The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907

Advisory Board......Page 8
Contents......Page 11
General Preface......Page 12
Acknowledgments......Page 15
Introduction......Page 19
PART 1. Before Cinema......Page 30
Toward a History of Screen Practice......Page 32
Thomas Edison and the Amusement World......Page 72
Projecting Motion Pictures: Invention and Innovation......Page 107
PART 2. The Novelty of Cinema:1896-1897......Page 122
The Vitascope......Page 123
Early Motion-Picture Companies......Page 147
The Proliferation of Motion-Picture Companies and an Assessment of the Novelty Year......Page 173
PART 3. The Exhibitor Plays a Creative Role:1897-1900......Page 204
Full-Length Programs: Fights, Passion Plays,and Travel......Page 205
Commercial Warfare and the Spanish-American War: 1897-1898......Page 237
The Film Industry Achieves Modest Stability: 1898-1901......Page 275
PART 4. The Production Company Assumes Creative Dominance:1900-1905......Page 306
A Period of Commercial Crisis: 1900-1903......Page 308
The Transition to Story Films: 1903-1904......Page 348
Cinema Flourishes Within Its Existing Commercial Framework:1904-1905......Page 381
PART 5. The Beginnings of the Nickelodeon Era:1905-1907......Page 424
Nickels Count: Storefront Theaters,1905-1907......Page 426
Production as the Nickelodeon Era Begins:1905-1907......Page 458
Concluding Remarks......Page 499
List of Abbreviations......Page 504
Notes......Page 506
Bibliography......Page 535