I have some vague jumbled memories about a story. These memories seem connected to me, but I’m not sure if they’re all from the same story or perhaps I just read several stories in one anthology and they now seem connected.
The first memory is a story about an old 19th century “panorama”, a very large landscape painting that was unfurled in front of viewers to give the impression that they were traveling past that landscape. According to the story this was a common entertainment in the 19th century, but most of the paintings were poor quality amateurish stuff. But in the story, a special panorama was found, that had some supernatural quality that I don’t quite remember.
The second one was that someone had a time machine, and they were using it to go back to witness and film historical events, solely for the purpose of using the film to make dramatic historical movies. I think he was going back to the Spanish-American war to get battle scenes.
The third one was again related to a time machine. Someone who used it to go back millions of years to see live dinosaurs mentioned that they were convinced of the authenticity of the experience by the fact that the dinosaurs were brightly colored, and no hoaxer would have thought of that.
Not the book you’re looking for but if you can find a copy check out Banvard’s Folly by Paul Collins. It’s a collection of biographical articles about people who were once famous but who have now been forgotten. And the subject of the title article is John Banvard, who popularized the panorama paintings you’ve described.
The first story sounds quite like the novella The Asylum of Dr. Caligari by James Morrow but it only came out a couple of years ago so it’s probably not!
Here’s a picture of the cover an a brief description.
Ok, I’m sure that E For Effort is the second story I was thinking of. Thanks for that! The Great Time Machine Hoax does not ring a bell. I don’t think that’s one of these stories. I sure wish I could come up with the panorama story. That one has been lurking on the edge of my memory for years.
I remember that first story, but dang if I can remember where I read it or who wrote it. I want to say I read it in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.