First Song/First Movie

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Ken wonders:
"Not sure of the first recorded song, probably a jingle for RCA (this,
after all, is America). Now wasn't the first movie "Fred Ott's Sneeze,"
also by Edison?"


The first *American* movie--quite possibly, though it was actually recorded
by Edison's wizard engineer W.K.L. Dickson.

Depending on how you measure these things, Dickson/Edison is usually credited
with "
inventing" movies as a photographic process in 1891.  These films ("kinetoscopes")
were actually designed for individual peep-show machines.

It is somewhat relevant to Pynchon fans that this year is being touted as the
Centenniel of the Cinema, measuring the date from 1895.  On March 22, 1895,
the Lumiere Brothers of France projected a movie on to a screen for a private
audience.  But the key date is December 28, 1895, which was (as far as anyone
knows) the first time an audience *paid* to watch a movie projected on a
screen.

When it comes to cinema "firsts," everything is in doubt, but it may be telling
that the 100 years is dated from the birth of the movies as a *commercial*
institution.


Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)