Poster for The Vitascope showing a movie audience, watching a large screen with women dancing on it. A small orchestra plays in front of the screen. The theatre has a box which several more people have packed into.
The Library of Congress places the scene in New York, this, combined with the date, would make this the April 23, 1896 reveal of the technology at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City.
Lithographic colour poster, height: 97 cm (38.1 in); width: 73 cm (28.7 in)
No. 1. Published in: The tradition of technology : Landmarks of Western technology ... / Leonard C. Bruno. Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1995, p. 250.
No. 1. Published in: Eyes of the nation : a visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga and curators of the Library of Congress ; historical commentary by Alan Brinkley. New York : Knopf, 1997.
No. 1a. Exhibited: On the Edge of Your Seat: Popular Theater and Film in Early 20th Century American Art, Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2002-03.
No. 1a. Exhibited: "Moving Pictures : The Un-easy Relationship between American Art and Early Film" at the Williams College of Art, MA, and other venues, 2005-2007.
Assessment
This is a featured picture on Wikimedia Commons (Featured pictures) and is considered one of the finest images. See its nomination here. This is a featured picture on the English language Wikipedia (Featured pictures) and is considered one of the finest images. See its nomination here. This is a featured picture on the Persian language Wikipedia (نگارههای برگزیده) and is considered one of the finest images. See its nomination here.
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