1889 in film

The following is an overview of the events of 1889 in film, including a list of films released and notable births.

Events

• Eastman Kodak is the first company to begin commercial production of film on a flexible transparent base, celluloid.
• The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film are made in Hyde Park, London by William Friese Greene.
• Wordsworth Donisthorpe invents the Kinesigraph, which photographs a round image on 68 mm film.
• William K. L. Dickson completes his work for Thomas Edison on the Kinetograph cylinder either in this year or 1890. Monkeyshines No. 1 becomes the first film shot on the system.

Films

• Hyde Park Corner, the first moving pictures developed on celluloid film, and Leisurely Pedestrians, Open Topped Buses and Hansom Cabs with Trotting Horses, a lost film, directed by William Friese-Greene
• Monkeyshines No. 1 – contradictory sources indicate this was shot either in June 1889 or November 1890.

Births

• February 3 – Carl Theodor Dreyer, Danish director (died 1981)
• February 8 – Siegfried Kracauer, German movie critic and journalist (died 1966)
• February 23
  • Musidora, French actress, screenwriter, film director (died 1957)
  • Victor Fleming, American director and cinematographer (died 1949)
• April 16 – Charlie Chaplin, British actor and film-maker (died 1977)^[1]
• April 26 – Anita Loos, American writer and producer (died 1981)
• May 3 – Beulah Bondi, American actress (died 1981)
• May 20 – Karin Molander, Swedish actress (died 1978)
• May 31 – Athene Seyler, British actress (died 1990)
• June 11 – Wesley Ruggles, American movie director, producer (died 1972)
• June 15
  • Marjorie Rambeau, American actress (died 1970)
  • Salka Viertel, Austro-Hungarian actress and screenwriter. (died 1978)
• July 27 – Vera Karalli, Russian actress and ballerina (died 1972)
• August 8 – Hans Egede Budtz, Danish actor (died 1968)
• August 24 – Tom London, American actor (died 1963)
• November 10 – Claude Rains, British-American actor (died 1967)
• November 19 – Clifton Webb, American actor (died 1966)

References