Which was the first film shown commercially?
The first COMMERCIAL PRESENTATION OF FLIMS took place at Holland Bros’ Kinetoscope Parlor, 1155 Broadway, New York, which opened for business on :4 April 1894. The Kinetoscopes were arranged in two rows of five, and for 25c viewers were allowed to watch five films—to see all the films they had to pay double entrance money. The sum of $120 was taken the first day, which suggests that this first `cinema audience’ totalled nearly 500. The films, made in the Edison `Black Maria’ at West Orange were entitled: Sandow, Bertholdi (mouth support), Horse Shoeing, Bertholdi (table contortion), Barber Shop, Blacksmiths, Cock Fight, Highland Dance, Wrestling, Trapeze.
The Edison Co, had commenced the making of films for commercial exhibition the previous month, and was thus the first film production company in the world. The earliest subject that can be positively dated is the Sandow film, which, according to Gordon Hendricks, was made on 7 March 1984. Eugene Sandow was a professional strongman and may have been the first stage performer to appear before the film camera. Other celebrities who made films for Edison during 1894 were Annie Oakley, later to be immortalized by the musical based on her life, Annie Get Your Gun, and the lagendary Buffalo Bill. The first English artists to make their film debut were two of George Edwardes’s Gaiety Girls, Miss Murray and Miss Lucas, who were then appearing in a show at Daly’s in New York, and consented to come out to West Orange to dance the Pas Seul before the camera.
The first catalogue of Edison films, issued by distributors Raff & Gammon at the end of 1894, listed 52 titles, at prices ranging from $10 for a Marvelous Lady Contortionist, to $100 for a five-round prize. fight shown in full.
