Making Movies When Silence Was Golden Quiz

Answer: Pittsburgh, PA

Actually, the first use of the term was in Boston at Austin's Nickelodeon, a "dime museum" - a small venue for lowbrow live entertainment. Harry Davis and John Harris used "nickel" with the Greek word for "enclosed theater" - odeon - and opened in Pittsburgh. Though not the first place to show films, it was the first place to offer films exclusively.

Answer: Shooting film

Sometimes called the "chronophotographic gun", it was made from the stock of a rifle, with the camera on top. The lens housing looked remarkably like the large barrel of a gun. The trigger operated the shutter; it looked much like a shotgun when it was in use. People initially expressed surprise when he would point it at birds to film: they expected to hear a shot. Marey often claimed to be the "inventor of cinema".

Answer: True

It seems that Charlie was born to be in film. Of his 82 films, he composed the music for 16 of them, produced 40, and wrote/directed more than 70. His first speaking part was in "The Great Dictator", released in 1940, 13 years after talkies hit the theaters.

Answer: Feature length

Originally, the "feature film" was the one that was advertised; this term separated it from the "shorts" - brief comedies, newsreels, animations - shown before the main film. As the feature films gradually became longer, it was decided that 40 minutes would be the minimum to be considered for an Academy Award.

Answer: The Widow Jones

"The Kiss" (also called "The May Irwin Kiss") was a lingering kiss from the musical "The Widow Jones" in 1895. While it became very popular, the 20-second film was the first to bring demands for censorship due to the "scandalous" scene.

Answer: True

The three main causes for lost films are: damage caused by slow degradation of the films (old age); devastating fires where films were stored; and intentional purging and subsequent destruction after talkies proved profitable. When a film is "lost", it is lost forever.

Answer: Florence Lawrence

Florence Lawrence got fired from Biograph (after being in nearly 60 pictures with them the previous year) for inquiring about work at other studios. Her new studio, IMP, started the rumor that she had been hit by a streetcar and killed; her many devotees were devastated at her young death.

The studio then began putting pictorial ads in major newspapers, contradicting their own lie and promoting her next film, "The Broken Oath". It was a huge success, and IMP gave her the first actor billing in the credits in order to get as many of her fans as possible into the theaters.

Answer: Piano or organ

Small town theaters had a pianist, who played the sheet music that came with the movie, or a player piano. Larger venues had a "theater organ", which not only provided music, but could mimic other instruments and create many sounds effects, such as whistles, horns, sirens, surf, even the clip-clop of horse's hooves. Good organists were, indeed, the first "sound engineers".

Answer: Color

Thomas Edison was projecting two-color films by 1895; it's estimated 80% had color in the 1920s. Color was added by toning, tinting, stenciling, and laborious hand coloring. The results were spectacular (and occasionally bizarre), but it was colorful!

Answer: Emil Jannings

In 1929, Emil Jannings, a Swiss-born German actor, won the first-ever Academy Award of Merit for his roles in "The Way of All Flesh" (1927) and "The Last Command" (1928). He later starred in several Nazi propaganda films and became unemployable as an actor.