The Kinetoscope in McTeague: "The Crowning Scientific Achievement of the Nineteenth Century"

THE KINETOSCOPE IN McTEAG UE: "THE CROWNING SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY" Alfred G. Litton University of South Carolina In assessing Frank Norris' relationship with his middle-class audience , Robert A. Morace observes: "Knowing that there existed a common store of experiences and a common background, he could be reasonably sure that what struck him as new and unusual would strike his readers in the same way."1 This observation is an important one, for in a novel inspired by "a San Francisco murder in late 1893," Norris' reliance on this common knowledge of current events no doubt led him to include in the work references to such "new and unusual" devices as the recently patented, but (by 1899) already obsolete, kinetoscope .2 Although critics have had nothing to say about Norris' inclusion of the kinetoscope in the sixth chapter of McTeague, the device not only figures prominently in the "imagistic network" of the novel, but the reference itself may provide new information about Norris as well.3 Though the theatre scene in the sixth chapter of McTeague is probably best remembered for its depiction of the unfortunate physiological calamity suffered by "Owgooste" Sieppe, it is important to note as well that the description of the variety show itself is a supreme example of Norris' sardonic narrative tone. Among the numerous "lowbrow" acts slated to perform are "the Gleasons in their mirth-moving musical farce" followed by the "Lamont Sisters, Winnie and Violet," "a great array of other 'artists'," and "the feature of the evening, the crowning scientific achievement of the nineteenth century, the kinetoscope."4 While modern readers may be unfamiliar with the kinetoscope, readers at the turn of the century (particularly San Franciscans) were undoubtedly quite familiar with the invention, familiar enough perhaps to realize that the device billed in the Orpheum's programme for that evening could not possibly have been a kinetoscope. In February of 1888, Thomas Edison, stimulated by Eadweard Muybridge's lecture on the Zoopraxiscope sequential photography device, began work on an invention that would produce the optical equivalent of the sound recording of the phonograph. Eventually modifying his device (with the assistance of W. K. L. Dickson) to employ long strips of celluloid film, Edison's kinetoscope, the first "peep-hole, nickel-in-the-slot" motion picture exhibitor, was intro- 108Notes duced early in 1894.5 Initial sales of the machine were encouraging. As of April 23, 1896, a total of 905 kinetoscopes had been manufactured with several of the exhibitors having already been sent to Chicago, New York, Boston, and over fifty other cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe.6 Typically, a number of the machines were available for viewing in "Kinetoscope Parlors." The opening of the San Francisco parlor on May 3, 1894, was made possible by the shipment of five kinetoscopes (at a cost of $500 each) to Peter Bacigalupi, the proprietor of the new parlor that opened for business on June I.7 The booming interest in the new machines seemed to call for an account of just how such a miraculous invention had been developed. Edison's assistant, W. K. L. Dickson, confident in the kinetoscope 's future only one year after the introduction of the machine , proudly presented his own History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kinetophonograph. The work unabashedly claims for the device the position as "the crown and flower of nineteenth century magic."8 But as celebrated as the new device was, within two years of Edison's patent, kinetoscope production virtually came to a halt. Though over 900 machines were produced from 1894 to 1896, only a meager sixty-eight machines were produced from 1896 to the end of 1899.9 Responsible for this demise of the kinetoscope was the vitascope, a motion picture projector invented by Thomas Armat that demonstrated , in an April, 1896, debut in New York, its ability to project images onto a screen, thereby enabling large numbers of people to view a film simultaneously. The invention offered obvious economic advantages. With kinetoscopes, one needed several machines and several copies of films, and customers were required to view films one at a time, often waiting in line. With...