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February 13, 1901
THE FIRST EFFORT TO SHOW A MOVING PICTURE
On February 13, 1901 the Total Abstinence and Benefit Society (TABS) Hall was the site of the first effort to show a moving picture in the province. There was to be a showcase of moving images of famous persons, but due to equipment failure and lack of expertise it was abandoned. A week later on February 19 the film was shown at the British Hall (later known as the Paramount Theatre).
The Frenchman Louis Lumiere is often credited as inventing the first motion picture camera in 1895. In 1895, Lumiere and his brother were the first to present projected, moving, photographic, pictures to a paying audience of more that one person.
The Lumiere brothers were not the first to project film. In 1891, the Edison Company successfully demonstrated the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. Later in 1896, Edison showed his improved Vitascope projector and it was the first commercially, successful, projector in the United States.
Within about an eight-month window during the year 1895, anyone and everyone who had tinkered in the business of producing motion pictures, was now showing them. The world was just now beginning to experience what would soon become one of the most exciting and lucrative new industries known of. As the motion picture projectors were surpassing the nickelodeons and peepshow machines, group screenings became the norm with audiences watching 'movies' in town halls, churches, and schools.
The popularity of this new form of entertainment became lucrative enough for owners of any sized indoor establishment to convert a building or room into makeshift movie theatres. Renovations of these new movie houses were a simple enough task. A sheet for the screen, some rows of chairs or benches and some kind of curtain to keep light out from the front door, and an operator was in business.
Total Abstinence and Benefit Society
The Irish Temperance movement was founded in Cork, Ireland in April 1838 by the "Apostle of Temperance" the Franciscan priest Father Theobald Mathew. In 1841 the movement was introduced to St. John's by Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming's curate, the priest Kyran Walsh.
Members of the TABS enrolled under the society's motto of "Be Sober and Watch", and had taken "the pledge" to abstain from alcoholic beverages. The words of the famous "pledge" which members took was: "I pledge myself with the Divine Assistance that as long as I shall continue a member of this Society I will abstain from all intoxicating liquors unless for medical or religious purposes and that I will discountenance intemperance in others."
The Society was dissolved by a resolution of its members on May 12, 1985.
Recommended Reading: http://www.nickelfestival.com/about/history/
Archival fonds: Total Abstinence and Benefit Society fonds
For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca
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Larry Dohey
Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s
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