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A Philosophical History of Documentary, 1895–19591908: Burton Holmes

A Philosophical History of Documentary, 1895–1959: 1908: Burton Holmes [This chapter scrutinizes Burton Holmes’s term “travelogue,” which, by 1908, was already in full public use, thanks to the emerging commercial jargon of the recently christened cinema. Holmes’s lecture-shows began much earlier, however. In the fall of 1897 he made his first public appearance with realistic motion pictures he had shot in the piazza in front of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. This lecture and those that followed that season in Chicago are generally acknowledged to be the first time a realistic motion picture was included in a public lecture in the United States. Brownlow calls Holmes “a sort of a Baedeker of illuminated information.” Indeed, Holmes filled houses as large as 2000 seats on a daily basis, each attendee paying two dollars. He became a phenomenon. Throughout the chapter I make repeated reference to Grierson’s critical observation—historical by nature—of the word “travelogue.” I engage with his critique that “travelogue” is the first member of the documentary family tree, a position that leads Grierson to argue that the travelogue bears relations of origin and succession. That is to say, it is both essential and necessary to Documentary.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Philosophical History of Documentary, 1895–19591908: Burton Holmes

Geva, Dan
Springer Journals — Sep 16, 2021
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Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
ISBN
978-3-030-79465-1
Pages
73 –78
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-79466-8_5
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[This chapter scrutinizes Burton Holmes’s term “travelogue,” which, by 1908, was already in full public use, thanks to the emerging commercial jargon of the recently christened cinema. Holmes’s lecture-shows began much earlier, however. In the fall of 1897 he made his first public appearance with realistic motion pictures he had shot in the piazza in front of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. This lecture and those that followed that season in Chicago are generally acknowledged to be the first time a realistic motion picture was included in a public lecture in the United States. Brownlow calls Holmes “a sort of a Baedeker of illuminated information.” Indeed, Holmes filled houses as large as 2000 seats on a daily basis, each attendee paying two dollars. He became a phenomenon. Throughout the chapter I make repeated reference to Grierson’s critical observation—historical by nature—of the word “travelogue.” I engage with his critique that “travelogue” is the first member of the documentary family tree, a position that leads Grierson to argue that the travelogue bears relations of origin and succession. That is to say, it is both essential and necessary to Documentary.]

Published: Sep 16, 2021

Keywords: Travelogue

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