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Some of the FASCINATING history and evolution of the gradual development of the movies.........
THE VICTORIAN BIG SCREEN EXTRAVAGANZAS THAT LED TO THE MOVIES............
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A VICTORIAN MAGIC LANTERN SHOW *(tame by others standards-see below)
The Magic Lantern was invented first in the 1650's and soon became a showman's instrument. By the end of the 17th century, wandering lanternists were putting on small scale shows in inns and castles, using only a feeble candle in their lantern - often, these shows were of devils and goblins, hence the word, 'magic' lantern..........A showman would travel with the lantern and slides on his back. In it's heyday - the end of the 19th century - Magic Lanterns were everywhere, in homes, churches, schools, halls and theatres and came in all shapes and sizes - from the small 'toy' for children and the huge brass and mahogany, double lens machines, lit with limelight, for large buildings. Limelight was made when oxygen and hydrogen was squirted onto a piece of limestone - which instantly irradesced when the gas were lit, producing a light as powerful as a modern movie projector (hence the theatrical turn 'limelight'!) Slides, often coloured or animated or with exotic special effects, would change every 30 seconds or so, illustrating stories and songs, as the movies did later. As the slides were projected in a theatrical magic lantern, a live showman and a musician would provide the "soundtrack" - and the audience joined in creating sound effects, playing horns and tambourines, clapping, booing, jeering and and cheering just as in the melodramatic theatre of the day - espcially the pantomimes. THIS WAS THE WORLD STAN WAS BROUGHT UP IN!.
One of the best known shows were the horror shows - the "Phantasmagoria", forerunner of the Halloween shows - and our own horror films. Preferably held in an old church, or convent, it was a cross between the theatre and a House of Horrors - dark passages and mysterious pictures, skeletons led the frightened audience to a catacomb draped in black velvet - and lit - by a single lamp..........Suddenly - the lamp went out! Thunder roared and lightning flashed.church bells doled and the thunder and lightning increased.....a tiny figure - half-human, half-demon would appear in the air, shimmering and ghostly........it would approach, growing larger and larger - until it suddenly disappeared with a wail! Bats fluttered on the walls, ghosts and goblins groaned and skeletons would come hurlting through the audiences.........(cor-bloody hell!) Women fainted - men hid their eyes...
This was achieved by several magic lanterns and six assistants by Robertson (a Belgian called E'tienne Gaspard Robert) who made the images change size with sone lanterns fitted with special self-focusing lenses and mounted on large, wheeled platforms. These lanterns could move backwards from the screen, making the images grow larger and as though they were going 'through' the audiences. Some images were projected on smoke, making them swirl, magically.......Some were projected with hand-held lanterns making bats hover in the corners of the rooms - and swoop on to the ladies' hairdos.......This fantastic idea was, of course, copied all over the world - his first show (the 'Fantasmagorie') being held in Paris - and only four years later were very popular even into the United States. Fifty years later, these shows were still going strong (I hope Robertson took out a patent!)
A Philadelphian, Joseph Boggs Beale (now - HE should have changed his name!) saw one as a child durign the 1850's and leter would become the States's leading Magic Lantern artist.
Some shows would transmogriphy beauty into beast - and some had moving caricatures - the first cartoons, eg: "The Ratcatcher" - the most popular:
A man lay asleep in bed, his jaw moving up and down as he snored loudly (audience doing the effects).suddenly, a rat makes a dash for his mouth - mistaking his timing! - and was swallowed in a gulp! The audience created the snoring sounds, the squeak of the rat, the gulp, the gasp, the sputter - and the roar!
In the 19th century, these lantern shows tended to be on variety bills - mainly because few individual lanternists could afford to buy - or carry - all the equipment (see photo). Beale in the 1850's was esepcially fond of the Halloween and Christmas shows (eg "The Night Before Christmas" or "The Little Match Girl" or Dickens' "Christmas Carol") - particularly a format one which made full use of the limelight 'stereopticon ' (double-lantern) technology and the newly developed process of treansferring photographic images onto glass slides. Beales' repetoire and slides became the most popular in the country, and were reproduced by the millions for home and professional use (Hope HE took out a patent!)
But, all good things must come to an end - in 1905 a successful movie came out "The Great Train Robbery" and inexpensive "nickleodeon" theatres, the magic lantern shows declined, relegated to single acts in vaudeville, educational uses - or to illustrating the songs between the reels change at movies. The child had killed the father...although there are still some groups that regularly hold shows. "At a time when people are reaching back into the past in order to find meaning for the present, the spirit of the magic lantern show lives again and meets a modern need - and it lives again" I couldn't have put it better myself.....about Stan (and Ollie's) story(ies). (I quite fancy being at a Phantasmagoria...........!
From "Cinema and Magic Lantern History (Google) |
Fred Karno (on left) - "The Man That Had it All - And Lost It!" Fred offers Stan his first chance post apprenticeship of a real job, with his "Mumming Birds" (an act within an act) in London, as understudy for Charlie Chaplin. Mean in business - and brutal to his wife - (they had eight children and lost five and he used to leave his heel marks on his wif'e skin where he kicked her and parade his mistresses in front of her when famous). Yet Stan finds him " a short and quiet voiced man". He loses all his empire in the 1930's seeking employment in Hollywood. Chaplin kept him sweet (took him to dinner with VIPs) but did nothing for him. Stan persuaded Hal Roach to employ him - but Fred couldn't make it and was out in amatter of months. This picture is on the set of "Night Owls" - even James Parrott doesn't seem impressed by Karno!.
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The young Chaplin - handsome, with a "butter wouldn't melt in my mouth" look. The 'star' of Fred Karno's no. 2 troupe when they travelled to America (see pic. photo. page 1) - despite Karno declaring "My SHOW is the star - not any one comedian!" Fred had a "plenty more where you came from attitude" and poor old Stan only got a week as the star in a Karno farce "Jimmy The Fearless" when Chaplin couldn't get to grips with the part and Karno picks Stan out of the chrous. Stan not only acts but directs the show for a week in Ealing and Willesden - but Charlie, seeing Stan doing, gets it back, copying much of what Stan does.....Charlie was ambititous, aggressive and altogether sometimes, a not very nice man! Unlike Stan.........Chaplin got snapped up by Mack Sennett and proved that an actor CAN be the star, no the show!
Stan and Charlie shared digs, poverty, Harridan Landlies, good and bad times together for nearly ten years. both in England and the USA. Chaplin - first famous at Mack Sennett's and as "The Little Tramp" even offered Stan the chance to take an autonomous studio under Chaplin's umbrella corporation studios - a chance where Charlie let Stan down badly! History might have been so much different..........Stan wrote letters to Chaplin, which he never answered. A very different kettle of fish - Chaplin was not very well liked - much less loved - backstage (often in fights in the Karno days) unlike Stan who was always liked....even when he did not nice things to his friends, most of his friendships were to last a lifetime...........Shame Stan didn't follow that pattern when it came to his wives! |
A photograph of the Karno Karnival leaving Camberwell for a tour of London and the Home Counties
This gives you an idea how massive - and popular - the Karno Troupes were. They often had three or four (sometimes five) troupes on at the same time - each often doing more than theatre at a time, eg Willesden and Ealing for "Jimmy The Fearless"
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The only known photograph of Stan during his UNIVERSAL days - used in a trade advertisement
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Stan, hoovering some poor man's jaw, in "Do You Love Your Wife?", June 1918
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"Hoot Mon", June 1918 - with Bud Jamison looking over Stan's shoulder!
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