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34 Bits of Hollywood History That Were Nearly Lost to Time

March 24, 2024

Everything that we know about filmmaking today obviously had to start somewhere. From the first motion picture in 1885 to the first full-frontal nude scene in 1916 (wow, we’re surprised it took that long), a lot has happened on and around a camera. Whether they happened way before or way later that you thought they would, here are some historical firsts in film. Call your bookie and take some over/unders.

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The first movie filmed in color. 1922 CRACKED.COM There are color films that predate this one, but they all required post-production coloring processes. The Toll of the Sea was the first movie actually filmed in color. — Source

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The first full frontal nudity. 1916 CRACKED.COM Annette Kellermann was an Australian swimmer who broke barriers by wearing a scandalous one-piece bathing suit (instead of pantaloons). She later had a robust, nautical-themed film career, including her nude turn in A Daughter of the Gods. — Source

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Thomas Edison

The first movie studio. 1893 CRACKED.COM Thomas Edison's New Jersey studio, The Black Maria, was built for about $600 to produce short films for the Kinetoscope. — Source

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The First Copyrighted Motion Picture

The first copyrighted motion picture. 1894 CRACKED.COM W.K. Dickson copyrighted Fred Ott's Sneeze, a 5-second film of Thomas Edison's assistant snorting some sketchy 1800's stimulant and then, spoiler alert, sneezing. — Source

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Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The rise of martial arts 1970s in western cinema America's fascination with kung fu saw the first Asian leads in U.S movies. Bruce Lee had a formal approach, and Jackie Chan used (and still uses) a more comical Buster Keaton style. For action or comedy, their cinematic martial arts are still a gold standard. CRACKED — Source

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"Wigging"

Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts Associations for stuntwomen 1967 and black stuntmen In 1967, The Stunt Women's Association helped put an end to wigging (a wigged man doubling as a woman), and the Black Stuntmen's Association put an end to paint downs (white stuntmen using makeup to double as various races). Yeesh. CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first car chase stunts 1958 Car stunts had been done (notably 1955's Rebel Without A Cause), but Cary Loftin and his team's work on Thunder Road was ground zero for the modern action movie (although driver safety became a new issue). CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts Yakima Canutt pioneered the industry Instrumental in modern day stunt techniques, he developed horse falls, wagon wrecks, and screen combat over four decades. Не received an honorary Oscar in 1966 for his stunt work, and for developing safety devices that revolutionized the profession. CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first screen 1930s fighting techniques John Wayne and Yakima Canutt began working closely after Canutt stunt-doubled for Wayne in 1932. They pioneered techniques (still in use today) that make fake punches look real on camera. CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The first Academy Award_ 1939 for Best Special Effects. The Rains Came won the first-ever special effects Oscar. Of its $2.5 million budget, $500k was used for flood and earthquake scenes. The effects took almost 50 days, requiring 350 laborers, 14 cameras, and 33 million gallons of water. CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in Practical Effects Bear projection: 1930s A staple in filmmaking Literally filming someone in front of a projector, it was first tried by Norman 0. Dawn in 1913, but standardized with a special screen for 1933's King Kong. Fox won a Technical Achievement Oscar for its use in the 1934 film Liliom. CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in Practical Effects Metropolis and the creation 1927 of the Schüfftan Process At $1.5 million (in 1927 dollars!), Fritz Lang's effects-driven Metropolis was the most expensive movie ever at the time. Eugen Schüfftan created an effect that projected actors into miniature sets that were too large or ornate to be created in full. CRACKED — Source

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The Lost World

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The first full-length 1925 stop-motion animation Stop-motion pioneer Willis O'Brien developed several innovations for The Lost World that are still used today. Не created a technique that joined stop- motion and live-action onscreen at the same time. CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in Practical Effects Hg1 Frank Williams: Grandfather 1916 of the green screen 5 Fig.2. 6 Williams' traveling matte system shot actors or vehicles against a black background and isolated them to be placed on other moving images. It could only work in black and white, but is a direct precursor of blue/green screen technology. CRACKED — Source

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The Glass Shot

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects 1907 The glass shot Known as Hollywood's first effects man, Norman О. Dawn shot real-life footage through painted settings on glass in 1907's Missions of California. This layering could place an in-studio actor on the edge of a cliff, like Chaplin in 1925's The Gold Rush. CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The earliest known 1902 color film footage British inventors Edward Turner and Frederick Lee produced color motion picture tests of Turner's children playing. Не died before perfecting it, but his work led to Kinemacolor in 1906 (the world's first motion picture in natural colors.) CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The first-ever special effect 1895 Shot at Edison Labs in New Jersey, 1895's Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots was the first film to use a visual effect. They used stop- action for her beheading, and since no one had ever seen special effects, viewers thought they actually killed the actress. CRACKED — Source

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CRACKED V RNE VULGARITY HISTORY The most curse words in a movie The honor usually goes to The Wolf of Wall Street because of its popularity in the U.S. But its 715 curse words (569 F- bombs) is overshadowed by 935 F-bombs in the 2014 Canadian film Swearnet. — Source

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Film Firsts

CRACKED VULGARITY HISTORY The F-word becomes the norm in movies In 1973, The Exorcist dropped the F-bomb 13 times, but was the highest grossing movie of the year. That same year, Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets dropped it 49 times, and these profitable, well-made films helped the F-word become more acceptable. — Source

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CRACKED VULGARITY HISTORY - a PORT The first ever X and R ratings Brian De Palma's 1968 film Greetings was slapped with the first ever X rating. Не cut some sexual content to be downgraded to an R rating, but Gordon Flemyng's film The Split was the first ever R rated movie (released one month before Greetings). — Source

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CRACKED VULGARITY HISTORY The first F-word in film The 1967 British film Ulysses was released in the U.K. and the U.S. Actress Barbara Jefford (who plays Molly Bloom) says, O Lord, I wanted to shout out all sorts of things, f*** or sh** or anything at all only not to look ugly... — Source

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Curse Words in Film

CRACKED VULGARITY HISTORY The first audible curse words in film The 1929 Paramount film Glorifying the American Girl has the first curse words in cinema history. They say damn six times, and jackass twice. — Source

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The first motion picture. 1885 GRAGKED.COM Louis Le Prince, aka The Zaddy of Cinematography, was the first to film a moving sequence on a film-like strip with a single lense camera. — Source

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The first karate fight. 1962 CRACKED.COM Frank Sinatra has the honor of inciting the first-ever karate fight in American cinema in The Manchurian Candidate. It looks exactly like a man who is horny for a living pretending to get beat up. — Source

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The First On-Screen Interracial Kiss

The first interracial kiss. 1957 CRACKED.COME Although it was highly controversial, Island in the Sun, a film about interracial romance, was also a box office success. — Source

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The First PG-13 Rating

The first PG-13 rating. 1984 CRACKED.COM Even though it clocked in at 134 acts of violence per hour (Guinness counted), Red Dawn was the first film to officially find itself between PG and R. — Source

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The first CGI. 1973 CRACKED.COM We get to see through the eyes of an evil robot in a scene in Westworld, and it's... boring. The motif was inspired by the first images of the surface of Mars. — Source

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The first $100 million movie. 1975 CRACKED.COM Jaws was one of the first films to be released nationwide, all at once, instead of slowly rolled out across the country. That helped it crush the barrier and score $260 million on its first run. — Source

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Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first quantum 1920s leap in danger Buster Keaton's hilarious and life-threatening stunts raised the bar. In 1928's Steamboat Bill, Jr. a two- ton house falls as he stands precisely in its open window, and in 1924's Sherlock, Jr. a gush of water breaks his neck! Let's not forget 1926's The General. CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first realistic 1920 sword fighting In 1920's The Mark of Zorro, Douglas Fairbanks brought in a fencing master, creating the first realistic on-screen swordplay. Prior to this, films had primitive whacking, but this opened doors for the countless swashbuckling films to come. CRACKED — Source

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Charlie Chaplin

Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts Charlie Chaplin 1914 Beginning in 1914, Chaplin became known as one of Hollywood's first stars, and had the second- ever million dollar contract. As a vaudevillian and slapstick comic, he did all of his own stunts. CRACKED — Source

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The Keystone Kops

Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first ever stunt team 1912 $ From 1912 to 1917, a group of prize-fighters, acrobats, clowns, race car drivers, and vaudevillians performed a range of stunts and pratfalls in The Keystone Kops film series. They're widely regarded as the first stunt team. CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first paid stuntman 1908 Maybe previous stunts were undocumented, but the first recorded payment to a stuntman was in 1908's The Count of Monte Cristo, where an acrobat was paid $5 to jump off a cliff upside down into the sea. CRACKED — Source

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Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first stuntman 1903 In the Guinness Book of World Records as the first stuntman, Frank Hanaway landed a part in 1903's The Great Train Robbery for his ability to fall off a horse without injuring himself. CRACKED — Source

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