The Picture on the Screen (Gaumont)

According to its IMDB page, The Picture on the Screen was released in the U. S. 100 years ago today. But here’s what’s cool about doing film history in the digital age. We can actually begin to track the exhibition of this film across the country thanks to digitized newspapers. Below are three ads for this film from three different cities and dates:

ADA OKLAHOMA EVENING NEWS (7 October 1911).

 

ALTON EVENING TELEGRAPH (15 December 1911)

SHEBOYGAN WISCONSIN JOURNAL (30 December 1911)

If you’ve read this far, you must be really interested. I’m interested in this film not only because of my research interest in films that depict film spectatorship, but also because this film seems to reverse the gender roles in the dominant narrative about the “movie-struck girl” of the era.