When was the first film made in the United States?

Life of an American Fireman.

In the early days of movies, people were so excited by the sight of moving images that it didn't matter what they saw on the screen.

The first films were very short and showed ordinary things: couples dancing, men struggling, trains moving, or just pictures of famous people like Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley.

But then in 1903, a cameraman named Edwin Porter put a series of short pieces together, filming some more segments, and produced a film called Life of an American Fireman. About a year later, Porter filmed The Great Train Robbery, the first movie where there was a plot, and the first movie ever seen in a movie theater in the United States.

Before Hollywood, the center of cinematography was in New Jersey!

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What was the first sound film?

At first the movies had no sound. A pianist in the theater played the music throughout the movie, but there were no spoken words in those early movies. The actors' words were subtitled on the screen between scenes.

Then, in 1926, a movie called Don Juan appeared with a soundtrack. But the soundtrack was independent of the movie, and was simply played in the theater along with the movie. In addition, there was no dialogue about the soundtrack, only the music.

The Jazz Singer, which first appeared in 1927, is often called the first movie to be "talking" because it contains a few dialogue words apart from the music. But this film is not all-talking. The first film that was actually a talking picture, with all the dialogue on the soundtrack, as we know it today, appeared in 1928, and was called Lights of New York.

The first full-length color film to be shown to the public, Toll of the Sea, appeared in 1922, five years before the first sound film!

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