In 1867 a patent was taken out by William Lincoln. He named it the "wheel of life" or "zoopraxiscope." With his "invention" moving photographs were watched through a slit. This can be compared to flipping the pages of a little tablet of paper after drawing your characters on it. As you "flip" through the pages, your characters appear to be "moving pictures."

Then in 1895 Louis Lumiere invented a three in one unit and named it the "Cinematographe." The portable "camera" took the pictures, processed the film and then projected the film onto a "screen" where people could view it. His name is noted but actually several others made early versions of the motion picture camera.

Naturally this Cinematographe was a huge success. The motion pictures it showed were said to begin the "motion picture industry." But in actuality Lumiere and his brother followed the Edison company. Their "Kinetoscope" was invented in 1891. At first it could only show the "pictures" to one person at a time but eventually went commercial with it. This projector was named the "Vitascope" and was very successful in the US.

With the year 1910 came the advent of "talkies." The development into successful commercial use took until 1929 when the use of motion picture loudspeakers brought about a huge evolution in entertainment. All films (from Eadweard Muybridge's motion-sequence still photography) to the time of motion pictures with sound there were dramatic changes. Audiences had become accustomed to having a piano player up on stage playing music as the "silent films" were shown.

As for film itself the size, which is 35 mm, has remained the same. In 1889 transparent roll film was perfected and sold by Eastman which in turn led to the development of Thomas Edison's motion picture camera. This was in 1891. The next major improvement was in 1904 when Auguste and Louis Lumiere who were brothers, patented a color process. This was of course, the infancy of the technicolor motion picture industry and many movies continued to be made in black and white.

In 1983 a "colorization process" was invented by Wilson Markle and Brian Hunt, two Canadian citizens. There was a huge controversy later on about "colorizing" the old films or leaving them in black and white as they "were originally intended to be." Of course, modernization won out. Some consider the colorization to be abominable but many think it is wonderful.

In 1929 when the first "talkie" astonished the entertainment world, many movie stars careers were abruptly halted. The male actors with squeaky or too high voices were doomed. The women better not have low, manly voices or out they go also. Some of the most popular actresses who spoke with poor grammar or heavy accents deemed to be unpleasant faded off into obscurity. One prime xample was the Polish actress, Pola Negri. Clara Bow and Gilbert Roland also had their careers cut short due to the quality of their speech.

The transition into sound (which became immediately popular) was filled with problems to be solved and very expensive equipment to be purchased. Camera movement was restricted. Movement of the actors was impeded by having to adapt to the location of the microphones. The sound of the cameras was being picked up on the soundtrack. As a result many of the earliest talkies were lacking in quality of acting and movement on the set. Innovations and adjustments were rapidly made and silent films were out and "talkies" were in. It took very little time to adjust to what the paying audiences demanded. By 1930 the silent films were largely obsolete. The voice of the actor was then as important as their appearance.

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