Great innovation and early revolutionaries

Early History of the Film Industry

Eadweard Muybridge

An English photographer who became famous for his photographs of Yosemite Valley

He was acquitted of murder on grounds of justifiable homicide when he killed his wife’s lover

Began a study of motion with humans and animals later in his career

The Machine

The “film”

Invented by Eadweard Muybridge in 1879

One of the first motion-picture projectors

Featured a series of still photographs played in rapid succession

Early films were from his studies of motion in animals

Zoopraxiscope

Thomas Alva Edison

Inventor of many things, most famous for the light bulb

Worked with motion pictures after work on the light bulb

The Machine

Invented by Edison in 1891

Inspired by Muybridge, began work on the project in 1888

Intention was to create a camera which could capture motion

Name comes from Greek words meaning “to move” and “to watch”

Incorporated the emergence of celluloid film which was coated in an emulsion

The production of large quatities of the film by Eastman Company allowed for the development of the Kinetoscope

Kinetoscope

Pioneer of early film

D.W. Griffith

Born in Kentucky to Jacob Griffith, a former Confederate Army colonel

Originally appeared as an actor in an Edison Company film

Signed with American Mutoscope & Biography Co., where he would go on to direct 450 short films

Produced and directed the first movie ever made in Hollywood (In Old California, 1910)

His first full length film released in 1915

Birth of a Nation

Considered as the birth of modern American cinema

NAACP attempted to have the film banned and then censored when banning failed

Earned $300 a week for the film plus 37.5% of the net profits

Film inspired African-Americans to create their own films to counter the depiction of them created by the movie

The film looks at the emergence of the Civil War and follows the birth of the Ku Klux Klan

Was the king of Hollywood until 1924

After Birth of a Nation

Released film, Intolerance: Love’s Struggle through the Ages (1916) to combat the negativity created by Birth of a Nation

First to say the phrase, “Lights! Camera! Action!” in 1910

First to use the techniques of the flashback, iris shot, the mask, soft focus, parallel editing and split screen. Also, invented the use of false eyelashes

MiscellaneousReleased his first sound film in 1930, Abraham Lincoln.

Griffith ended up being an ardent supporter of the rights of native Americans and detested their treatment by the American government

Received first honorary Academy Award from Frank Capra

Still viewed as one of the greatest directors of all time

One of the pivotal stars of the silent film

Charlie Chaplin

Born in 1889 in London, England

Was both an actor and a film director

Helped form United Artists with D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford in 1919

Originally lived in a room with Stan Laurel when they came to America

First actor to be nominated for Best Actor for playing two roles in one film

First actor to appear on the cover of Time Magazine

The last movie he saw, Rocky (1976)

Became famous for his character, The Little Tramp

One of the most recognizable characters of all time, often imitated even today in film

Created the “look” from a number of Hollywood luminaries clothes, including “Fatty” Arbuckle’s coat

The Little Tramp

Four of his films, The Gold Rush (1925) at #25, Modern Times (1936) at #33, The Great Dictator (1940) at #37 and City Lights (1931) at #38, are considered amongst the funniest of all times

Modern Times is a political look at the abuses of industry on the worker and life during the Great Depression

The Great Dictator, a political attack on Hitler in the form of a comedy, was banned in Germany.

Created the “look” from a number of Hollywood luminaries clothes, including “Fatty” Arbuckle’s coat

Chaplin’s Movies

Silent film star who performed into the 1960s

Buster Keaton

Born Joseph Frank Keaton in 1895

Earned the nickname, Buster, from Harry Houdini after he wasn’t harmed falling down the stairs at age six months

He was incorporated into the family act early on and would often be tossed around the stage, giving birth to his career as a comedic actor

Produced two of the greatest films of the silent film era, The General (1926) and The Camera Man (1928)

He and Charlie Chaplin had an interesting relationship. Long considered rivals but always having avoided commenting about each other in the press, Chaplin hired Keaton for a part in Limelight (1952). Keaton, who was flat broke at the time, went into a career decline after having been signed by MGM in 1928, as the studio would not let him improvise in any of his films nor allow him any writing or directorial input, and he was eventually reduced to writing gags - often uncredited - for other comedians' films.

Hollywood’s firstleading man

Douglas Fairbanks

Born on May 23, 1883 in Denver, Colorado

Raised by his mother, he attended Harvard before a number of jobs that eventually led him to acting

He performed almost all of his own stunts throughout his career

His portrayal of Zorro was the inspiration for DC Comics’ Batman

Life and Career

Married Mary Pickford, a union which made them Hollywood’s first celebrity couple. Their home was known as “Pickfair”

Founder of United Artists

One of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Life and Career

Mary Pickford And Lillian Gish

Early Leading

Ladies

Born Gladys Smith on April 8, 1892 in Toronto, Canada

America’s first sweetheart, she appeared in numerous D.W. Griffith films

First movie actress to receive a percentage of a film’s earnings

She wanted all of her films destroyed after her death because she feared no one would care about them

Mary Pickford

Born on October 14, 1893 in Springfield, Ohio

Worked with D.W. Griffith early in her career before signing with MGM

She was a childhood friend of Mary Pickford

Was eventually replaced at MGM by Greta Garbo, who was order to study her acting style

Replaced because she was viewed as a “sexless antique”

Went on to do radio and theatre

Lillian Gish

“You ain’t heardnothin’ yet!!”

Al Jolson

Born Asa Yoelson in Lithuania to a Jewish cantor on May 26, 1886

Was considered the “World’s Greatest Entertainer” for over 40 years

Began his career as a singer and vaudevillian entertainer

Began a Broadway career in 1912, spending almost 20 years there

Failed a screen test to play himself and finished third in an Al Jolson sound-a-like competition

Has 3 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Starred in the 1927 film, The Jazz Singer, which began the end of the Silent Film Era

“Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet! Wait a minute, I tell ya! You ain't heard nothin'! You wanna hear "Toot, Toot, Tootsie"? All right, hold on, hold on... ” [First words in the first widely-talking picture]

Sam Warner, the Warner Brother who insisted that the line be left in, died on day before the movie was premiered in its entirety.

The first film musical

The Jazz Singer

IMDb(2013). D.W. Griffith. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000428/bio

Bibliography