Viral cat videos history : Long before the Internet and TikTok turned cats into stars, Thomas Edison’s film studio was already putting them on camera.
In the late 19th century, Edison’s studio produced short films designed to entertain audiences with simple but striking scenes. The films featured women dancing, bodybuilders flexing, people sneezing and famous couples kissing, as per a report.
Among those early productions was The Boxing Cats (Professor Welton’s), a short film showing cats fighting inside a tiny boxing ring.
Thomas Edison was filming cats before the Internet existed
Edison’s interest in moving images began with an ambition to create a device that would “do for the eye what the phonograph did for the ear,” as quoted by Smithsonian Magazine.
With considerable help from his assistant William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, Edison developed the Kinetograph camera and the Kinetoscope viewing device.
The technology helped Edison build a film business that would eventually play an important role in the development of the American film industry.
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Edison's Black Maria became an early movie studio
Edison began producing films at his own studio, which was nicknamed the Black Maria because the building resembled a police patrol car.
The studio created short films featuring a range of subjects, including Annie Oakley, performers from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and Spanish dancer Carmencita, according to the report.
The films were generally short and simple, offering audiences brief glimpses of people, performances and unusual scenes.
The Boxing Cats showed the appeal of simple videos
The Boxing Cats was one of the early films that captured the kind of simple spectacle audiences could enjoy.
The film showed cats fighting in a tiny boxing ring, offering an early example of how animals could become entertainment subjects on film.
More than a century later, the idea of watching cats do unusual things remains familiar to anyone who spends time watching online videos.
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Early films were made for quick entertainment
The first films produced for audiences were not generally long stories with complex plots.
Instead, they showed simple subjects such as dancing women, bodybuilders, sneezing men and famous couples kissing, as per Smithsonian Magazine.
These early films have been described as the “cinema of attractions” because they presented audiences with brief and amazing glimpses of new technology rather than traditional narrative films.
Edison helped shape the early American film industry
After the Kinetoscope was invented, Edison continued expanding his involvement in film production.
His studio later turned to fiction filmmaker Edwin S. Porter as audiences became more interested in entertaining films shown in storefront theaters known as nickelodeons.
Edison also worked to protect his film-related patents and eventually became part of a 1908 deal that joined his company with Biograph.
However, his dominance did not last forever. Competing studios developed better technologies and more engaging narratives, while Edison’s efforts to synchronize sound and images remained imperfect.
He sold the studio and retired from his film career in 1918.
The early film audience had something in common with today's internet viewers
The films produced during Edison’s era could be watched without audio or dialogue, allowing audiences to enjoy them regardless of language. Viewers could also choose from a variety of short films and discuss their favourites after watching them.
Smithsonian curator Ryan Lintelman compared the experience to the way people view visual content online today, as per the report. Lintelman said, “When you think about it, this is how we use the internet to view visual content today!” as quoted by Smithsonian Magazine. So, while the internet and TikTok transformed the way people watch videos, they did not invent the appeal of watching cats do something entertaining. Thomas Edison’s film studio was already doing it more than a century ago.
