Thomas A. Edison
Production
Biography
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who has been described as America's greatest inventor. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory. Edison was raised in the American Midwest; early in his career he worked as a telegraph operator, which inspired some of his earliest inventions. In 1876, he established his first laboratory facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many of his early inventions were developed. He later established a botanic laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida in collaboration with businessmen Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, and a laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey that featured the world's first film studio, the Black Maria. He was a prolific inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as patents in other countries. Edison married twice and fathered six children. He died in 1931 of the complications of diabetes.
Known For
Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
Horizon
Infographics and archival footage deliver bite-size history lessons on scientific breakthroughs, social movements and world-changing discoveries.
History 101
The original concept of the show was to allow the viewer to see the inner workings of a movie studio and featured interviews with MGM stars and explanations of how movies were made. Later, the format changed to show edited versions of MGM films.
MGM Parade
Produced for television by Claude-Jean Philippe, the « Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma », recounts the history of French cinema from its birth to the beginning of the 1960s. With commentary read by Jean Rochefort.
Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
Naqoyqatsi
The history of cinematic sound, told by legendary sound designers and visionary filmmakers.
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
With a magical new invention that promised to revolutionize blood testing, Elizabeth Holmes became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, heralded as the next Steve Jobs. Then, overnight, her 10-billion-dollar company dissolved. The rise and fall of Theranos is a window into the psychology of fraud.
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
An account of the extraordinary life of film pioneer Georges Méliès (1861-1938) and the amazing story of the copy in color of his masterpiece A Trip to the Moon (1902), unexpectedly found in Spain and restored thanks to the heroic efforts of a group of true cinema lovers.
The Extraordinary Voyage
Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.
Frankenstein
Klingsor seeks admission to the Holy Grail. Evil summons Kundry. Herzeloid appears with the child Parsifal. Crowning of Amfortas. Wounding of Amfortas. Carrying Amfortas to his bath. Kundry brings relief to Amfortas. Parsifal reproached for killing the Swan. Kundry succumbs to Evil. Knights entering the Holy Grail. Parsifal unmoved. Klingsor summons Kundry. Parsifal enters the Magic Garden. Kundry kisses Parsifal. Parsifal calls upon the Saviour. Parsifal repulses Kundry. Klingsor hurls the Sacred Spear. Destruction of the Magic Garden. Guernemanz restores Kundry. Parsifal appears with Sacred Spear. Kundry washes Parsifal's feet. Amfortas tears open his wound. Parsifal heals Amfortas. Parsifal becomes King of the Holy Grail.
Parsifal
Feature-length compilation of 1920s newsreel footage, with commentary about news, sports, lifestyles, and historical figures.
The Golden Twenties
The film expresses the history of oppression, discrimination, violence and hate in America. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
The Shadow of Hate: A History of Intolerance in America
Papa is reading his newspaper and his little girl tickles his neck with a long straw. Thinking it is a fly papa "shoos" away the supposed fly with his hand…
Little Mischief
Three men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around. Notable for being the first film in which a scene is being acted out.
Blacksmithing Scene
This short was released in connection with the 20th anniversary of Warner Brothers' first exhibition of the Vitaphone sound-on-film process on 6 August 1926. The film highlights Thomas A. Edison and Alexander Graham Bell's efforts that contributed to sound movies and acknowledges the work of Lee De Forest. Brief excerpts from the August 1926 exhibition follow. Clips are then shown from a number of Warner Brothers features, four from the 1920s, the remainder from 1946/47.
Okay for Sound
The Passion Play of Oberammergau (1898) presents scenes from the famed Bavarian passion play, dramatizing the final days of Jesus Christ—from his entry into Jerusalem to the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Filmed by the Edison Company, it offered late-19th-century audiences a rare cinematic glimpse of the world-renowned Oberammergau tradition.
The Passion Play of Oberammergau
The careers of D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin are chronicled culminating in the formation of United Artists and 1919.
Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists
Film depicting the killing of the elephant Topsy by electrocution at a Coney Island amusement park on January 4, 1903
Electrocuting an Elephant
William K.L. Dickson plays the violin while two men dance. This is the oldest surviving sound film where sound is recorded on the phonograph.
Dickson Experimental Sound Film
Ojo and Unc Nunkie are out of food, so they decide to journey to the Emerald City where they will never starve. Along the way, they meet Mewel, a waif and stray (mule) who leads them to Dr. Pipt, who has been stirring the powder of life for nine years. Ojo adds plenty of brains to Margolotte's Patchwork servant before she is brought to life with the powder. When Scraps does come to life, she accidentally knocks the liquid of petrifaction upon Unc Nunkie, Margolotte, and Danx (daughter Jesseva's boyfriend). So all go on separate journeys to find the ingredients to the antidote.