History File: What Astonished Filmgoers in the 1800s
Speaking of astonishing footage: In the late 1800s, an entrepreneur in Iowa named W. Frank Brinton became a movie mogul of sorts by traveling from town to town showing films that blew peoples' minds.
By today’s standards, the short films seem extremely simple—one, for instance, shows only a rushing river—but …
Read the whole story at Slate.