Saturday, January 15, 2011

BOMBAY AND THE FIRST FILM SHOW IN INDIA 1896

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A view of life

The Bioscope
Charles Urban first made his name through the Bioscope projector. It proved so successful and popular an invention that it became a generic term for cinema itself. Its genesis is a little obscure, but its impact was immense.

Problems with the Vitascope
Urban had found problems exhibiting the electrically-driven Edison Vitascope projector in Michigan through 1896, where many towns were not yet connected to an electrical current, or the local supply was incompatible with the Vitascope, which required direct current. He was similarly frustrated by the limited capacity of the Vitascope, which could show only fifty foot rolls before the film had to be changed, causing delays in the programme. He made some crude adjustments, recalling "I had film reels constructed by using nine inch tin discs screwed to each end of an empty Clark's thread spool the centre hole of which was enlarged to fit the reel holder. This reel held about 750 feet of film". He cemented the films together with fish glue. This could only be a temporary solution, and he next went to a New York engineer of his acquaintance, Walter Isaacs, and instructed him to manufacture a projector that incorporated the take-up spool, plus a handle to free it from an electricity supply, and something to make it flickerless, flicker (caused by low projection speed and the use of single-blade shutters) being the chief complaint of all early film audiences.


In 1896, India was first exposed to motion pictures when the Lumiere Brothers' Chinematographe showed six soundless short films on July 7 in Bombay.

BOMBAY WATSON HOTEL 1886-IN THIS HOTEL THE FIRST FILM WAS SHOWN
[Watson's Hotel, currently known as the Esplanade Mansion, is India's oldest surviving cast iron building. It is located in the Kala Ghoda area of Mumbai (Bombay). Named after its original owner, John Watson, the building was fabricated in England and constructed on site between 1860 and 1863. (Wikipedia)]



On 7th July 1896 (120 years ago), first cinema show was screened. Thanks to the Lumiere brothers who were French cinematographers, the screening of 6 films took place in  Watson Hotel in Mumbai (then Bombay).

Image source

Can you guess the price of the tickets? It was Re 1! That’s right, it was just Re 1.

 

The Times Of India called this incident as the “Miracle Of The Century”.

Here’s the advertisement that appeared in the newspaper:

 Filters

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Six films were screened that day – “Entry of Cinematographe”, “The Sea Bath”, “Arrival of a Train”, “A Demolition”, “Ladies and Soldiers on Wheels” and “Leaving the Factory”.

Image source

The second screening took place on July 14, 1896, at the Novelty Theatre, Bombay.

The motion pictures were then introduced in Kolkata and Chennai.

How does it make you feel that Indian cinema was screened on this date, 120 years ago!


Among the hotel's notable guests was Mark Twain, who wrote about the city's crows he saw outside his balcony in Following the Equator. It was also the first place in India to screen the Lumière Brothers' Cinematographe invention in 1896. However this was witnessed only by Europeans.
A popular myth surround the hotel was that the staff at Watson's Hotel denied Indian industrialist Jamsetji Tata 
access to the hotel. In retaliation he opened the Taj Hotel,
 a hotel that stands near the Gateway of India, in 1903. However, author and historian Sharada Dwived idebunks this legend. She points out a lack of evidence to prove that Tata was a man of vengeance.
On 13 June 2010, the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC) gave its approval for the 130-year-old structure to be restored. The restoration work will be carried out by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).

The Lumière Brothers
Les frères Lumière
Fratelli Lumiere.jpg
Auguste Lumière (left) and Louis Lumière (right)
Place of birthBesançon, France
AugusteAuguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière
October 19, 1862
April 10, 1954 (aged 91) (Lyon, France)
LouisLouis Jean Lumière
October 5, 1864
June 6, 1948 (aged 83) (Bandol, French Riviera)
OccupationFilmmakers
EducationLa Martiniere Lyon
ParentsClaude-Antoine Lumière (1840–1895)
AwardsElliott Cresson Medal (1909)



































Bombay(Mumbai) Esplanade 1905

Watson's Hotel is located in Mumbai
Watson's hotel, now known as Esplanade Mansions at Kala Ghoda
Coordinates18.9283°N 72.8311°E
Structural systemCast iron
TownMumbai
CountryIndia
ClientJohn Watson
Started1867
Completed1869
ArchitectRowland Mason Ordish
EngineerRowland Mason Ordish

Oldest photographs in the world1826
Oldest Photograph - History of World's Photography Through 10 Examples | Widewalls















Oldest Photograph - History of World's ...


Edison kinetoscope films 1894 -1896


The Lumiere Brothers' - First films (1895)


The world's first film poster, for 1895's L'Arroseur Arrosé

l'arroseur arrosé:-FILM

Cinematographe Lumière. Museu del Cinema[FILM PROJECTOR 
1896]
The Frenchman Louis Lumiere is often credited as inventing the first motion picture camera in 1895. But in truth, several others had made similar inventions around the same time as Lumiere. What Lumiere invented was a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe, three functions covered in one invention.
 In 1895, Lumiere and his brother were the first to present projected, moving, photographic, pictures to a paying audience of more that one person.


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Later in 1896, Edison showed his improved Vitascope projector and it was the first commercially, successful, projector in the U.S..
Advertisement for the Vitascope motion picture projector

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Sunday, January 9, 2011

Mumbai will honour oldest driving licence holders[ AND SOME CARS AND SCENES FROM THAT ERA] Jan 6, 2011,


MUMBAI: They've seen the city gain dizzying height from their windscreens, watched towers rise from their rearview mirrors and heard the din of honking cars grow around them. Mumbai's oldest driving licence holders, whose wallets have housed the yellowing paper for more than six decades, will be felicitated on January 16 as part of the Western India Automobile Association (WIAA) and Mumbai Traffic Police's celebrations of 90 years of motoring.
Nitin Dossa, executive chairman of WIAA,

describes these senior licence holders as chroniclers of the changing face of the city. That's clear when J M Ashar, an 87-year-old Sion resident and retired insurance officer, fondly remembers sepia-toned days when he took his first ride in a two-door English make Hillman in 1951. "Roads were wide and there were few cars in those days. It was a joy," says Ashar, lamenting the state of traffic now.
Pravin Nanavati, an 83-year-old retired stock broker, too would rather drive down memory lane instead of the choked streets of Mumbai during peak hours. "I drive now in the mornings only when the traffic is slow," he says, remembering how he would drive his father's Morris and then his own Padmini every morning through C P Tank, Chowpatty and Elphinstone on his way to Dalal Street. 
J.J. HOSPITAL BOMBAY 1890'S

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9bDg3POs5wnvZPv_5odKndk-Dik6heaOoZ3TBHnAEDBtBMZ50lciFN3-OHFgXDiiImoXjXdH6LfTOwcQVPs_uyYNBgluJWapU5YUhwhNBF1oV9IG_oXIR_voFJ8O3PqnGUPWPi12ybtr6/s1600/Bombay+Native+Hospital+1843.jpg

Sir (Rustomjee Cowasjee Cursetjee) Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 5th Bt; Sir Charles William Cayzer, 1st Bt; Miss Cayzer; Miss Jejeebhoy; Sir Jamsetjee Manockjee Cursetjee Jejeebhoy, 4th

1902 CAR IN BOMBAY:-[cars were originally called as 'horseless carriages']


BOMBAY FLORA FOUNTAIN (PHOTO BELOW)JUST BEFORE ARRIVAL OF CARS C:1890?SHOWING HORSE PULLED TRAMS AND CARRIAGES;AND WATER TANKERS ON BULLOCK CARTS TO SPRINKLE WATER ON DUSTY ROADS SEEN ON LEFT SIDE OF PICTURE -(NO TAR ROADS THEN) 
BELOW PHOTO:-BOMBAY VICTORIA RAILWAY STATION(NOW C.S.T.STATION)BEFORE ARRIVAL OF CARS 
According to the WIAA, the first car landed in India in 1898 (ONE OF FIRST CARS IN BOMBAY C:1900 IN FORT AREA;PHOTO BELOW )SEE THE REGISTRATION NUMBER PLATE:- JUST NO:36;MAY BE THE 36TH CAR IN BOMBAY ?INDIA?
BELOW:- A NEWS PAPER CUTTING ON EARLY CAR RACE! IN INDIA -1906

OLDS MOBILE CAR 1900
and was driven by a municipal engineer called B H Hewitt. "At the turn of the twentieth century, three Oldsmobiles 

Some other issues remain too, like the stereotype of the woman motorist. Indumati Merchant, one of the licence holders being felicitated, has been zipping up and down since 1949 before she was married. "I used 
BABY FIAT 1940'S
to drive a Baby Fiat

were imported for Jamsetji Tata, attorney Rustom Cama (the estranged husband of political revolutionary Madame Bikaji Cama) and Kavasji Wadia of Bombay Garage. "Within ten years of the first automobiles in Bombay, there were 1,025 cars zipping across the city," says Dossa and adds that the WIAA started as a social club for the elite. "But the concerns were the same then too. Much tarmac has been poured on the roads since, but issues like demand for better roads and affordable fuel remain."


 and I was so short that people could not see me behind the wheel. They would think the car was moving by itself," she says with a smile.

IN SOUTH INDIA :- [1950'S]->THE CARS WERE MAINLY 1930 TO  1940 MODEL FORD; CHEVROLET;MORRIS;AUSTIN ETC 


OLD DRIVING LICENSES :-
1898 DRIVING LICENCE FROM GERMANY[ issued in Linz on the 28th of June 1898, folded document in map 8.2x12,2cm, that time most car companies did not even exist, commercial car production was started 1899 an no car-licence was needed;MAINLY FOR BICYCLE]
enlarge picture - driving licence 1898 Aust
1931 GERMAN DRIVING LICENCE
enlarge picture - book car driving training

1928 DRIVING LICENCE FROM ITALY

1940 DRIVING LICENCE


1943 DRIVING LICENCE(BELOW)

 Thursday, November 25, 2010
 Oldest driver - world record set by Verna Truax
 PARKERSBURG, Iowa, USA--Verna Truax, 105 years old, of Parkersburg, stistill hops into her maroon Pontiac Sunbird LE to go to the grocery store or the doctor's office to get her blood pressure checked and recently renewed her driver's license - setting the new world record for the Oldest driver.
   Photo: Verna Truax, 105 years old, of Parkersburg, still drives her own car and recently renewed her driver's license - setting the world record for the
Oldest driver. Photo by: Rick Chase (enlarge photo)

  Born in 1905, Truax began driving Model T's (when they were the dominant vehicle on the road) in the 1920s with no license at all - "We didn't have to have driver's licenses that long ago," she said - and in that entire time she says she's never been in an accident and never had a speeding ticket.
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