# What was the name of the first ever movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 3, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-first-ever-movie/135108 "2002-11-03T13:16:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gomez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d78d45/32.png) [@Gomez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gomez)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-first-ever-movie/135108/1 "2002-11-03T13:16:21Z")
I wasn’t sure whether or not to put this in Cafe Society but since it is a factual question with one short answer and since there is no room for debate on it AFAIK, I figured here would be best. Ok, my question: I remember my media studies teacher mentioning a film which was basically an oncoming steam train heading towards the camera (ie. towards the audience in the cinema). Now, since this was conceivably the first (or if not _the_ first then one of the first) movie ever made the viewers genuinely thought that a train was coming towards them and that they were in danger. They fled the cinema, only coming back in when they knew they weren’t going to be run over. I’m now writing an essay on media effects and I wanted to cite this movie to illustrate a particular point. Thing is I can’t remember what it is called and as such googling has proved fruitless. Does anyone know what this particular movie is called? It would really help. Thanks in advance, Gomez ---
**Author:** ![Gomez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d78d45/32.png) [@Gomez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gomez)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-first-ever-movie/135108/2 "2002-11-03T13:18:32Z")
P.S. - I can’t ask my tutor since she is in Venice for a week. I’ve already tried my classmates and they don’t know either. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-first-ever-movie/135108/3 "2002-11-03T13:36:18Z")
“LArrivee d’un Train en gare” ? [http://www.learnaboutmovieposters.com/NewSite/HISTORY/history.asp](http://www.learnaboutmovieposters.com/NewSite/HISTORY/history.asp) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-first-ever-movie/135108/4 "2002-11-03T16:13:10Z")
There isn’t really a “first” movie, since there are many claimants and it all depends on what you mean by “movie.” George Melies, however, did several films showing the arrival of a train in various railroad stations starting in 1896 with “Arrivée d’un train gare de Vincennes.” ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-first-ever-movie/135108/5 "2002-11-03T16:20:23Z")
Finally, a question on which I am eminently qualified to know the answer. (Boastful interlude) The great majority of the data about the first decade of motion picture making (1891-1900) in the Internet Movie Database is there because of me. (/Boastful interlude) First, let us define _what_ a motion picture is in this context: 1. Photographic, not drawn. This criterion eliminates parlor toys of the 19th century, like the Zoetrope, with hand-drawn animated figures. 2. The photography was done at a minimum of 12 pictures per second. It is only around 12 pictures per second that the phenomenon of “persistance of vision” kicks in, in which the previous image lingers in the mind’s eye until the next image is seen, given the illusion of a flow of motion. This criterion eliminates the motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge in the 1880s, which, pioineering as they were, were photographed at a rate slower than 12 pictures per second. 3. The motion picture _was shown to the public or some disinterested party_. The French-born inventor Louis Le Prince (1842-1890?) took motion pictures on paper film in October 1888, one in the garden of his father-in-law in Leeds, England (10-12 frames per second), the other of traffic over Leeds Bridge (20 frames per second). However, he disappeared after boarding a train to London in September 1890 to present his invention to the public, taking his machines with him. So, we cannot know whether he succeeded in creating a device sufficient to view these films. Therefore, **the first public demonstration of motion pictures** occurred at the Thomas Edison Laboratories on 22 May 1891, when a national group of club women being entertained by Mrs. Edison was invited to view Edison’s Kinetograph, a device in which a 6-foot loop of sprocketless 19mm film moved horizontally behind a shutter and magnifying glass. An account of this event in the _New York Sun_: > [@](#): > > A little while ago there was a great convention of women’s clubs of America. Mrs. Edison is interested in women’s clubs and their work and she decided to entertain the Presidents of the various clubs at the Convention. Edison entered into the plan, and when 147 club women visited his workshop he showed them a working model of his new Kinetograph, for that is the name he has given to the most wonderful of all his wonderful inventions. > > The surprised and pleased club women saw a small pine box standing on the floor. There were some wheels and belts near the box, and a workman who had them in charge. In the top of the box was a hole perhaps an inch in diameter. As they looked through this hole they saw the picture of a man. It was a most marvellous picture. It bowed and smiled and waved its hands and took off its hat with the most perfect naturalness and grace. Every motion was perfect. There was not a hitch or a jerk. No wonder Edison chuckled at the effect he produced with his Kinetograph. The film referred to still exists, and is informally known as _Dickson’s Greeting_ (1891) because it shows engineer William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (1860-1935), whom Edison placed in charge of motion picture research, and who deserves the lion’s share of credit for its development. You can view it at the Library of Congress web site: > **[About this Collection  | Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion...](https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison-company-motion-pictures-and-sound-recordings/about-this-collection/)** > > This site features 341 motion pictures, 81 disc sound recordings, and other related materials, such as photographs and original magazine articles. Cylinder sound recordings will be added to this site in the near future. In addition, histories are... **The first commercial presentation of motion pictures** was at the Holland Bros.'s Kinetoscope Parlor, in New York City, which opened on 14 April 1894. The 10 Kinetoscope machines each showed a different, brief 35mm motion picture to paying patrons who looked through a peephole. The titles on opening day, all produced by Edison: _Sandow_, _Bertholdi (mouth support)_, _Horse Shoeing_, _Bertholdi (table contortion)_, _Barber Shop_, _Blacksmiths_, _Cock Fight_, _Highland Dance_, _Wrestling_, and _Trapeze_. The first motion picture presented publicly **on a screen** was _La sortie des ouvriers de l’Usine Lumiere_ (Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory), taken in 1894 by brothers August and Louis Lumiere, and shown in Paris on 22 March 1895. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-first-ever-movie/135108/6 "2002-11-03T16:36:20Z")
Well…I don’t think you can call Edison’s motion picture a movie in the sense the OP intended (I suppose). A box in which people have to look in individually isn’t exactly a movie. The movie the Op refered to was “L’arrivee d’un train en gare de La Ciotat” (train arrival in La Ciotat station), and it wasn’t made by Melies, but by the Lumiere brothers (incidentally, their family name means “light” in french, which is funny for the inventors of the cinema). Indeed, it is said that people would stand up and attempt to flee when they saw the movie. But if it actually happened (and I would guess that most people weren’t that affraid), it was probably because it was impressive for people who had never see a movie, not because they thought a train was actually entering the theater. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-first-ever-movie/135108/7 "2002-11-03T16:38:09Z")
Hmmm…Next time I’ll read the post entirely before responding…