historique

Le brevet du Kinetoscope (Parlor Kinetoscope) date du 24 août 1897. Il a été déposé par Willard G. Steward et Ellis F. Frost sous le numéro EU 588.916. Un mois plus tard, en septembre 1897, la presse commence à parler du Parlor Kinetoscope, vendu au prix de $6.00 et fait passer des annonces :

RELIABLE manager for the Parlor Kinetoscope; new, novel and a marvel; just patented; big. incime; sells on sight at 36. American Parlor Kinetoscope co., Washington, D. C.

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The Minneapolis Journal, Minneapolis, samedi 25 septembre 1897, p. 15.

The Washington Post, Washington, samedi 18 décembre 1897, p. 7.

Il s'agit d'un appareil à vision individuelle utilisant des bandes photographiques sur papier qui reproduisent l'illusion du mouvement. Le Parlor Kinetoscope - à ne pas confondre avec les Kinetoscopes Parlors - s'apparente à un jouet qui va avoir l'appui de Thomas A. Edison lui-même :

I consider the Parlor Kinetoscope a very ingenious and meritorious device.
Orange, May 4/98.
Thomas Al Edison

Scribner's Magazine, vol. 24, nº 6, décembre 1898, p. 136.

Afin d'alimenter en bandes cinématographiques le Parlor Kinetoscope, l'American Parlor Kinetoscope Company (Washington) met en vente des vues provenant de la société Edison, de sa propre production et, sans doute, d'autres éditeurs. Le 5 mai 1898, un contrat est signé entre Thomas A. Edison et l'American Parlor Kinetoscope Company qui autorise cette dernière à commercialiser des films Edison sur papier :

WHEREAS, the party of the second part is desirous of obtaining the right from the party of the first part, under his patents, to manufacture and sell opaque Edison films of a character like the exhibit marked "paper film", and is willing to pay a royalty to said party of the first part on each and every fifty feet of film made and sold by it.

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Agreement Between Thomas A. Edison and American Parlor Kinetoscope Co. (5 mai 1898).

En décembre 1898, le président de la société, Charles M. Campbell achète de nouveaux bâtiments à Georgetown, quartier de Washington, afin de pouvoir répondre à la demande commerciale :

C.M. Campbell, President of the American Parlor Kinetoscope Company, has purchased the buildings and ground at 3.234 and 3.236 Water Street, Georgetown. This company has occupied the premises since last summer. At present the factory is working night and day and employ a large force of employees. An order for 1.500 machines has recently been completed for John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia. Orders at present are so far shead of the output that they have decided to enlarge the factory.

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The Phonoscope, vol. II, nº 12, New York, décembre 1898, p. 11.

À la fin de l'année 1899, le journal The Saint Paul Globe consacre plusieurs paragraphes au Parlor Kinetoscope :

[...] And they are likely to choose, too, for the small parlor kinetoscopes sold among the Christmas toys in a department store this year are so arranged that any one can change the picutres for another set and have as many as he likes.
STYLE OF PICTURES.
It is a simple yet clever device about a foot square, inside which the series of poses-photographed at the rate of 800 a minute-is carried on a belt around a wheel and viewed in a mirror opposite. The good little girl and her brother who go to Sunday school can have their machine filled with nice things like the old Dutch windmill flapping its big sails, the ocean surf and bathers at Atlantice City, the divers, a pretty girl given a ducking by three friends, the Chinese minister at Washington and his little son out for a walk in their queer Oriental clothes, the elephants taking their exercise at the zoo, trained ponies on a see-saw, the educated dog that jumps the rope and turns somersaults with its owner dressed as a clown, or a lot of bobsleds full of people coasting down hill, the fire department at a fire-and, may-be, the dog that punches the bag with its nose, jumping four feet from the floor to reach it.
The giddy little girl who goes to dancing school and sometimes does fancy dances herself for all the mammas at the end of the year, can have her choice of dances for her repertoire-the skirt dance, serpentine, Loie Fuller's sun dance, the umbrella dance, the acrobatic, and the dancer who dances upside down on her hands. For the boy who runs to soldiers and things military there are hurdle jumping by mounted cavalry troopers, four abreast, Cossack riders like Buffalo Bill's doing circus tricks at a mal gallop, etc., and boxing and prize fights for the totally unregenerate.

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The Saint Paul Globe, Saint Paul, dimanche 17 décembre 1899, p. 22.

The Saint Paul Globe, Saint Paul, dimanche 17 décembre 1899, p. 22.

Sources

Agreement Between Thomas A. Edison and American Parlor Kinetoscope Co. (5 mai 1898)