Media History: The Invention and Art of the Movies (Part 1 of 3)

New York City, 1894. You drop a coin in a slot, press your face to the eyepiece, and watch a photograph move. How did a peep-show novelty become the most powerful storytelling medium of the twentieth century? Part 1 runs from Muybridge's galloping horse to The Jazz Singer — Edison's monopoly, the Lumière brothers, nickelodeons packed with immigrants, Méliès shooting a rocket into the eye of the moon, Birth of a Nation reviving the Klan, Chaplin's Tramp, and Oscar Micheaux making the films Hollywood wouldn't. Stay tuned for Part 2 picks up with the Golden Age of Hollywood, coming soon. Note: contains discussion of racist films and depictions of racial violence in historical context. CHAPTERS 00:00 A Coin in the Slot: New York, 1894 02:45 Photography and the Puzzle of Motion 04:36 Muybridge's Galloping Horse 07:28 Le Prince and the First Film 08:31 Edison's Movie Studio 10:11 The Lumières and the Birth of Cinema 11:39 Nickelodeons: Movies for the Masses 13:30 Edison's Trust and the Flight to Hollywood 15:45 The Invention of Film Art 20:31 D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation 25:11 The First Movie Star 30:02 Studios Make the Movies 32:29 Hollywood Enchants the World 36:22 The Horror of German Expressionism 39:43 Charlie Chaplin: Funny Without Words 43:21 Oscar Micheaux: Struggle in Silence 45:33 "You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet" The Jazz Singer Also covered: Joseph Plateau's phenakistiscope, Étienne-Jules Marey, Alice Guy-Blaché, Georges Méliès, Edwin S. Porter and The Great Train Robbery, Florence Lawrence, Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo, Lon Chaney, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Within Our Gates. #FilmHistory #SilentFilm #Hollywood #MediaHistory