The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1921-05-04

cupied by the jenkins Jewelry COM
pany may soon announce that the
first motion picture machine gave an
exhibition in that store on June 6,
1894. c. Francis Jenkins, Richmond
boy, was the inventor Of the appar-
atus. He sold his interest in the in
vention for $2,500
William Rindt of the Jenkins COM
pany Is contemplating the erection OF
the tablet. An article in a current
issue of The Literary Digest gives the
appended realistic description of the
first movie show" in>Richmond:
Most of the important people in the
movies. have their press-agents, but
the m3h b who invented them has hoth.
ing of'the sort. And it's safe bet, y
writes Homer Croy, one of the best
known of movie chronicler, that the
movie fans never heard of him" AL
most any day he may be seen walking
down Pennsylvania avenue, Washing
ton, and yet nobody knows him. Mr..
Croy goes on in the New York
Tribune:
"All the attention people pay to him
Is to push him out of the way. He
goes jostling on down the street, but
If some movie queen comes along she
blocks traffic. Thus life runs away.
Don't Know Inventor.
"Ten million people day go to the
movies in the United States, but how
many of them know, who made the
first movie? The noes have it. The
man who made the first motion-pic-
ture, as we know it today, is C. Fran
els Jenkins. Many girls who have
not been "in pictures" a month are
better known. c. Francis is too much
given to hiding his light under a
bushel. If any motion-picture actress
endeavors to hide her light under any
kind of protection her address at pres
ent is unknown. Instead, she crawls
up on top of the measure and calls
for the spotlight man. If he does not
give it to her quick she will kick the
four pecks to Kingdom Come!
c. Francis Jenkins was a clerk in
the life-saving diyicion of the treas
ury department at Washington, but
he was not content with putting on
his sleeve-protectors of a morning,
and taking them off at five minutes
of five. He did not want to spend his
life beating the clock of a morning
if the boss had yet gone home He
was hipped on photography, and in
the backyard of his clearinghouse
made many experiment. He was
working with a magic-lantern,, which
was then considered about the fur
thest north of human ingenuity.
Young jenkins was seized with the
extravagant idea of making pictures
move by means of the lantern, and to
work he set. In he called vaudeville
dancer named Annabelle. whose par
ticular bit of entertainment was a
so-called butterfly dance OF her Jen
kins made pictures. Many men in
the United States and Europe had
been working on the idea Of animal
locomotion," as it was then called
but as glass plates had to be used
the result was not any bewilderine
success. The heavy, cumbersome
plates could not be progressed in
front of light source fast enough to
make any animal look but what i!
was in its last mortal struggle. Then
| the celluloid film was announced. l,
was light and flexible. The inventors
were of. 1t was a race.
Rides to Richmond
THE summer vacation came alons
after a while. as it always does, ant
c. Francis asked for an extra week
| On ahead he sent a mysterious boz
by express, and then, mounting hi:
bicycle, rode the whole distance-72t
miles to Richmond, Ind, his home
When he got there he was a hero.
ITO a local jewelry-store run by hi:
cousin he took the mysterious DO,
and asked if the curtains might bt