January 7, 1894: William Kennedy Dickson (1860-1935) receives a patent for motion picture film. Dickson worked for Thomas Edison at the Black Maria studio in West Orange, Essex County, New Jersey.
There had been motion pictures, however brief, before this, dating back to 1888 and Roundhay Garden Scene. But the Black Maria became the birthplace of "movies" as we know them, and is probably the reason motion picture production companies became known as "studios."
You're about to see the first musician, the first dancers (both in this 17-second clip, synchronized with an Edison phonograph recording, technically making this the first sound film), the first athletes (sort-of, guys pretending to box), the first gunfire (Wild West star Annie Oakley demonstrating trick shots), and the first kiss (and thus the first love scene) ever caught on film.
Regarding that kiss: Contemporary records show that there was not a great outcry from America’s self-appointed moral arbiters over it.
On the same day, at the Black Maria, another Edison assistant, Fred Ott, puts a pinch of snuff in his nose, causing him to sneeze. Dickson films this. In a way, this makes Ott (1860-1936) the 1st movie actor – if not the 1st "movie star." It could also make Ott the inventor of "special effects."
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January 7, 1894 was a Sunday. There were no scores on this historic day: Baseball and football were out of season, hockey was all-amateur, and basketball had only been invented 2 years earlier.
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