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The very first American film shown to public audiences and the press. It depicts William K.L. Dickson taking off his hat and greeting the audience.The very first American film shown to public audiences and the press. It depicts William K.L. Dickson taking off his hat and greeting the audience.The very first American film shown to public audiences and the press. It depicts William K.L. Dickson taking off his hat and greeting the audience.
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Did you know
- TriviaAlthough this is often incorrectly credited as the first film made in the USA, it was, in fact the second. Dickson's Monkeyshines No. 1, seems to actually be the first American film, though it was not shown to the public upon completion. This was, however, the very first American (and Edison) film shown to public audiences and the press.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Edison: The Invention of the Movies (2005)
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Improving the Kinetograph
After the previous year of filmmaking for the Edison company, in which they had innovated the Kinetograph and used to shoot the first movies in America (that is, the first attempted ones), the famous producer Thomas Alva Edison finally proved himself successful at improving the quality of the picture in order to produce a much clearer film. Continuing to experiment in 1891, his camera tests were now much more viewable, and with much smoother movement. While I would disagree that this film "Dickson Greeting" was really the first commercially exhibited film (since when he showed it to the women's convention, it was merely a private showing and was not publicly shown) it does show how Edison continued to explore filmed movement with his camera. In the same year, he would also record more moving subjects with the camera, and even create a comical variation on "Men Boxing" (in "Monkey and Another, Boxing").
"Dickson Greeting", like all the earliest Edison movies, was filmed what I suppose is the inventor's laboratory and shows a medium closeup of the great man W. K. L. Dickson himself, Edison's right-hand man, greeting the audience with a gesture of his hat. (Why his eyes are closed, I have no idea). Because of how early it was in the filmmaking industry, I think it's also safe to say that this is the first instance in motion pictures to have an actor break the wall (although in the Monkeyshines shorts the factory worker posing could have been looking at the camera and we'd have no way of knowing). As Dickson moves his hat and greets the audience, he thus involves the audience in the action, a concept later to be explored by Cecil Hepworth and James Williamson.
Edison would later experiment with various other subjects on film: a certain James C. Duncan smoking before the camera, a Newark athlete swinging Indian clubs, etc. For now, however, he was merely trying to find good subjects that moved to test the boundaries of his camera and would have to experiment a couple more years before introducing his invention to the general public.
"Dickson Greeting", like all the earliest Edison movies, was filmed what I suppose is the inventor's laboratory and shows a medium closeup of the great man W. K. L. Dickson himself, Edison's right-hand man, greeting the audience with a gesture of his hat. (Why his eyes are closed, I have no idea). Because of how early it was in the filmmaking industry, I think it's also safe to say that this is the first instance in motion pictures to have an actor break the wall (although in the Monkeyshines shorts the factory worker posing could have been looking at the camera and we'd have no way of knowing). As Dickson moves his hat and greets the audience, he thus involves the audience in the action, a concept later to be explored by Cecil Hepworth and James Williamson.
Edison would later experiment with various other subjects on film: a certain James C. Duncan smoking before the camera, a Newark athlete swinging Indian clubs, etc. For now, however, he was merely trying to find good subjects that moved to test the boundaries of his camera and would have to experiment a couple more years before introducing his invention to the general public.
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- Tornado_Sam
- Jun 19, 2017
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- Runtime1 minute
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