Directed by: William K. L. Dickson, William Heise
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “monkeyshine” as: “mischievous or playful activity : PRANK —usually used in plural”. This is an apt title that would have been suitable for Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) as well– people playing around with new technology. It is considered the first motion picture made in the United States and is part of a series of internal tests of the Kinetoscope, followed by Monkeyshines, No.2 and Monkeyshines, No.3. Accounts of whom it features and when it was filmed vary, though general consensus is that it’s either Fred Ott in June 1889 or Giuseppe Sacco Albanese in November 1890 (both men were laboratory assistants for Thomas Edison).
Bibliography
Dirks, T. (n.d.). ‘Greatest Film Milestones Pre-1900s’, filmsite. Available at: http://www.filmsite.org/milestonespre1900s_2.html [Accessed: 18 November 2021].
IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘Monkeyshines, No. 1 (1890)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361921/ [Accessed: 18 November 2021].
Merriam-Webster (n.d.). ‘Monkeyshine’, Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Available at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monkeyshine [Accessed: 18 November 2021].
Wikipedia contributors (2021). ‘Monkeyshines’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 July. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkeyshines [Accessed: 18 November 2021].
Reel Lessons 