Screening Events

**A SPECIAL PRESENTATION OF THE MAGIC LANTERN - MOVING PICTURES BEFORE CINEMA**
A unique treat! Professor Lindsay Lambert from Ottawa, Canada, a leading expert on the history and art of the Magic Lantern takes us back in time to ‘Moving Pictures before Cinema’. A hundred years ago, everyone joined in the fun of watching these Magic-Lantern Shows on the big screen, clapping and stomping one minute, moved to tears the next. Colors swirled, animated cartoons cavorted, ghost stories unfolded. And everyone joined in singing "The Worms Crawl in, The Worms Crawl Out" as a beautiful woman on screen dissolved into a skeleton. Young and old sat mesmerized, mouths agape.

An early Halloween movie? Not at all. This was a Magic-Lantern Show, the great grandpa of the movies. It came before the silent films, yet it was in color, and had sound and spectacular special effects. The Magic-Lantern was, in fact, the direct ancestor of the movies. A huge brass-and-mahogany projector lit with gas "limelight" rapidly projected hand-colored slides on the screen. The slides -- many of them animated -- illustrated stories and songs and comedy, just as the movies would later. A live showman and musician provided the soundtrack, and the audience joined in creating sound effects, playing horns and tambourines, chanting and clapping, booing and cheering, just as in a melodrama. In fact, the content of the melodramatic early movies was often lifted from successful magic-lantern shows, and many of the earliest movie projectors were simply adapted magic-lantern projectors.
Wed,. Sept. 3rd, 7:30pm – The Tabor Opera House, Leadville
(part 1, part of the ‘Opening Night Event’)
Thur., Sept. 4th, 8pm – The Steamplant, Salida
(part 2, preceding “The Odd Couple”)
Fri., Sept. 5th, 5pm – BV Community Center, Buena Vista
(part 3 preceding “The Taking of Pelham, One, Two, Three”)