And now, our feature film...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOVIES!
March 22, 1895 - Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière demonstrate movie film technology publicly for the first time.
Their presentation before the Société pour L'Encouragement à l'Industrie consisted of a short film they called La Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon (literally, "the exit from the Lumière factory in Lyon"; a.k.a. "Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory"). It lasted 46 seconds.
American Woodville Latham was not far behind. He demonstrated his Eidoloscope was demonstrated for members of the press on April 21, 1895. On May 4, he filmed the Griffo-Barnett boxing match from the roof of Madison Square Garden. Latham made the first commercial screening on May 20, when he showed this film to the paying public in a store located at 156 Broadway in New York City.
The Lumières did not give their first paid public screening until 28 December 1895, at then Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris. They screened 10 short films (each lasting 50 seconds or less).
