The Fight That Started the Movies – Book

The Fight That Started the Movies – The World Heavyweight Championship, the Birth of Cinema and the First Feature Film by Samuel Hawley (2016) – When you think of the history of the movies you may think of Thomas Edison.  You may even remember that the first commercially shown film was by Edison, called “The Kiss” in 1898.  And as far as that goes, you’d be right.  Except none of that really made the movies what they are today.  Edison didn’t really believe in the technology or the profit-making future of it.  “The Kiss” was a novelty, all of a minute long.  No, what made the movies was the Corbet-Fitzsimmons heavyweight boxing match of 1897.  Because was largely banned in the U.S. at the time promoters thought they saw a way around the ban through the movies.  In order to make that happen, new technologies and equipment had to be invented and then built.  What resulted was the first truly feature length movie of all time.  And the movies would never be the same again.

Hawley has two completely distinct stories that he needs to tell in this book.  First, there is the slow development of the technology to make movies.  Thomas Edison did several pivotal things to create the movies, but he didn’t see them as a money maker.  And in the end, if it wasn’t going to make Edison money, he wasn’t interested.  So the Edison connection moved in random spurts.  But he wasn’t the only person interested in the movies.  There were the playboy Latham brothers, innovative photographer Eadweard Muybridge, Eugene Lauste, a man forgotten by history but creator of what might be the single most important change in projection technology of all time, and William Dickson, who Edison believed betrayed him and never forgave the betrayal.

On the fight side, you have the two contesting heavyweights “Gentleman” Jim Corbett with his “scientific” approach to boxing, the gangly Australian Bob Fitzsimmons, the “Great” John L. Sullivan, and boxing promoter Dan Stuart.  Add in the characters that seem to flock to the boxing world then add in western icons like Bat Masterson and the “hanging judge” Roy Bean.

What he creates is a fascinating look at the amazing history of the earliest days of the movies.  The incredible hurdles that had to be overcome.  Once those challenges were defeated, the movie makers had to seal themselves into a lightproof box for the duration of the shooting and pray everything worked.  Finally, literally at the end of the biggest fight of the day, the action disappears from view.  From the distance of over a century, the incredible frustration of all the primary characters makes you shake your head and chuckle in disbelief.  If they made a movie of it, as the old saying goes, nobody would believe it.

For the student of movie history, this book is a must read.

Why I Liked It – I’m fascinated by the history of the movies.  And this is history I had never heard of before.
Why You Will Like It – A fabulous cast of characters and an edge of your seat “What can possibly go wrong next?” story.

Rating – **** Recommended