What Was The Earliest Movie? History of Cinema Magic Lantern Thomas Edison Louis Le Prince Lumière brothers Oldest Movie Cigarette Card

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The Earliest Movie Tobacco Card / Trading Card (Circa 1901)?

Above is a picture of one of the earliest movie related tobacco cards ever issued . In fact, it could be the first. It features the American inventor Thomas Edison and was issued by Ogdens Limited, circa 1901. If you know of any earlier cinema related trading cards or tobacco cards please feel free to comment, but I’ve got a feeling that this card is going to be hard to beat.

The Earliest Movie Ever Made

Whether they were conscious of it or not, the western world was caught up in a race to invent the first motion picture in the late 19th century. Winston Churchill once said that “History is written by the victors.” Hollywood wouldn’t just write history, it would broadcast it worldwide, dominating popular culture and politics for decades. A new global power would rise up from the ashes of the old British Empire. Instead of invading physical space it would take over the virtual countries of our mind. Children in every nation would memorize songs by their favourite US pop singers and demand their own version of the consumerist, American dream.

Trying to untangle the complicated web of weird and wonderful inventions that helped contribute to modern cinema is mission impossible, but here goes:

With a name like magic lantern, it’s no wonder 18th century magicians and charlatans were quick to use this early optical instrument of illusion. Their shows would have terrified and hoodwinked their superstitious audiences. The lanterns could project ghostly images of long lost relatives. Simple animation effects could be created, but they bear little resemblance to the CGI blockbuster movies of today.

Mechanisms that create the illusion of motion from a series of static pictures were first developed in the 1830s: the Stroboscope, invented by Simon von Stampfer in Austria; Phenakistoscope , by Joseph Plateau in Belgium and the modern zoetrope, developed by William Horner in Britain.

In 1877 Eadweard J. Muybridge adapted these early motion machines for use with photographic images. Muybridge traced the galloping movement of a horse using a series of 24 cameras triggered by trip wires. He then used his zoopraxiscope to view the horse in motion.

The earliest surviving motion picture was filmed by the Frenchman Louis Le Prince in 1888 at Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK. He mysteriously vanished before he could demonstrate his latest invention in the USA in 1890. Due to the ruthless nature of patent disputes between Europe and the United States, many interesting conspiracy theories have arisen.

William Friese-Greene, a British inventor, developed the chronophotographic camera. It was apparently capable of taking up to ten photographs per second using perforated celluloid film. Friese-Greene gave a public demonstration in 1890. The low frame rate and unreliability failed to impress and Greene filed for bankruptcy soon after.

Thomas Edison and William Kennedy Laurie Dickson gave a public demonstration of their movie viewer, the Kinetoscope, in 1893. Its major draw-back was that the film could only be viewed by one person at a time, through a peep hole. This prompted the inventor Charles Francis Jenkins to develop the Phantascope movie projector , allowing whole groups to view moving pictures at once.

Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the cinematograph. It combined the camera, printer, and projector into one machine. The Lumière brothers held their first demonstration in front of a paying public audience in Paris, 1895.

Ogden Guinea Gold , General Interest Thomas Edison (Cinema History)

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1960's Pop Stars The Beatles Dusty Springfield Billy Fury Kathy Kirby Mister Softee Ice Cream Trading Cards

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Mister Softee , who ran an ice cream van fleet, issued a number of pop star trading card sets from the 1960’s -1970’s. This 1965 card set was issued in association with the Record Mirror, which was a popular music newspaper of the time. There are details of a competition on the back and it states that the “prize winners will be announced from Mister Softee ice cream vans”. This card set features a diverse range of talented singers from the “British Invasion” era.

The Beatles

The USA had dominated popular music for decades. The Beatles managed challenge this with their own unique take on Rock-n-Roll. Once established, they had the creative freedom to experiment with multiple music genres whilst maintaining their mass appeal.

Sandie Shaw

The barefooted pop princess had a long string of hits in the 1960’s and was the UK’s first singer to win the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Puppet on a String”.

Roy Orbison

Elvis Presley described him as the greatest singer, a perfect accolade for a singer. His distinctive voice and haunting ballads secured him a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Manfred Mann

Were regular chart toppers in the 1960s and were the first south-of-England band to top the US charts during the British Invasion era.

Dusty Springfield

This British icon scored numerous hits in the 1960’s and made a huge impression the American market.

Georgie Fame

This talented singer /song writer scored big 1960’s hits with “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde” and “Yeah, Yeah”. His much in demand musicianship has meant that he is still active today, collaborating with many music veterans .

Adam Faith

He scored numerous hits in the 1960’s, the first seven of which were in the top 5. Unlike many of his peers, Adam Faith was a shrewd investor, securing him a position as a financial journalist in the 1980s.

Kathy Kirby

This Blonde Bombshell, whose voice was considered good enough for opera, scored 5 hits from 1963 to 1965. Her last hit was I Belong, which was the song she sang at the Eurovision Song Contest. In an interview, Kirby explained that her career declined after a 6 month affair with Bruce Forsyth. Her manager, who she was romantically involved with, was insanely jealous and destroyed Kirby’s chances of becoming a Hollywood star.

Cilla Black

After achieving worldwide fame as a 1960’s singer, she went on to become the best paid female presenter in British television history.

Cliff Richard

Sir Cliff Richard has sold 260 million records worldwide and is the only singer to have had a number one single in the UK in six consecutive decades.

Billy Fury

He went from a Liverpool dockworker to an internationally successful English singer, but sadly died young.

The Bachelors

Heralding from Ireland, this group had a monster hit with the song “Diane” .

Mister Softee, Top Ten ("Win a Big Prize") (12 cards)

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Gun Money 17th Century 1690 James II Irish Jacobite War Half Crown Coin 28mm Diameter May Williamite War

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James II, the deposed Catholic British king, attempted to take back his kingdom from William of Orange. With strong support in Ireland, he decided to raise an army there first. “Gun money” was the name given to coins that were minted in base metals and were designed to be redeemed for silver coins following a victory by James II. Since James was not victorious, the exchange never took place, although the base metal coins were allowed to circulate at much lower values.

The coins were called “gun money” because some of them were minted from melted down guns. In fact , many other objects were used, such as church bells.

The effects of the Williamite War would be felt for many centuries, deepening divisions between the Catholic and Protestant communities. The British and Protestants systematically excluded the Irish majority Catholic population from land and power. The Williamite war is even commemorated by the Protestant Unionists today.

Gun Money, James II Half-Crown (28mm diameter), May 1690

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WW2 Weapons High Altitude Flying Heavy Artillery Fighter Planes Bren Machine Gun Tanks Cigarette Cards

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It’s eerie how so many military card sets were issued in the years leading up to WW2. This particular set of cards was released just before WW2 started. Cigarette cards ceased being produced during the War, due to severe paper rationing. Rationing continued right through until the 1950s. Carreras’ Turf brand managed to get round this by ingeniously printing their cards on the sliding section of the packets, inspiring cereal companies to produce a number of packet card issues, such as Sugar Puff’s Nation Motor Museum, 1974. Turf’s monochrome blue ink picture cards were not as well received as their multi-coloured counterparts.

Returning to the subject of this WW2 card set, these cards show how Britain’s defences had changed since WW1: “during the Great War a soldier laden with his pack could travel about fifteen miles per day, now he can be moved a hundred miles or more..” , thanks to improvements in military vehicles such as the tank, which is featured on card no. 34. Recently, I reviewed a card set of WW1 Military Motors. I wonder how significant these vehicles were in The Great War or whether they were more experimental than practical. Perhaps the set was an elaborate bluff, over emphasising the allies’ mobility capability to scare the Germans into submission.

Military aircraft were first used in the Great War but it was not until WW2 that they played a decisive role : “planes are being built in thousands, whereas they used to be counted by tens”, it states on the back of one card. Aviation had advanced so much that one card is devoted to high altitude flying and speculates about space warfare in the not too distant future. The Germans did not resort to gas warfare on the battlefield in WW2 but the allies still had be prepared and several cards show soldiers wearing gas masks. The famous light Bren machine gun was quite new when this set of cards was issued but is featured on no. 27. Card no. 14 shows several naval personnel escaping from a submerged submarine, although I don’t think they would be smiling as much as they are if it were really happening.

Carreras, Britains Defences, 1938 (50 cards)

Includes:Britain's First Defence Line,HMS Hood 4 in Anti-aircraft Gun,How Blows the Wind?,Home To See the Family,The Daily Round,Quarters Clean Guns,Pay Day in the Navy,The Dinner Hour,Signalling in the Royal Navy,They're in the Navy Now,Signalling at Sea,Anything About?,Loading Torpedoes,Davis Escape Apparatus,After a Gas Attack,With The RNVR,Defence Not Defiance,Coastal Defence Artillery,Medium Artillery,Field Artillery,An Anti-Tank Gun,The King's Own Soldiers,The Royal Scots,Our Mechanised Army,Infantry Mortar, Mechanised Transport,The Bren Light Automatic Gun,Anti-Tank Rifles,Anti-Aircraft Gun,A Listening Post,A Searchlight Projector,Anti-Aircraft Guns,Air Barricades,With The Tank Corps,All Aboard,Flying Training,Preparing For a Hop,High Altitude Flying,Air Duels,Loading Bombs,Landing Troops From The Air,Torpedoing From The Air,Ground Range Practice,Gas Training in the RAF,Fighting Aircraft Fires,Catapulting an Aeroplane,Gloster Gauntlet Fighter,Hawker Hector Biplanes,Hawker Hurricane Fighter,Vicker Wellesley Monoplane

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1970's Star Wars & Pin-Up Girls Vintage Erotica on Dandy Gum Trading Cards

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These saucy cards appeared in gum wrappers in the same year that Star Wars first graced our cinema screens, 1977. I bet Dandy gum was nicknamed “Randy Gum” after they issued this set of cards. This set features 1970’s pin-up girls in scanty bikinis with beautiful sea swept backgrounds. The playing card insets mean that you can easily use this set for card games. Although I wouldn’t recommend this, since I believe this set is quite rare. A full set of these does not appear in any of the major British card catalogues and I’ve never come across them myself.

Dandy Gum, Pin-up Girls, 1977 (playing card inset) (52 cards)

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Pre WW1 Army Life: Manned Kite, Hot Air Balloon, Wireless Telegraphy (Early Radio) on Cigarette Cards

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This is one of the few military card sets issued just before WW1. It includes an unusual manned kite, designed by the aviator Mr. SF Cody, and shows a hot air balloon being used for observation. One card features an early Holt Caterpillar steam tractor, which inspired the designs of the first ever standard issue military tanks of WW1. Wireless telegraphy (radio communication) was quite new when this set was issued and one card features a field telegraph office, which looks like a small tent. Several cards show that horses were still widely used, although a motor car makes an appearance on card no. 23.

Army Life, John Player and Sons, 1910, 25 cards

Includes:Bringing in Wounded Man,Field Waggons,War Kite Drill (manned kit or man-lifting kite),Laying a Field Telegraph Line,Firing from a Gun Pit,Pitching Tents,Watering Horses,Filtering Water,Field Telegraph Officer (Radio Communication),Jumping with Led Horses,Bayonet Fighting,Lamp Signalling,Map Reading Class, Picking Up Wounded,Cyclist Scout Section,Unpacking Waggons,Mechanical Transport Section (Caterpillar Steam Tractor (Designed by Benjamin Holt)- Inpspiration for WW1 Tanks),Lance versus Sword,Making Gas for War Baloons,Filling War Baloons,Searchlight Section,Baloon Drill,Starting the Engine,Presentation of Long Service Medals,Flag Signalling

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WW1 Weapons Maxim Machine Gun Howitzer Aviation Armoured Vehicle Cigarette Cards

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WW1 was arguably the most significant war in the history of mankind. As well as wiping 9 million combatants off the face of the earth, it also laid the foundations for future wars. Financial crises and discontentment among Russian and German citizens would trigger the Russian revolution and the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. These would culminate in both the Cold War and WW2.

This set of cards features many powerful weapons used by the British forces in WW1. The British were a bit slow in utilising the machine gun at the beginning of the war but this soon changed when large numbers of their soldiers were slain by this killing machine. In fact the British became so enthusiastic that they created a special Machine Gun Corps in the same year that this set was issued. This could explain why the Maxim machine gun is featured on several cards. The howitzer artillery piece, which appears on several cards, was designed to fire shells at high trajectories over obstacles. A couple of cards show recent WW1 technological developments, including the aeroplane and an armoured car. One card shows that horses were still being used for transporting heavy artillery.

Modern Weapons (WW1), Ogden's, 1915, 50 cards

Includes:12 Pounder Gun on A Destroyer,92 in Gun In Barbette,Torpedo Leaving Ship's Side,47 in Gun Charge And Projectile / Missile,Maxim Gun Drill,Monster Guns of the Royal Garrison Artillery,Torpedo Just Left The Tube,Torpedo Entering The Water,5 in Howitzer Brigade, Infantry Machine Guns,Maxim Gun Drill RN,The New Aerial Missiles,The Forward Four 13.5 in Guns on HMS Monarch,6 in Howitzer Garrison Artillery,12 in Guns In Turrets - H.M.S. Neptune,The Fore Barbette Of HMS Victorious,A Naval 12 Pounder Gun,Inserting The Torpedo In Its Tube,12in Guns HMS Dreadnought,German Mortar Siege Gun,Comparative Sizes of Guns and Projectiles,6 in Gun - Royal Garrison Artillery,British Armoured Motor Car,Laying A Mine,Dropping Bombs From Aeroplane,18 pounder Gun Entrenched RFA, Shells ETC Used In The British Navy,5 in Heavy Field Gun,Maxim Machine Gun In Action,5 in Howitzer Brigade,A Pair of Neptune Fangs,Inside 12in Barbette Loading By Hydraulic Ram,Guns Out HMS Dreadnought,12 in Guns HMS Bellerophon,German Artillery - Observation Ladders and Shields,Latest German Howitzer,A Contact Mine,A Naval Field Gun,German Heavy Gun Used As A Field Weapon,Howitzer Gun Supported On Steel Arms,12.5 in Projectiles On The Deck of A Dreadnough,Torpedo Boats - Showing Deck Tubes,Dreadnought Cleared For Action,The Fore Barbette Of HMS Victorious,Maxim Automatic Machine Gun Under Cover,Whitehead Torpedoes,Maxim Fully Automatic Machine Gun Instruction RN,German Range Finder In Use,13.5 in Guns HMS Royal Sovereign

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