History of Cinema

In December 1895 the Lumiere brothers projected the first film onto a screen for a paying audience and
cinema was born. That simple, silent show took place in a hotel basement in California. Most early films
were shown at music halls or fairgrounds. In 1905 the first ‘nickelodeon’ opened in Pittsburgh in the USA.
This was a cinema which charged a nickel (5 cents) for admission. Within three years there were 5000
‘nickelodeons’ throughout America. Going to the movies soon became a popular pastime around the world.
With their richly designed interior, cinemas gave audiences a chance to observe the luxurious lives of the
characters on the screen. But not all cinemas were glamorous. Small movie theatres in local neighbourhoods
were often cramped and dirty. In many countries, travelling projectionists toured the countryside showing
films on transportable screens in village halls or even outdoors.
Talking pictures arrived in 1927, and films became more popular than ever. Millions of people went to the
movies during the 1930s, often several times a week. Along with the main feature film, audiences could see
a cartoon or a documentary about interesting people, places or wildlife. Before there was news on
television, the news of the week was presented in film ‘newsreels’. During World War Two, people saw the
latest battles on newsreels at their local cinemas. After the war people stopped going to the cinema so
regularly. Cinema’s biggest rival was television. In order to attract more audience, film-makers began to use
expensive technology which TV could not compete with. A growing number of films were made in
technicolour and stereophonic sound was used. Wide-screen films set in ancient or biblical times, with huge
number of actors and expensive sets and costumes, were popular throughout the 1950s. People could even
watch films from inside their cars at huge outdoor ‘drive-in’ cinemas. Films shot in 3-D were less
successful, as audiences disliked wearing special glasses.
In spite of the new technology, in the 1960s attendances continued to drop. Thousands of cinemas
throughout the world were forced to close. Some of the bigger theatres were divided up into a number of
smaller cinemas. In the mid-1970s, big budget blockbusters, packed with fast-moving action and special
effects, began to attract a new generation of young film-goers. When these movies were released on video
cassettes, people had the chance to own their favourite films for the first time. The invention of digital
video has made it possible to store moving images on compact disks. When the films are played on special
CD ROM and DVD systems, viewers can not only watch the action on the screen, but also interact with it.
Soon it will be possible to change the story lines of films and even act in them yourself!