History of Silent Movies
Pioneer developments in "moving pictures" occurred during the 1890s with the patenting of the kinetograph and kinetoscope (1891) by Thomas Edison and W.K.L. Dickson in the United States and the cinematograph (1895) by the Lumiere brothers in France. By the turn of the century, films less than a minute in length were being exhibited at major fairs in the U.S. and abroad. Soon after, audiences began flocking to movie houses called "Nickelodeons," one-floor venues, where short films (approximately 10 minutes long) could be seen for a nickel, often on makeshift screens. As the medium's popularity soared, more opulent theaters were constructed and live piano music accompanied viewings.
By the late 1910s, moviemakers were reaping the artistic and box-office benefits of the early years of innovation and experimentation. Directors such as D.W. Griffith in the U.S., F.W. Murnau in Germany and Sergei Eisenstein in Russia were developing and perfecting film techniques that would become standard of the craft, and silent screen actors were blossoming into the first generation of Hollywood celebrities.
The earliest silent film footage in existence was documentary in nature, such as the brief clip of workers leaving the Lumiere Brothers' factory in France. By the 1910s, however, clear genres had emerged, including comedy, drama, romance and horror. D.W. Griffith's historical drama, "Birth of a Nation" (1915), with its elaborate spectacle and enormous cast, was just one of many notable moments in early cinema history.
Silent movie starlets typically appeared in one of two roles: the virgin or the vamp. Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish frequently were cast as the former type while flappers Clara Bow, Theda Bara and Louise Brooks, along with Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and Jean Harlow, were more often cast as the latter.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Gilbert Roland and Rudolph Valentino were just a few of the male heartthrobs of the silent era while Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and
By the late 1910s, moviemakers were reaping the artistic and box-office benefits of the early years of innovation and experimentation. Directors such as D.W. Griffith in the U.S., F.W. Murnau in Germany and Sergei Eisenstein in Russia were developing and perfecting film techniques that would become standard of the craft, and silent screen actors were blossoming into the first generation of Hollywood celebrities.
The earliest silent film footage in existence was documentary in nature, such as the brief clip of workers leaving the Lumiere Brothers' factory in France. By the 1910s, however, clear genres had emerged, including comedy, drama, romance and horror. D.W. Griffith's historical drama, "Birth of a Nation" (1915), with its elaborate spectacle and enormous cast, was just one of many notable moments in early cinema history.
Silent movie starlets typically appeared in one of two roles: the virgin or the vamp. Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish frequently were cast as the former type while flappers Clara Bow, Theda Bara and Louise Brooks, along with Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and Jean Harlow, were more often cast as the latter.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Gilbert Roland and Rudolph Valentino were just a few of the male heartthrobs of the silent era while Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and