The early era of the film and the first movie star

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We are going to learn together about History of the Media here!

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Today is the day of film history.

Born, born and born In the 17th century, there were no options for film production programs in a formal education setting. In fact, during this time, a man by the name of Athanasius Kircher of Rome, Italy invented a primitive version of a “magic lantern,” which projected images from transparencies. It utilized a light source like a candle. Throughout the 1800s, several inventions were made that gave the illusion of motion including a zoopraxiscope, fantascope and a thaumatrope. In 1890, the mechanism that allows the film to advance and the perforated movie were created by Edison and Dickson. Dickson’s invention of a basic camera that was motor powered and could photograph motion picture was known as a kinetograph. Years before that Edison attempted to record onto a wax cylinder but was unsuccessful. It wasn’t until 1895 that the first public viewing of a film occurred. Still, film production programs and audio engineering school weren’t yet established. In December 1895, the Lumière brothers developed the first cinema and showed a film called “The Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat,” which happened in the Indien salon located in Paris, France. This first public demonstration used a projector known as a cinematographe. When the first cinema was created, film was about daily life regarding work and family. However, Georges Méliès later invented the first fiction films, although there still weren’t any film production programs. The 1900’s were a time of great advancement for film and motion picture technology. Exploration int editing, backdrops, and visual flow motivated aspiring filmmakers to push into new creative territory. One of the earliest and most famous movies created during this time was The Great Train Robbery, created in 1903 by Edwin S. Porter. Around 1905, “Nickelodeons”, or 5-cent movie theaters, began to offer an easy and  nexpensive way for the public to watch movies.  Nickelodeons helped the movie industry move into the 1920’s by increasing the public appeal of film and generate more money for filmmakers, alongside the widespread use of theaters to screen World War I propaganda. After World War I ended and ushered the United States into a cultural boom, a new industry center was on the rise: Hollywood, the home of motion pictures in America. According to industry myth, the first movie made in Hollywood was Cecil B. DeMille’s The Squaw Man in 1914 when its director decided last-minute to shoot in Los Angeles, but In Old California, an earlier film by DW Griffith, had been filmed entirely in the village of Hollywood in 1910. By 1919, “Hollywood” had transformed into the face of American cinema and all the glamour it would come to embody. The 1920’s were when the movie industry began to truly flourish, along with the birth of the “movie star”. With hundreds of movies being made each year, Hollywood was the rise of an American force. Hollywood alone was considered a cultural icon set apart from the rest of Los Angeles, emphasizing leisure, luxury, and a growing “party scene”. Hollywood was the birthplace of movie studios, which were of great importance to America’s public image in the movie industry. The earliest and most affluent film companies were Warner Brothers Pictures, Paramount, RKO, Metro Goldwin Meyer, and 20th Century Fox, each of whom owned their own film production sets and studios. Universal, United, and Columbia Pictures were also considered noteworthy, despite not owning their own theaters, while Disney, Monogram, and Republic were considered third-tier. This age also saw the rise of two coveted roles in the movie industry: the director and the star. Directors began to receive greater recognition for using and trademarking personal styles in the creation of their films, which previously in history had not been possible due to limitations in filmmaking technology. Additionally, movie stars began to receive greater fame and notoriety due to increases in publicity and shifts in American trends to value faces from the big screen. 

The first movie star Frorlence Lawrence

Florence was born Florence Bridgwood on 2 January, 1886, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She was destined to take to the stage, as her mother Charlotte Bridgwood was an actress with the Lawrence Dramatic Company - 'Baby Flo' was useful in plays even before she could talk. Charlotte's stage name was Lotta Lawrence, so her daughter became Florence Lawrence on her formal theatrical debut at the age of three. In 1906 Florence made her movie debut, gaining a small part in a one-reel film. She got her big break in 1907 when she secured the leading female role in the one-reel film Daniel Boone. In the Photoplay Magazine biography of her from November 1914, it indicates she was 17 when she won the part of Daniel Boone's daughter, so she appears to have deducted four years from her age to make her seem more suitable for the role. After completing Daniel Boone for the Edison Studio, she went to work for the Vitagraph Company, and appeared in several more one-reel films. She then moved to the Mutoscope and Biograph Company in 1908 to make more one-reel films. She married fellow actor Harry Solter in the same year. Her popularity with moviegoers increased even further when they saw her performances in Biograph films. The Company received hundreds of letters from fans wanting to know her name and details of her life, but Biograph didn't reveal it because early films didn't have credits at the beginning or end. This was partly because studios worried that if the actors were named and gained fame, they might demand more money to appear on film. However, even as an anonymous actress known as 'The Biograph Girl', Florence knew that she could make at least some demands because films with her in them did especially well at the box office. For a time, she was paid twice the standard salary, but then in 1910 the Company fired her. From there, she went to the Independent Moving Picture Company (IMP). IMP recognised the benefits for themselves to advertise their star, and so they published her name. IMP was an impish company indeed when they staged a publicity stunt involving Florence - an announcement in newspapers reported her death in a streetcar accident, and then IMP took out an advert in the magazine Moving Picture World entitled 'We Nail a Lie'. The advert blamed the false reports on their rival studios and confirmed that Miss Lawrence was alive and well (not to mention starring in IMP's next film). At the end of 1910, Florence moved to the Lubin Studio, where she worked with their star Arthur Johnson in several romantic comedy one-reel films. Together, they were 'a box office magnet'. In 1912, Florence moved again, and established her own film company, Victor. She was the star, on a salary of $500 per week, and Harry Solter was the director on $200 per week. They worked with Carl Laemmle, who had been the founder of IMP - his new venture Universal Film Manufacturing Company distributed their films. At the start of 1912, the Victor Company made a new one-reel film every week, but in August that year, Harry and Florence split up under the pressure of work, and Florence had a nervous breakdown. She spent some time on her farm in New Jersey, but when she recovered she was enticed back into films again after receiving thousands of items of fan mail. She returned to Victor and took on dramas and tragic tales in two-reel feature films to expand her repertoire beyond comedy. Florence also became involved with her mother's business ventures. Charlotte Ringwood patented a new design for a windscreen wiper in 1917. Florence invented a mechanical stop signal for drivers to use when they applied the brakes, and an 'auto-signalling arm' enabling drivers to indicate before making a turn. Strangely, neither of these inventions were patented even though her mother's invention was, so Florence did not make any money from them.In 1915, Florence had an accident during filming, which left her with a scar under her chin, and chronic pain. She filed for divorce in 1916. After that, Florence contemplated becoming a producer, and appeared in a few films, but was mostly unwell until 1921 when she tried to make a comeback. She had married salesman Charles Woodring in that year. She gained a few more roles in films, but not as much success as had been hoped, so the pair also set up Hollywood Cosmetics, a shop selling stage makeup and related products. She had cosmetic surgery on her nose in 1924 to try to improve her prospects as an actress, but even so, the advent of close-ups in films meant she was no longer first choice for lead roles. Her movie career ended as it had began, with her name not being attached to her performances - the final roles she played were uncredited minor parts. Florence divorced Charles in 1931 because 'He said I didn’t keep myself looking as pretty as I used to', and married Harry Bolton in 1933. Her third marriage lasted just five months before she was granted a divorce on the grounds of his violence towards her. Her health worsened in 1936 when she developed a bone marrow disease that caused anaemia. In 1938, she wrote a note saying that she was tired, and 'They can't cure me, so let it go at that'. She drank cough syrup mixed with ant poison and died on 28 December, 1938 - she was 52 years old.


It is surprising that the first movie star is a woman, isn't it??