Thomas Alva Edison was quite a guy. The word genius would most certainly apply in his particular case. In fact, he was referred to in his time as “the wizard”. Think about just a few of the devices this man is responsible for. Let’s see, the phonograph, telephone, telegraph and much more. Basically he was happy perfecting on all things electrical. Light bulb, anyone? LOL. He worked his magic at a lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey , where he welcomed consultation with many inventors of his day. It was in or around 1888 that historians say he met with Eadweard Muybridge whose work with multiple “cameras” as well as experiments with photography (that is, how many frames per second result in the creation of moving pictures) he came to admire. Ever see the sequence of galloping horses? Great. So it could be considered that Thomas Edison and Mr. Muybridge are the fathers of cinema. But let us not forget that there were a number of clever men in Europe also playing with the possibilities of a “moving slide-show”. Ideas seem to come to fruition in the same time period . Interesting, no? Ideas seem to know when to make their debut on the world stage. Ah, before long the spirit of competition generated by the discovery of the appeal of moving pictures was in full force. Edison ‘s Biograph Company was soon the chief competiton for Nickelodeon and their popular “peep shows” yes, moving slides one frame at a time and very naughty. So Edison’s Biograph Company was really the first film company with many young unbilled players taking their shot at acting in the “movies”. Did you catch that all these lovely youngsters were unbilled? Yep, that was a wonderful way to keep cost down you know. But there came a time when a young lady by the name of Florence Lawrence made such an impact in her numerous appearances in film that the public demanded to know “Who’s that Girl?”(she is the very first film actress to be identified) Soon everyone knew her name and she was also referred to as “the Biograph Girl”. So I guess we could also blame Edison for our current celebrity obsessed culture as well as the the mega bucks those same celebrities can pull in. I’m just saying. More later, caucella
Mr edison invented a lot of things and perfected a few too, but I think it was a guy named alexander bell who invented the ‘ma bell’ telephone……….
) His contribution to the film industry was huge…….. 
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Yes, Mr. Bell perfected it all but Edison invented the microphone component that would eventually become the telephone…….so maybe i’m fudging just a bit….but then again it’s about the ideas coming to fruition. caucella