Movies Fill Gaps in Stage Play (Aug, 1939)
Movies Fill Gaps in Stage Play
WHEN you see stage and movie actors present the same play, you notice how much the stage action is limited by its few possible changes of scenery. To remove this handicap, a New York inventor proposes a combined stage-and-movie show, in which movies intermittently “double” for living actors. Suppose a leading character, in the flesh, strides from his house. Simultaneously, the lights dim, the stage darkens, a movie screen moves horizontally across the stage, and a projector takes up the story of his travels and adventures. Meanwhile the stage setting is changed and the living actors take their positions in readiness for a new episode at the character’s destination—say, an office. The movie ends as he arrives, the screen is drawn aside, the lights flash on, and the play continues. New dramatic possibilities are claimed for the plan.
The first multimedia presentation?
Maybe – although I would think “phantasmagorias” (http://en.wikipedia.org…) had that covered before (although, if you -really- wanted to go back, the stage productions and machines created for said production by Hero of Alexandria might be a start).