It Happened on July 31: Chris, Marq and Tommy

From the July 31, 2020, Chicago Tribune "On July 31..."

**  1498--  Christopher Columbus reached the island of Trinidad on his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere.  (Especially interesting in these days of rage when his statues are being attacked and removed.  He made a huge impact on world history regardless of where you stand on him.)

**  1777--  The Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was given the rank of major general in the American Continental Army.   That is very, very young.  But, without him and France, I don't think the colonies would have achieved their independence, and then all the leaders would have been branded as traitors and all sorts of bad things might have happened to them.)

**  1877--  Thomas Edison took out a patent leading to the development of the phonograph.  (And that development sure had a huge impact on my life.

--Cooter

Waukegan in the Early Movie Industry-- Part 3: "Fake News" Back Then?

Edward Ahmet also filmed the William McKinley presidential inauguration and he wanted to film some of the Spanish-American War but could not get permission so he created his own Spanish-American War using model ships in his backyard in Waukegan.  (The first special effects?)

In these days of "Fake News," you might say Amet had the first one.

The Bess Dunn Museum, which is the Lake County History Museum, has one of the model ships, which were quite realistic-looking and even had puffs of smoke in the movie.

The magniscope was a success and was sold to several high profile theaters, however, Amet concentrated on inventing and never got a patent for his invention.  Thomas Edison even went so far as to sue Amet but when Amer didn't contest it, Edison dropped the suit.

Amet went on to shoot more films with George Kirke Spoor and made a series of war films, shooting footage from staged military camps and using miniatures in the bathtub for staged naval battles.

--Cooter

Waukegan In the Early Movie Industry-- Part 2: Of Phonographs and Early Films

This is from the November 16, 2019, presentation for the Fox Lake/Grant Township Historical Society at the museum on Washington Street in Ingleside, Illinois.

This is taken from my notes and Wikipedia.  When they turned off the lights in the hall, boy was it ever dark, plus, I was holding the notepad (no desk) plus my handwriting is not the best in the world.  So there were more than a few things I couldn't read.

Two men, Edward H. Amet and George Kirke Spoor had a lot to do with the movie industry in Waukegan.

Edward Hill Amet (Nov.10, 1860 to August 16, 1948), an electric engineer and inventor, was born in Philadelphia, and worked for a time with Thomas Edison.  In 1891, he developed the first spring motor for phonographs and his Echophone was the first cylinder phonograph to have a distinct tone arm.

In 1894, he was living in Waukegan, Illinois, where he teamed up with George Kirke Spoor, a theater manager, and they financed and developed a new projector they called a magniscope.  Their first film was of two young women boxing each other for ten minutes, calling it "Young Ladies in a Boxing Exhibition."

--CootBoxer

Waukegan and the Motion Picture Industry-- Part 1: Edison, Dickson and the Beginning of the Motion Picture Industry

The Fox Lake / Grant Township Historical Society then had our presentation, which today was on Waukegan and its role in the early motion picture industry.    Our presenter was Ty Rohrer of the Waukegan History Museum.

Had things worked out differently, who knows, maybe Lake County and Waukegan might have become "Hollywood" instead of out in California.

When people think of Waukegan and movies, they think of Jack Benny and the Famous Genesee Theater.  But, there is a whole lot more to the story.

Thomas Edison is given credit for the invention of the movie camera, but it was actually William Kennedy Dickson, in Edison's employ, who was the major force in its development.  He invented the kinetoscope.  Part of the reason for this was to see if all four of a horses' hooves came off the ground at the same time while in a gallop.

The kinetoscope was essentially a peep machine in which one person at a time could view it. But, that made it hard to make money with just at a time viewing it. It had to become larger.

--Cooter

Looking Back, DeKalb County, Il., 100 Years Ago: Mighty Excited About Those "Talkies"

OCTOBER 22, 1913:

MOVING PICTURE TALKIES

"It is certain that the invention of Thomas A. Edison of the talking pictures would be pronounced one of the seven wonders of the world.  The wizard's latest and generally-conceded most wonderful invention, the Talking Moving Picture, will be exhibited in a special program at Townsend Theater in Sycamore on Friday.

"Not the usual moving pictures; the laughing, talking, singing motion pictures make the pictured actors appear real."

DISEASE

The state board of education has ordered an investigation at Rockford to trace the cause of the epidemic of typhoid fever there.

Diphtheria still prevails at DeKalb.  Eight homes were under quarantine early this week, and one was released from quarantine.

MINE DISASTER

Fourteen bodies have been removed and 22 men found alive by rescuers working the Satg Canyon coal mine in New Mexico, where an explosion entombed the day shift, numbering from 230 to 280 men.

--Cooter