1888 in film

Events

• Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge who proposes a scheme for sound film (February 27, West Orange, New Jersey).
• Étienne-Jules Marey starts work on his chronophotographe with 90 mm wide roll paper film.
• Émile Reynaud is the first to use perforated film for use with his animated show, Théâtre Optique.

Films

• Roundhay Garden Scene directed by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince is credited by many as the first film but is actually the second film (after Man Walking Around A Corner, also by Le Prince).
• Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge, directed by Louis Le Prince, is filmed on paper filmstrips.
• Accordion Player, directed by Louis Le Prince.

Births

• 3 January
  • George B. Seitz – American director, writer, actor and producer (died 1944)
  • James Bridie – Scottish writer (died 1951)
• 23 January - Franklin Pangborn – American actor (died 1958)
• 4 March - Rafaela Ottiano – Italian-born American actress (died 1942)
• 5 March - Jules Furthman – American writer, director and producer (died 1966)
• 10 March - Barry Fitzgerald – Irish actor (died 1961)
• 30 March - Anna Q. Nilsson – Swedish-born American actress (died 1974)
• 11 April - Donald Calthrop, English actor (d. 1940)
• 27 April - Florence La Badie – American actress (died 1917)
• 17 May - Claude Mérelle – French actress (died 1976)
• 25 May - Miles Malleson – English actor and writer (died 1969)
• 4 July - Henry Armetta – Italian-born American actor (died 1945)
• 16 July - Percy Kilbride – American actor (died 1964)
• 14 August - Robert Woolsey; Actor (died 1938)
• 17 August - Monty Woolley; Actor (died 1963)
• 12 September - Maurice Chevalier – French actor and singer (died 1972)
• 25 September - Hanna Ralph – German actress (died 1978)
• 26 September - Wally Patch – English actor and writer (died 1970)
• 1 October - John E. Blakeley – English producer, director and writer (died 1958)
• 9 October - Hank Patterson – American actor (died 1975)
• 18 October - Paul Vermoyal, French actor (died 1925)
• 25 October - Lester Cuneo – American actor and producer (died 1925)
• 18 November - Frances Marion – American writer, director, producer and actress (died 1973)
• 23 November - Harpo Marx – American actor and writer (died 1964)
• 24 November - Cathleen Nesbitt – English actress (died 1982)
• 25 November - Amund Rydland – Norwegian actor (died 1967)
• 26 November - Francisco Canaro – Uruguayan-born Argentine composer, producer and actor (died 1964)
• 6 December - Will Hay – English actor, writer and director (died 1949)
• 18 December - Gladys Cooper – English actress (died 1971)
• 22 December - J. Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank – English producer and writer (died 1972)
• 27 December - Thea von Harbou – German actress, writer and director (died 1954)
• 27 December - Svend Melsing – Danish actor and playwright (died 1946)
• 28 December - F. W. Murnau – German director, writer and producer (died 1931)

Deaths

• 23 January - Eugène Marin Labiche – French writer (born 1815)
• 29 January - Edward Lear – German writer (born 1812)
• 6 March - Louisa May Alcott – American writer (born 1832)
• 24 March - Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin – Russian writer (born 1855)
• 12 May - Bedřich Smetana – Czech composer (born 1824)
• 4 July - Theodor Storm – German writer (born 1817)
• 30 July - Bartley Campbell – American writer (born 1843)
• 11 September - Domingo F. Sarmiento – Argentine writer (born 1811)
• 19 November - Edmond Gondinet – French writer (born 1828)

External links

Media related to 1888 in film at Wikimedia Commons

• 1888 at The Internet Movie Database