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(Some Guy) Interesting Turns out Thomas Edison invented the horror movie as well. No wonder he had to create a light bulb   (joblo.com) divider line 23
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2168 clicks; posted to Entertainment » on 13 Mar 2010 at 10:38 AM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



23 Comments   (+0 »)
   

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Bathia_Mapes [TotalFark]
2010-03-13 04:49:43 AM
Wow! I didn't realize there were any existing copies.
 
Shadowknight
2010-03-13 10:46:51 AM
He didn't create the lightbulb. He didn't create nearly anything he took credit for. The man was less an inventor so much as a brilliant marketer and manipulator.

History is so screwed up when someone like him is remembered so fondly when in reality, he was one of the biggest dicks to ever exist as a public figure.

Even still, I get the joke. Good on ya, Subby.
 
notmtwain [TotalFark]
2010-03-13 10:50:24 AM
Edison was the greatest inventor of all time but he didn't invent the horror film.

The very first horror movie was 1896's "Le Manoir Du Diable" (The Devil's Castle), its running time barely three minutes, and made by and starring Georges Melies. Looking at it many years later it seems primitive and crude, but it also displays an imaginative exuberance and joy that makes it one of film history's little treasures.

Edison Studios produced the first film version of Frankenstein; thought lost for many years.

Finally, the light bulb was made practical 30 years before Edison's film.

The horror, the horror.
 
Earguy [TotalFark]
2010-03-13 10:55:41 AM
The article presents an interesting concept, but horrible writing.

Not to mention the photo below it that probably is probably beyond most people's NSFW threshold, especially if they're really at work.
 
Brown Sauce
2010-03-13 10:57:26 AM
Earguy: The article presents an interesting concept, but horrible writing.

So you don't like being told to "Just keep reading for the skinny!"?
 
Earguy [TotalFark]
2010-03-13 10:58:52 AM
Brown Sauce: Earguy: The article presents an interesting concept, but horrible writing.

So you don't like being told to "Just keep reading for the skinny!"?

Great, you just invented the next headline meme. Damn you!
 
JasonOfOrillia
2010-03-13 11:04:55 AM
It was something new. That surprised me. I assumed it would the electrocuted elephant (new window) all over again.

/Poor Topsy
 
1derful
2010-03-13 11:15:56 AM
Bathia_Mapes: Wow! I didn't realize there were any existing copies.

There are many copies.
 
LewDux
2010-03-13 11:17:08 AM
Shadowknight: He didn't create the lightbulb. He didn't create nearly anything he took credit for. The man was less an inventor so much as a brilliant marketer and manipulator.

He can't here you over his central heating.
 
LewDux
2010-03-13 11:22:59 AM
LewDux: He can't here there you over his central heating.
Sorry, pet peave
 
Znuh
2010-03-13 11:24:26 AM
How many lights were there?
 
Lampmonster
2010-03-13 11:27:05 AM
Znuh: How many lights were there?

THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!

This gives me an idea for a Romantic comedy.

Coming this summer, Thomas Edison may have stolen all his patents, but now he'll have to steal..... her heart.
Cue sappy music and a quirky modern actress in period costume.....
 
SignificantPie
2010-03-13 11:51:21 AM
"No wonder he had to create a light bulb"

www.electronicsandyou.com
 
brantgoose [TotalFark]
2010-03-13 12:35:21 PM
I've seen that movie. It's on Google Videos. I expect they have re-mastered it if it is coming out on DVD. Some of the prints are extremely poor quality, seeing as it was released in 1910.

Just Google Video it: http://video.google.com/

The French were pioneers in moving making art and they racked up quite an impressive series of early productions and techniques. The French seem to have a history of gaining substantial head starts and then falling behind.

I remember Minitel, for example, from the mid-80s. The French phone company (-ies) replaced their telephone books in EVERY home with a terminal not unlike a small monochrome 80s Apple. You could dial up services, free and commercial, using a code like you now use on a cellphone. There were bulletin boards--it was like a wee Internet. It was fricking cool and there was nothing like it in North America for another ten years.

Then ARPANET metastasized into Skynet and the French technology ended up looking as quaint as Sarah O'Connor's chances of taking a perfumed bath in peace and quiet while the kid plays with his video games.
 
ParadisePornoTheater
2010-03-13 12:41:19 PM
I've already been able to see it on YouTube, but I'm glad it's being made available on disc.

Lampmonster's post made me LOL, then remember a costar from the 1910 version. Mary Fuller had a bright future in films until she got involved with a married man (no, not Mr. Edison himself). She then disappeared from the public eye by 1920 after suffering a nervous breakdown.

Even the date of her death wasn't found out 'til recently - she passed in 1973 after spending 25 years in a mental institution.

I could also go on about how Thomas Edison's in a hall of fame for lousy dads, but I'll move on now ...
 
schattenteufel
2010-03-13 01:22:37 PM
Edison was a hack. He didn't invent shiat. He stole other people's ideas (mostly immigrants) and called them his own.
 
hugheric
2010-03-13 01:31:23 PM
"Homer, you set it to hoar"
 
felixecho
2010-03-13 02:31:56 PM
I watched it. The monster creation scene was actually pretty cool. All the flesh building up on the skeleton kind of rocked. The finished monster was suitably scary looking. Nice work, especially considering how much we have to compare it to today.

The rest of it was hard for me to pay attention to. I'm just not used to the silent acting style, except when it comes to Charlie Chaplin movies. Very over-dramatic, but it had to be. It isn't like they could just say what they were thinking. They had to show it.

The book would be an interesting read. I will check it out eventually.
 
Dr.Zom
2010-03-13 03:01:31 PM
It's been on youtube before and it's actually pretty good. I wish they'd find The Vampire (1913), Britain's first feature length film, or The Werewolf (also 1913) the first werewolf movie ever made.

Also, London After Midnight.

Has anybody seen The Magician?^ based on Maugham's book and with a thinly disguised Aleister Crowley?
 
Dwight_Yeast
2010-03-13 03:15:55 PM
Shadowknight: He didn't create the lightbulb. He didn't create nearly anything he took credit for. The man was less an inventor so much as a brilliant marketer and manipulator.

To give credit where it's due, he perfected a number of inventions in ways that made them practical. The tungsten light bulb filament, the cylinder phonograph, the sprocketed film camera/projector and all his refinements to the telegraph are examples of this.

Yes he was a master of marketing but he was also a master of taking novel concepts and turning them into something workable.

I've seen a bunch of the early Edison studio movies and they're generally quite crude (which is to be expected). I'll have to check this one out.
 
exile
2010-03-13 04:48:37 PM
1derful: Bathia_Mapes: Wow! I didn't realize there were any existing copies.

There are many copies.

They look - and feel - human.
 
ParadisePornoTheater
2010-03-13 05:16:48 PM
Dr.Zom: It's been on youtube before and it's actually pretty good. I wish they'd find The Vampire (1913), Britain's first feature length film, or The Werewolf (also 1913) the first werewolf movie ever made.

Also, London After Midnight.

Has anybody seen The Magician?^ based on Maugham's book and with a thinly disguised Aleister Crowley?

Yeah, LAM is still lost as I type this. The stills with Lon Chaney Sr. are powerful enough to keep me hoping it'll be found.
 
Evi1Bo1weevi1
2010-03-13 05:50:11 PM
All this with no mention of how Edison inadvertently created Hollywood? Albeit, created it by sending gangs of bat wielding gentleman to bust the kneecaps and equipment of anyone who even THOUGHT of making a movie without using his equipment in his Black Dahlia studio.

/Edison was a gansta.
 
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