Look Who it Was Random video

What Really Happened at the First Moving-Picture Shows? - Ian Christie

4,804 views · Published 3 July 2018 · 49:48 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: Gresham College · 2018 · Education

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0:00 // Introduction & Lecture Overview
2:27 // Magic Lantern Shows
4:09 // Peppers Ghost
6:48 // Phonograph Parlor
7:46 // Lumiere Brothers
18:11 // Soldiers courtship
28:27 // Railway Accidents
37:55 // Sea Cave

The reception of moving pictures in 1894-96 has been much mythologised. Were spectators really frightened of an approaching train? Did they imagine seeing their departed relatives reanimated on screen? How much attention was actually paid to this new phenomenon among so many contemporary novelties and wonders? Moving pictures may not have been the innovation once claimed, but within a decade few could doubt that they had become a major force in changing the Edwardian world.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-really-happened-at-the-first-moving-picture-shows

This event was on Mon, 30 Apr 2018

Professor Christie is former Visiting Professor in the History of Film and Media at Gresham College. He is a renowned British film scholar and currently Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck, University of London.

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