The very early projected movies, like this simple film of a train moving through the Rocky Mountains, often showed audiences things they had read or heard about but never seen. Film producers called them "actualities." These clips had a surprisingly powerful effect on audiences because moving images were so novel. When shown images of a train rushing towards the camera, for example, moviegoers jumped out of the way. No doubt audiences felt slightly uneasy as the camera neared the edge of the cliff.
"Actualities" showed real events,
like street scenes or speeches. The frequently presented news footage--things
like the sunken battleship Maine or scenes from the Spanish American
War, as advertised in this 1898 poster. They look unremarkable to us,
but for turn of the century audiences they brought distant times and spaces
together in new ways. Now movie audiences could see places thousands of
miles away. In the first era of the projected motion pictures (roughly
1897-1905) most films were either documentaries or "actualities." You
can see many examples of these at the American
Memory web site.
But not all the movies focus on "actualities." Many of the early films showed a more playful side of popular culture. Step inside to see some.
