History of the Movies
Edition: First
Publisher: Bison Books
Published: 1983
Place of publication: Greenwich, CT
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780861241194
Subjects: movies - pictures
Genres: history
First sentence: Previews of Coming Attractions:
It emerged from Thomas A Edison's Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratories in the 1890s, this marvel of lights and shadows we call the motion picture. One more entry in the catalogue of scientific and engineering achievements that had changed the world in the 19th century -the electric light, the telegraph, the telephone, the steamship and the steam locomotive - it was the follow-up to Edison's phonograph and, in his words, was to 'do for the eye what the phonograph did for the ear.' What it actually did was far surpass the impact of the phonograph and become, in time, joined by radio and television, the world's great provider of mass entertainment, molder of public opinion and setter of fashions, trends and modes of behavior.
Oddly, for a man with an almost unerring instinct for what the public needed and would appreciate, Edison showed little interest in his latest brainchild and was slow to recognize its potential. From the start, its development was left in the hands of his brilliant assistant, William K L Dickson, and once it was in its first working order in 1891, Edison regarded it as little more than a toy and was content to let it remain so. And indeed, it seemed a mere toy, with its pictures photographed on Eastman celluloid film inside a box-like camera called the Kinetograph and then viewed, one person at a time, by peering through the window of another   box-like contraption, the Kinetoscope, while turning a hand crank. Looking at it all, Edison shrugged off the advice of   his colleagues that the invention be developed to the point where the picturescould be projected on a screen and seenby entire audiences rather than single   individuals.                                             
Despite the great man's indifference...
Description: This book covers 80 years of film making,the plots,background and the backstage stories of the early days.
The Westerns,B Movies,The Quickies,the comedies,the musicals,the gangster pictures,the war pictures,Science fiction,Horror,detective,and the biggies.
Illustrated with over 400 photos of the great and not so great films,this book will be a proud addition to the collection of every movie enthusiast,film historian or nostalgia fan.