Matinees On Main Street: A Movie History Podcast

In 1907 and 1908, the movies became a part of our lives, and with it came issues.

In 1904, the movies were a novelty. By 1907, the movies had become a national obsession. It time to look at the bigger picture as it concerns the big change.

When the first movie companies started to make studios, and then hiring technicians to work in them, it was also time to start hiring actors.

By 1907, every company in the movie machine business was now focused on making movies, and that required cameramen, camerawomen, and directors. This episode takes a look at who they were.

The movie business really started to take off around 1907, and as it did, the first movie companies started building studios.

A look at the movies from the middle of the first decade of the Twentieth Century, from Parsifal to The Moon Lover to The Little Girl Who Didn't Believe In Santa Claus.

New York was not the only city to develop a film industry at the beginning ofthe twentieth century. Chicago also developed a strong film industry that not only made films, it distributed them. Was Chicago going to be the new leader in film making?

The murder of architect Stanford White by millionaire Harry Thaw was a scandal that made national news. And, in the end, the movies attemptedto cash in on the crime's notoriety.

The very early history of Australian cinema is told through the success of the legendary movie THE STORY OF THE NED KELLY GANG. The movie's success also allowed a group of men to create an entertainment monopoly down under, a monopoly that suffocated film making for a time.

After an earthquake hit San Francisco in April of 1906, a series of short documentary movies were released that drew a lot of attention to the movies just as their were becoming a rage among the public.

While America and France were both aggressively marketing movies, England's efforts seemed rather anemic with Cecil Hepworth proving to be more ambitious than the rest.

By around 1906 or so, an invisible network of movie exhibition existed which has not been well researched up to this time. We'll try to take a look at this places if we can.

As America's film market rapidly grows, the movie makers ignore the expanding market, and dawdle in making movies.  French Pathé, hoping to conquer the American market, rushes in to fill the void.

Looking at the legend of Harry DAvid's Nickelodeon theater on Pittsburgh, as it would soon be considered America's first movie house.

America discovered amusements after the Chicago World's Fair and Coney, and thanks to that, George Hale devised a amusement ride that involved stationary train cars and travel movies.

Once the price for buying movies increased, the film exchanges became a very important reason why the movie market continued to expand.

Chase movies become a genre in themselves thanks to the success of the movie Personal.

William Selig was one of Chicago's major filmmakers and he now enters into the story of the movies.

This episode is about America's first great movie, as we look at the events that led to it, the paly it was based on, how the movie was made, and the influence it had at that time.

Edison's legal threats to the rest of the movie companies of the time put the entire industry into chaos.  Its at this time that PAthé decided top market films in America, which in some ways made things worse.  But, isn't that the way it ususally is with the film industry?

Charles Pathé starts a phonograph and movie company with his brothers. With the help of Incorporation, Pathé Freres becomes a powerful company in Europe, and then invades the American market, leaving the Edison Company to try adn figure out how to deal with this laterst competitor.

At the beginning of the 20th century, simple comedies, many of them inspired by other sources, became a popular movie trend. On this episode, we'll take a look at some of them.

George Méliès released A TRIP TO THE MOON (Le Voyage dans La Lune), so lets take a look at the movie and it's history.