5/26/2023 0 Comments Photo gun early moving pictures![]() Within each of these areas, many persons in Europe and in the United States, intrigued with the idea of making pictures seem to move, have been very active especially during the last three-quarters of the nineteenth century. For mechanically the motion picture is not a single invention but rather a development in at least three large areas, viz., the camera, the film, and the projecting device. On this point, there is some disagreement. Edison of West Orange, N.J., stands in the forefront, if not indeed actually the one person most vitally connected with the birth of the moving picture. Since New Jersey is the recognized cradle of the motion picture industry, with Passaic County paying no small part, from the standpoint of history it might be worthwhile to consider some of the facts in its development. All of the foregoing are a part of the vocabulary relating to the great world of amusement – the moving picture. Today (1959), these words are virtually unknown they have been replaced by cinema, television, video. In Passaic County half a century ago, the words magic lantern, peep show, Nickelodeon and the less elegant nickel dump were universally understood. Time makes many changes in the vocabulary of a people. Blanch Sweet, Fannie Ward, George Fawcett are names of a bygone era. Gone too are the old films seen on the billboards in front of it. Subsequently, the Fabians bought large interests in the Stanley Corporation of America to whom they transferred their interests in a great many theatres that they owned and operated in Passaic and other northern counties of the state. On March 6, 1926, an AP release from Los Angeles stated that Jacob Fabian and Sons had acquired a large block of stock in the West Coast Theatres, Inc., the largest company of its kind in America. Jacob Fabian and his sons, who were affiliated with their father, had by this time demonstrated their genius in the motion pictures and their ability to foresee a great new era in the industry. Kitay’s Rivoli and in 1925, he erected the beautiful Fabian Theatre on Church Street, Paterson. The next year, Max Gold, one of the first men in Paterson to operate picture shows, built the Garden Theatre which he operated first, but later sold to Jacob Fabian. This playhouse for the movies was the forerunner of many others of the same type in Paterson and throughout the county, for by 1915, the great progress made in the motion picture had created universal interest in that form of amusement. Fabian to show his friends how wrong they were. It took but a few years, however, for Mr. Fabian, it was frequently referred to as Fabian’s Folly during the early days of its existence. It stood between old Union Street, now (1959) called World Vet’s Place, and Hamilton Street in Paterson.īelieving that its huge cost would prove to be a great liability to Mr. This beautiful, modern amusement house was conceived and erected by Jacob Fabian of Paterson who officially opened it to the public on September 14, 1914. The first theater in the county built exclusively for showing motion pictures was the Regent. Bulletin of the Passaic County Historical Society, April 1959
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