- Edisonia Hall
Edisonia Hall was a generic name for exhibition halls that displayed the various inventions of
Thomas Alva Edison 's company. These included thephonograph , theVitascope , theKinetoscope and other such devices.The Edisonia Hall opened by
Mitchell Mark andMoe Mark inBuffalo, New York inEllicott Square Building on October 19, 1896 has the distinction of hostingVitascope Theater (also spelledVitascope Theatre ) which is the first known dedicated, purpose-built motion picture theater in the world. The theater is referred to in newspapers of the day (Buffalo Express ,Buffalo News and others) as Vitascope Theater,Vitascope Hall , and theElectrical Theater .The majority of the first program of films were
Lumiere Films obtained throughPathe Freres .In its first year of existence, more than 200,000 people visited to view motion pictures projected on a screen.
On November 25, 2007, the
Buffalo News published an article byMark Sommer confirming the historical significance of this unique theater.References
*Terry Ramsaye, A Million and One Nights (New York: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, [1925] 1986)
*Buffalo Express, October 19, 1886
*Collection: Buffalo and Erie County Public Library: Grosvenor Room: Ranjit Sandhu, History of Buffalo Theaters, manuscript
*Collection: Buffalo and Eric County Historical SocietyExternal links
* [http://www.buffalofilmfestival.com/edisoniahallbuffalo.html The Historic Search for the Vitascope Theater]
* [http://cinematreasures.org/theater/20853/ Cinema Treasures Historic Listing ]
* [http://freenet.buffalo.edu/bah/h/mark/index.html History of Mitchell Mark, Edisonia Hall, Vitascope Theater with extensive references and photos ]Gallery
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