Meanwhile in France...

Auguste and Louis LumiereAntoine Lumière (1840-1911) was a photographer in Besançon France. In 1870 he moved to Lyon and began mass producing glass photographic plates.

Operations of the factory were taken over by his sons, Auguste Lumière (1862-1954) and Louis Lumière (1864-1948) in 1893. By that time the factory was producing 15 million plates a year.

In 1894, Antoine saw the kinetoscope in Paris, and came away believing that his sons could do much better. They would produce a projector. On Dec. 28, 1895, they rented a prestigious location near the Paris Opera and showed the first projected films.

Next: the_box

Clapper SymbolThe first movie show happened on 12-28-1895 at the Salon Indien du Grand Cafe, a fancy room in the basement of a very fashonable cafe on Boulevard des Capuchines, around the corner from the Paris Opera. The show consisted of about ten short films (each under a minute). Most of these films still exist. You can see the first, workers leaving the Lumiere factory, here. Note that the film shows that many of the Lumieres' workers were women. The second film was the called l'arroseur arrose, or the waterer watered. It's a 45 second comedy. You can see it here. The Lumieres made money on admission but also, like some current theaters, profited from food and drink sales during the show.