STAGE ILLUSIONS
Long before modern cinema with its special effects and deceitful editing, the first masters of visual entertainment were stage show illusionists. The Victorian magician, in fact pioneered the development of early cinema. The Magician has always been a keen patron of new technology, needing to stay one step ahead of there mesmerised audiences. In 1794, a traveling illusionist Etienne Gaspard Robertson, terrified Parisian crowds with a hunting production entitled "Phantasmagoria". Naive to the invention of magic lanterns the audiences were completely amazed by the eerie figures which flickered and disappeared. Theses images of skeletons and ghosts were back projected onto invisible screens, achieved by ironing translucent wax into gauze. By the late eighteenth century Magicians around the world began clamoring for projection devices, buying or making their own living pictures to incorporate into magic acts. Many of the world's earliest films were produced by magicians, they employed techniques still used today, such as double exposure, stop motion animation, fast and slow motion and the dissolve.
Victorian Poster.
VICTORIAN PROJECTIONISTS
It was American magician Carl Hertz who gave Australian audiences their first glimpse of projected motion pictures on 22 August 1896 at the Melbourne Opera House as part of his magic act. The films presented were 'single takes' from a static camera and were no longer than 50 seconds each. A floury of different mechanisms and advertising herald the beginning of early cinema. "Animated Photographs" - "Living Pictures" - "Scenematograph" - "Electrograph" etc. Beheadings, bizarre transformations and disappearances, once closely guarded secrets of an elite few, had now entered the public domain and could created by anyone with a camera and splicer. Live performances of stage magic almost vanished as cinema took the world by storm. Promoters and theaters wanted moving pictures and no longer invited the magician. With the dawning of a new century, magicians realised they could no longer compete with the magic of film and increasingly found themselves behind the camera exploring what would become the most significant medium of our age.
Carl Hertz and his wife.
THE EGYPTIAN HALL
England's "Home of Mystery" was situated on London's famous west end, and was to magicians and illusionist what Covent Garden opera house is to music patrons . Orientalism was in vogue, and the Egyptian halls rather exotic facade, was inspired by Englands growing fascination with antiquity and the mysteries of ancient Egypt. The Hall opened its first shows in 1873 and over the next half century played host to the worlds best variety acts. It was by attending the Egyptian Hall that the young George Melies found himself lured from a career in his father's factory, and into a life long fascination with magic and the creation of his own "Trick Films". There is also a link to Australian film history, as it was from the Egyptian Hall that Carl Hertz bought the equipment which projected the first motion pictures in Australia.
Drawing of the Egyptian Hall
PEPPER'S GHOST
The illusion known Peppers Ghost was named after Professor John Henry Pepper, Director of the London Royal Polytechnic in the 1860s, an establishment famous for its spectacular magic lantern shows and grand Illusions. The effect relies upon the dual properties of glass, the transparent and reflective. Two coffins are aligned either side of a large sheet of glass at 45%. A real skeleton is in the first coffin and a audience member in the second. When the lighting changes from the skeleton to the person, the illusion of a transformation is achieved.
Egyptian Hall Poster
MAGIC LANTERNS
The optical, or magic lantern was the forerunner of the cinema projector. The three essential elements of a magic lantern were: a light source, a transparent image, and a lens to focus the image onto another surface. For centuries the concept of projections has been evolving. The earliest shadow plays gave drama to the flickering silhouette. Reported regularly from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century "Shadow shows' were later known in Victorian times as 'galanty shows'. The 'magic' of these lanterns for conjuring up spectres in particular, was popularized in Paris in the late 18th century by Belgian magician, Etienne Gaspard Robertson. His production "Fantasmagoria" startled, and no doubt bewildered audiences. The lanterns were hidden from view, and the image which was projected onto smoke or a thin transparent screen, had the force of an apparition. As magic lanterns became more efficient, their potential as an educational tool was recognized, especially for scientific lectures. During the late Victorian period Magic lanterns were very much a salon entertainment. Popular with children, a toy lantern could be bought for as little as one shilling. The search for a more efficient light source for magic lantern was now paramount. This paralleled the quest for better lighting in general. The varieties of illuminates for magic lanterns included oxygen/hydrogen lime burners, paraffin burners, and blow through jets using coal gas and oxygen to ignite the lime at a very high temperature. Metal chimneys and linear wicks became part of the illuminating mechanics. Simple paraffin burners were also used, Though if badly handled, the smoky flame could soot up a room. * The role of the projectionist was a dangerous one, as the possibility of fire was always threatening ! Many theaters burned to the ground and the projection box was introduced as salty measure to contain the out break of fire. It wasn't until the end of the 19th century that electricity became a regular light source. The magic lantern did not disappear with the coming of motion pictures. Indeed, for many years they coexisted. The first Cinematographers replaced the slide trays with a mechanism for moving film. Many of the early hand - cranked film projectors were add-on attachments to the front of magic lanterns.
Rotating disk style lantern.
Strip slide style lantern.
LANTERN SLIDES
The desire to create moving images pushed the projectionist / Magician to devise ingenious mechanisms to archive basic moving pictures. These included using levers to move a second strip of painted glass over a fixed one, devising a rack and pinion for circular motion such as a windmills' sails. For educational themes, the motion of the planets in orbit or a simulated eclipse of the sun could be created. Most popular in the Victorian period were boxed sets of slides, purchased along with text which told sentimental stories, morality tales and popular songs of the day. Early glass slides were often hand painted with minute precision and then bordered by mahogany frames. The imagery on Lantern slides is very small, however when projected becomes very large. Artists knew their painted images would be enlarged one hundred fold. This relationship of small to large prompted the development of more sophisticated slide production. Printed lithographic transfers were used for slides, a technique which allowed mass production and reliable detail. The desire for realism was finally answered with the photographic plate.
CHROMOTROPE
Based upon the transmission of light through moving pieces of coloured glass. This simple principle has been used to great effect by numerous instruments, including the popular kaleidoscope, still found in toy stores today. To achieve this mesmerising projection, one glass disc revolves in front of the other, giving the geometric pattern an impression of radiating motion. Chromotropes were first described as artificial fireworks ! The chromotrope presented here is created with a modern Effects Projector, demonstrating that the sensation of movement is still entertaining many centuries after it was first conceived.
Mechanical Lantern slide.
Chromotrope slide.
TACHYSCOPE
The tachyscope is a simple forerunner to motion picture films, but with this invention you could only see the equivalent of about 1 second of film. A sequence of photographs are attached to a large spinning wheel, each photograph showing a slightly different position of a subject in action. The wheel is spun and light flashes as each photograph passes by the viewing frame. An animation is achieved, thus creating the illusion of motion. The Electrical Tachyscope was developed during the 1880s, and entertained people with sequences of leaping horses and gymnastic razzle-dazzle.
A German Tachyscope.