This week in 1895 — 127 years ago — curiosity seekers filed into a store on lower Broadway in New York City to see two boxers — Albert Griffiths and Charles Burnett — do battle in the ring. The fight they were witnessing, however, had happened weeks before.
The images the audience watched were made of shadow and light — projected onto a screen by a machine called a Panoptikon. It was believed to be the first showing of a motion picture to a paying audience.
“There is considerable room for improvement and many drawbacks have yet to be overcome,” The Photographic Times wrote of the event.
Even so, the magazine continued, “the results obtained are most interesting and often startling. Quite a crowd of people visit the store at each performance, many making their exit wondering ‘how it’s done.’ ”
Thanks New York Times!