THE HILLMAN WINTER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION SERIES
Presents
A VICTORIAN MAGIC CHRISTMAS
A Collation of Magic Lantern Christmas Slides from the Victorian Era
Part of our Century Project Series
See my Magic Lantern Intro page at my Brandon University site

Magic Lanterns
Projectors & Slide Shows

Ref: Luikerwaal ~ Netherlands
FILM HISTORY BEGAN WITH THE MAGIC-LANTERN
The magic-lantern -- the first projector -- was invented in the 1650s, probably by a prominent Dutch scientist, Christiaan Huygens, and soon became a showman's instrument. By the end of the century, wandering lanternists were putting on small-scale shows in inns and castles, using a lantern lit with a feeble candle. Often these shows featured goblins and devils -- hence the name the "magic lantern." 

By its heyday at the end of the nineteenth century, magic-lanterns were everywhere -- in homes, in churches, in fraternal lodges, in schools, in large-scale halls and theaters, and as a regular part of home and public entertainment. Lanterns came in all sizes and shapes, from toy lanterns for children, to those used in large halls -- huge brass-and-mahogany, double-lens machines lit with "limelight."

The limelight was created when oxygen and hydrogen were squirted on a piece of limestone which turned incandescent once the gases were lit, and produced a light as powerful as that in a modern movie projector. The lantern projected hand-colored slides on a full-sized screen.

The slides -- many of them animated or capable of exotic special effects -- changed every 30 seconds or so, and illustrated stories and songs and comedy, just as the movies would later. In America, the foremost magic-lantern artist was Joseph Boggs Beale.

As the slides were projected in a magic-lantern show, a live showman and musician provided the "soundtrack," and the audience joined in creating sound effects, playing horns and tambourines, and clapping, cheering, and booing, just as in the melodramatic theater of the day. 

SANTA CLAUS VISITS ON CHRISTMAS EVE
A series of 12 original magic lantern slides from the turn of the century.
1. An old fashioned Christmas Eve. The snow has been falling, and everything was covered with a beautiful white mantle. It is night time -- the moon is shining brightly. The windows of the houses are bright with the glare from the log-wood fires, and outside one of the largest houses in the village stand some well wrapped up figures singing, "God bless ye, merrie gentlemen, let nothing you dismay." 
2. Out of the forest comes an old gentleman in a massive dark red coat, with a long white beard, a large sack over his shoulder, and a big cap over his head. Whatever can he be doing this time of the night, and won't he catch cold in his old limbs? Not he!  It is old Santa Claus, the friend of boys and girls everywhere. This is his special night of all the year, and he is going to try to make a happy Christmas for all the youngsters, far and near. Just watch him and see.






CHRISTMAS IN SILHOUETTE
This is a set of four silhouette slides made by the Victor Animatograph Co., depicting scenes of the Nativity.
The slides can be viewed by projecting, holding to the light, placing them on a light box, or against a white background.
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol


The pictures in these 19th century lantern slides resemble the etchings of John Leech,
who illustrated the original edition from 1843.
Ebenezer Scrooge, a penny-pinching miser, cares nothing for the people around him
-- only for the money that can be made through exploitation and intimidation.
He particularly detests Christmas, which he views as
"a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer."
Scrooge is visited, on Christmas Eve, by the ghost of his former partner
Jacob Marley, who died seven Christmas Eves ago.

CHRISTMAS EVENING: TWO SCENES
The harrowing difference between the lives of the rich and the poor.


The Happy Home

Homeless

SANTA CLAUS - 1900

WINTER SCENE ~ 1900


 A Moving Picture of Santa Claus ~ 1916
"'An endless reel of Christmas cheer, With love and kisses for you, my dear."
When the cardboard disc is turned to the left a Christmas Story appears on the screen:
"Now he's going to leave my dear, but if you're good he'll come next year."


The Night Before Christmas

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