan and the Kinetoscope became an instant success. The new invention was particularly popular in the city’s immigrant districts. However, the motion picture didn’t gain wide popularity until 1896 when it was taken out of its box and projected onto a screen allowing a large audience to share the experience.