But with this smorgasbord of different inventions in the technology of film-making, viewing and projection, what was actually drawing the audiences into the Kinetoscope Parlours, amusement arcades, and viewing theatres (no proper ‘cinemas’ until 1904), was the films themselves – often no more than a minute or two long. Alice Guy Blaché was the first female film director that we know of, and the author of the first narrative film – predating those of Lumiere by a few months.
