On December 31, 1897, Frederick Blechynden set up a new technology known as a motion picture camera and briefly filmed passing traffic on South Spring Street in Los Angeles. The 25-second shot is the first known motion picture ever made in Los Angeles. The film was created to showcase Edison Manufacturing Company’s new technology advertised as the “animated photograph.”
Source: Produced by James Henry White, filmed by Frederick Blechynden, for the Edison Manufacturing Co. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
