Home Cinema Week is in full swing, and so far it has been a joy to delve into topics from 4K projectors to dissecting the definition of home cinema itself.
But we shouldn’t forget the story of how we got to the point of being able to have home cinema systems in our houses. That’s right, we are going way back to the early days of cinema.
I have found the perfect place to venture down this nerdy rabbit hole. Hidden in a residential corner of Kennington in London, there is a rather grand red-brick building with a story to tell.
The building used to be part of Lambeth Workhouse, with notable residents such as a young Charlie Chaplin throughout the late 1800s. It had a life as a hospital, but now it has taken its latest form as the Cinema Museum.
Founded in 1984, the museum is run by volunteers. It acts as a treasure trove to remember and celebrate the history of cinema. There are artefacts and memorabilia everywhere you look, from 100-year-old film cameras to cardboard cut-outs of Lara Croft.
On the top floor is a small cinema featuring plush velvet seats and disused signage, which is still used for screenings throughout the year.
The museum is open on selected dates every month, so I bagged myself a ticket to a tour led by our guide Andy. He tells me that much of the collection was rescued from rubbish bins back in the 1970s in Scotland, when many picture palaces were being demolished at an alarming rate.
Despite it being in the peak of one of the recent UK heatwaves, with everyone glugging from water bottles every few seconds, the volunteers conducted their tour with unrelenting enthusiasm and curiosity.
Really, there is too much to talk about – and I don’t want to spoil all the amazing finds for those of you who want to attend. So, just to whet your appetite, here are my three favourite spots at the museum.
The Latham Loop
One thing that is immediately made clear is that the early days of cinema were not for the faint of heart. It was an incredibly dangerous career, with experiments with new technology leading to numerous deaths and injuries.
Perhaps the most well-known cause of these incidents was the material used for the projector film itself. Early filmmakers tried out a whole bunch of materials, Andy says, from paper to celluloid.
The latter was more durable and flexible than paper, but it was also highly flammable, and the heat from the lamp light source only fanned the flames (so to speak).
That meant that there were countless fatalities during many screenings in the early days of cinema, including the audience members and staff. One of the most infamous examples of this comes from the Paris Bazar fire in 1897, which killed more than 100 people.
On top of that flammability, the celluloid would frequently be pulled and jolted through the projector, which led to rips that left the film unusable. That meant that films could never be very long, as longer lengths risked more of the film being damaged. A small yet essential innovation then made filmmaking a little easier. Enter the Latham Loop, which is – you guessed it – a small loop in the film strip that reduces the tension and pulling of the celluloid.
It’s still used today, and the film cameras scattered around the museum each feature that all-important loop. Keep your eye out for it the next time you have the chance to see a film projector in real life…
The birth of cinema sound
We take audio for granted now, but in the early days of cinema, it was an almost impossible dream.
The Cinema Museum houses a variety of ways that sound was delivered with picture, including vinyl, which had the sound recorded separately and was used until the early 1930s. Andy tells us that this caused its own problems, as the distributors would sometimes send the wrong record with the film. On top of that, the disc would have to be perfectly synced up with the projector, which would certainly be quite a skill to master.
Also on display is a 10-inch record used in the Hepworth Vivaphone. The ultimately unsuccessful audio attempt was made up of a gramophone record that the actors lip-synched along to, meaning you had to make sure the record matched the image.
This was all quite a challenge for cinema managers, and there was a fair bit of pushback as it was expensive and complex to integrate these methods into the cinema itself.
Compared with modern sound systems, where we can adjust voice-sync with the touch of a button, we certainly have it easy.
Frankenstein’s lab
There aren’t a huge amount of movie props around the museum – the focus is more on the behind-the-scenes of the cinema; but this bizarre-looking item sits between both categories.
The strange octopus-like item in the image above is actually a mercury arc rectifier, and its job on early film sets was to convert an AC to a DC current.
When it was being used, it would have a little bit of liquid mercury at the bottom, which would have produced a bright blue light. Sadly, I didn't get to see this in action as it is long out of commission, but it would have looked like something from another planet.
The director of the 1931 Frankenstein movie iteration, James Whale, clearly thought the same, as he spotted it behind the camera during filming and asked for it to be added to the set of the crazed scientist’s laboratory.
The scary-looking piece of kit would not have made a huge impact on screen as it was filmed in black and white, but it still played a key part in movie history. Thank you for your service, strange mechanical Kraken.
If you are looking to delve into the history of cinema with knowledgeable guides and early movie-making kit, the Cinema Museum makes for a fascinating visit. And who knows? It might give you a newfound appreciation for your fast-working AV setup.
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