The arrival of the Kinematograph Company on their
first visit to Thames in 1897 brought together a huge crowd children and
adults, who filled up every available space at an afternoon show at the Academy
of Music. Years before any of the town’s theatres would install their first
cinema screens, the arrival of touring groups who could demonstrate new
technology to the masses were always a welcome addition to the town’s social
calendar. The people had come to these sold-out sessions to see some very
special pictures. Part of a very new and experimental art form, Thames had come
to marvel at the ‘crispness and clearness’ of the company’s ‘animated
photographs’ of Queen Victoria, on the big screen.
The Kinematograph had been ‘voted the finest
instrument of its kind yet seen’ in Auckland, according to the Thames Star in
the week preceding its Thames debut. ‘It speaks volumes for modern scientific
progress,’ continues the Star, ‘when we can witness, in the course of two or
three months, the realistic reproduction of an antipodean pageant which, a few
years ago, could not have been transmitted to us except by photograph, and pen
description.’ Many of the images shown in Thames had been taken during the
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, earlier that year in London. The jubilee
procession had taken place on June 22nd, and had been first
exhibited by Kinematograph in London on June 25th, provoking ‘scenes
of the wildest enthusiasm’ from the audience. Now, just over three months
later, these images of ‘home’ could be enjoyed by new audiences in the
colonies. This quick turnaround
demonstrated that the new technology was ‘yet capable of vast acceleration.’
The newspaper hoped the local schools board would grant a half-day holiday to
allow the children of Thames to attend this important educational event –
judging by the number of children reported in the audience, they got their
wish.
The Thames Star reported that the Diamond Jubilee pictures
were ‘received with loud applause’ by the audience – ‘those wherein Her Majesty
appeared, still louder; whist those showing the Premier and the New Zealand
contingent quite brought down the house.’ The Kinematograph Company also showed
‘the faithful reproduction of a pantomimic burlesque on the famous ‘Faust,’ the
‘Charge of Russian Cavalry’ (wonderful in its reality), Sea Cave (Cornwall) and
Snowballing.’
Those who missed this spectacle did not have long to
wait for the next kinematographic show to reach Thames. The ‘living pictures’
were a staple of the travelling entertainment circuit well into the 1900s.
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