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Hale's Tours: Ultrarealism in the Pre-1910 Motion Picture

1970; University of Texas Press; Volume: 10; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1224994

1527-2087

Raymond Fielding,

Media, Gender, and Advertising

In the course of its erratic 75-year history, the motion picture has suffered continuous technological experimentation in its owners' attempts to achieve maximum realism in the production and exhibition of its products. Over the years, showmen have moved steadily toward a less stylized, more naturalistic cinema, beginning with the addition of color, then monophonic sound, stereophonic sound, three-dimensional images, and, finally, widescreen aspect ratios. Indeed, something of a high point in motion picture realism seemed to have been reached in 1955 when the late Walt Disney introduced his spectacular Trip to the Moon show at Disneyland, California. This continuing attraction takes the form of a gigantic rocket, with seating for 150 passengers, complete on the inside with incandescent dials, blinking lights, airplane hostesses, and all the other theatrical accoutrements of a well-appointed flying saucer. Following a dramatic countdown, the seats shake, dials move, the roar of the motors is heard, and-perfectly synchronized-a realistically animated film of travel through outer space is projected onto motion picture screens above and below the audience. All effects combine to produce a theatrically convincing illusion of space travel. Impressive as this imaginary voyage is, however, there is nothing new about it. As early as 1895, novelist H. G. Wells and British film pioneer Robert Paul applied for a patent on a similar motion picture designed to simulate travel through time and space, along the lines of Wells' sciencefiction novel, The Time Machine. The members of the audience were to be seated on platforms which rocked to and fro, and which moved toward and away from a screen onto which still and motion picture scenes were to be projected.1 It was an ingenious and ambitious design for its day. Be