A Day in History that Changed the World

On April 16, 1902 Thomas L. Tally opening the Electric Theater, the world's first movie theater, in Los Angeles. The theater was dedicated to movies and audio recordings. It was quickly imitated around the country which eventually became dubbed "nickelodeons". The world's love affair with the moving image would endure until today. Many of the movies shown were Thomas Edison's Kinetoscopes. These were films shot at the Black Maria the first movie studio built for the express purpose of motion picture production. Most of the films were very short (usually less than a minute) and depicted everyday scenes of life at home or the workforce common referred to as "actualities". It wouldn't be until better cameras capable of larger film loads that narrative films would be born.

On May 9, 1893 the "Blacksmith Scene" was the first Kinetoscope film shown to the public and is still the earliest surviving complete motion picture. This scene was one of the first movies exhibited at the Electric Theater along with Edison's "Butterfly Dance", "Edison in Chemistry Lab", "Kiss Scene" and "Strongman Eugene Sandow"."Blacksmith Scene"
"Edison in Chemistry Lab"
"The Kiss"
"Strongman Eugene Sandow"