Miss Jerry
Encyclopedia
Miss Jerry is an 1894
American
feature-length black-and-white
silent
pre-film "Picture Play" written and produced by Alexander Black and starring Blanche Bayliss. "Miss Jerry" was not a film, but a series of posed magic lantern
slides projected onto a screen with a dissolving stereopticon
, accompanied by narration and music, making it the first example of a feature-length dramatic fiction on screen.
Miss Jerry debuted on October 9, 1894 at the Carbon Studio in New York City
. It has been described as "the first picture play" and while other early film and peep-show animations produced at this time were short documentaries, Miss Jerry sought to develop what is arguably the first feature of moving pictures. This photoplay attempts to create an impression of movement with the slides changing once every 15 seconds.
Aware of the progress made by Muybridge and other photographers towards the illusion of motion, Black instead set out to present a convincing narrative story in front of an audience, using photography to present fiction in a convincing way, rather than a perfect illusion of motion.
In his 1926 history of the movies, "A Million and One Nights" the author Terry Ramsaye says, "While the motion picture was progressing with mincing steps in the peep show Edison Kinetoscope the sheer force of the evolution of expression presented the world with an interesting paradox – the birth of the photoplay upon the screen. . . Black arrived at a rate of four slides a minute for his presentation. The plan was to make the pictures successively blend into one another in the dissolving stereopticon, avoiding an optical ‘jar’ as much as possible. Each picture represented a step forward in the action. The pictures were carefully registered always to present every still object in the view in precisely the same position, while only the moving actors were shown in altered attitudes. There could, of course, be no hope of depicting rapid motion. Black chose, in such instances, to picture the moments before and after the swift action involved. For example, the villain might stand menacing the hero with an upraised dagger, while the next slide would show the victim of the stab in a heap on the floor. The spoken obligation from the stage had to carry across the imagined stroke of the stabbing."
Unfortunately, no intact set of slides for Miss Jerry is known to exist.
in the heart of New York
. While working she falls in love with the editor of her paper, Mr. Hamilton. After being offered a job in London
the couple initially have problems but Jerry accepts a proposal of marriage and they leave for London together.
1894 in film
-Events:* January 7 - William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.* January 7 - Thomas Edison films his assistant, Fred Ott sneezing with the Kinetoscope at the "Black Maria."...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
feature-length black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
pre-film "Picture Play" written and produced by Alexander Black and starring Blanche Bayliss. "Miss Jerry" was not a film, but a series of posed magic lantern
Magic lantern
The magic lantern or Laterna Magica is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century.-Operation:The magic lantern has a concave mirror in front of a light source that gathers light and projects it through a slide with an image scanned onto it. The light rays cross an aperture , and...
slides projected onto a screen with a dissolving stereopticon
Stereopticon
A stereopticon is a slide projector or "magic lantern", which has two lenses, usually one above the other.These devices date back to the mid 19th century, and were a popular form of entertainment and education before the advent of moving pictures...
, accompanied by narration and music, making it the first example of a feature-length dramatic fiction on screen.
Miss Jerry debuted on October 9, 1894 at the Carbon Studio in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It has been described as "the first picture play" and while other early film and peep-show animations produced at this time were short documentaries, Miss Jerry sought to develop what is arguably the first feature of moving pictures. This photoplay attempts to create an impression of movement with the slides changing once every 15 seconds.
The Picture Play
"In "Miss Jerry" my purpose has been to test experimentally, in a quiet story, certain possibilities of illusion, with this aim always before me, that the illusion should not, because it need not and could not safely, be that of photographs from an acted play, nor of artistic illustration, but the illusion of reality'."Aware of the progress made by Muybridge and other photographers towards the illusion of motion, Black instead set out to present a convincing narrative story in front of an audience, using photography to present fiction in a convincing way, rather than a perfect illusion of motion.
In his 1926 history of the movies, "A Million and One Nights" the author Terry Ramsaye says, "While the motion picture was progressing with mincing steps in the peep show Edison Kinetoscope the sheer force of the evolution of expression presented the world with an interesting paradox – the birth of the photoplay upon the screen. . . Black arrived at a rate of four slides a minute for his presentation. The plan was to make the pictures successively blend into one another in the dissolving stereopticon, avoiding an optical ‘jar’ as much as possible. Each picture represented a step forward in the action. The pictures were carefully registered always to present every still object in the view in precisely the same position, while only the moving actors were shown in altered attitudes. There could, of course, be no hope of depicting rapid motion. Black chose, in such instances, to picture the moments before and after the swift action involved. For example, the villain might stand menacing the hero with an upraised dagger, while the next slide would show the victim of the stab in a heap on the floor. The spoken obligation from the stage had to carry across the imagined stroke of the stabbing."
Unfortunately, no intact set of slides for Miss Jerry is known to exist.
Plot
After finding out that her father is suffering financial problems, Jerry Holbrook decides to start a career in journalismJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
in the heart of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. While working she falls in love with the editor of her paper, Mr. Hamilton. After being offered a job in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
the couple initially have problems but Jerry accepts a proposal of marriage and they leave for London together.
Cast
- Blanche Bayliss (under the name "Constance Arthur") as Miss Geraldine Holbrook (Miss Jerry)
- William Courtenay as Walter Hamilton
- Chauncey DepewChauncey DepewChauncey Mitchell Depew was an attorney for Cornelius Vanderbilt's railroad interests, president of the New York Central Railroad System, and a United States Senator from New York from 1899 to 1911.- Biography:...
as Himself (Director of the New York Central RailroadNew York Central RailroadThe New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
)
External links
- Photography In Fiction - "Miss Jerry", The First Picture Play, by Alexander Black
- The story of Miss Jerry with some of the stills at http://books.google.com
- Text from the Picture Play chapter in Terry Ramsaye's "Million and One Nights"