A tarpaper shack that could be rotated to catch the sun was America’s first motion picture studio. Thomas Edison’s 1888 “Black Maria” put New Jersey at the center of a revolutionary new medium and big-time business. Yes, California’s shoot-all-year climate and untrammeled spaces ultimately won out, but not before stars like Fatty Arbuckle, Douglas Fairbanks, and Theda Bara made movie history in our own backlots.
Click here to leave a commentRead more History, Towns & Schools articles.