21 February, Germany: The founding of the Union Theatre (UT) cinema chain. The first cinema to open is in Frankfurt-am-Main. 24 February, Paris: Méliès has dropped the price of all films made before #640 in his catalogue. Showmen are rushing in to buy up his greatest hits. 25 February, Chicago: Carl Laemmle, a German immigrant who arrived in the US in 1884 at the age of 14, has opened the city's first nickelodeon. 1 March, Paris: The former lawyer Edmond Benoît-Lévy, who published Phono-Gazette last year, has founded a trade union for the cinema industry. March, New York: Adolph Zukor is turning his Hale's Tours into nickelodeons. Marcus Loew is doing the same thing with his penny arcades. 7 April, New York: Vitagraph's latest release is called Humorous phases of funny faces. Produced and animated by J. Stuart Blackton, an artist (with only his arm showing on film) "draws" a series of funny faces on a chalk board, including a line drawing of two faces, a man with an umbrella, a line drawing of two faces in profile, a clown, faces of "Coon and Cohen," the profile of a seated man, and a bottle of Medoc. Use this link to view a clip of this film from the US Library of Congress. 2 May, Rome: The Italian film pioneer Filoteo Alberini has opened a small film theater here called the Cinema Moderno. It is the first in the capital. Having patented an original device, the Kinetografo Alberini as long ago as 1895, Alberini finally formed his own production company last year, and last September presented his first film, La Presa di Roma (also known as La Brescia di Porta Pia). Soon afterwards he opened his first production studio in the Via Appia Nuova. More recently, the firm of Alberini and Santoni has become a joint French-Italian stock company. Known as Cines, it is headed by Baron Alberto Frassini as secretary, the French engineer Pouchain as chairman and Alberini himself as technical director. With many ambitious projects planned for the near future, the company is set to spearhead a rapid advance in Italian production which has lagged behind until now. May, New York: William Fox, the son of Hungarian immigrants, has opened a projection room at 700 Broadway. 24 June, Paris: There was a sad return to Paris for Alice Guy's team after they had finished shooting an adaptation of Frédéric Mistral's poem Mirelle in the Carmargues. Louis Feuillade, a fairly new Gaumont employee and a great aficionado of the bullfight, had the idea of filming out of doors. After a few days at Nimes where Alice was disgusted by the corrida, they had planned to show the film to Mistral, but catastrophe intervened: the negative was completely destroyed by electric discharges. Nevertheless, Alice got to know Herbert Blaché, a young employee of the Gaumont Co. in London. The failed expedition brought them together, and there is already talk of marriage. 11 July, Copenhagen: Ole Olsen, owner of the Biograph Theater cinema, has recently founded a production company, Nordisk Film, in partnership with Arnold Nielsen. Film director Vigo Larsen has already started shooting footage on a variety of subjects for the new venture. 23 July, Chicago: Harry Aiken and John R. Freuler, former real estate agents, have just founded a distribution outlet, the Western Film Exchange. 25 August, New York: According to the latest issue of Views and Film Index, the Vitagraph Company has opened a new film studio in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, and has begun signing up a number of new players. In June, Biograph completed construction of a new stage for filming on East 14th Street, while Edison continues to make good use of his 21st Street studio. Filmmaking is flourishing in New York which, in recent months, has emerged more clearly than ever before as the undisputed center of filmmaking in the country. 15 August, Paris: Pathé has released La Course à la perruque, a highly imaginative film full of comic scenes, that includes a wonderful chase sequence, from the producer Georges Hatot with a scenario by André Heuzé. 30 August, Paris: Charles Urban, G. R. Roger and the financier Ernest May have created the Société générale des cinématographes Eclipse that takes over from the Urban Co. in Paris. Two Gaumont producers, Georges Hatot and Victorin Jasset, have been taken on. 31 August, Paris: Georges Méliès has placed on sale The 400 Blows of the Devil!!!, a fantastic tale in 35 tableaux. It is, in fact, a lenghthened version of the film that Méliès shot in 1905 for the Châtelet Theatre. Victor de Cottens, the author of the play of the same name, had actually requested the master of Montreuil to film a supernatural tale with the intention of screening the film during silent moments of the play. Méliès therefore prepared two films, one entitled The Cyclone and the other Journey into Space, which were well received during their 500 performances at Châtelet. The audience was amazed by the technical boldness of these pictures in which "an apocalyptic horse" and "an astral chariot" make their appearance. The new version lasts approximately 20 minutes, with Georges Méliès playing his favorite role, that of Satan.     Here, he buys the soul of the English engineer William Crackford. In exchange, Satan must procure for him the pleasure of speed, because Crackford has a passion for breaking records. It is there that the famous apocalyptic horse appears, pulling a devilish coach carved in wood. There is a wonderfully effective descent into Hell, and the film ends with a diabolic ballet. Crackford is placed on a spit and roasted over a glowing fire, while demons and female devils dance around him. Méliès has really come to excel in the artistic expression of weird and wonderful images. As usual, he is credited with the scenario and the direction, as well as all the special effects and decor of this wonderful film. 4 October, Paris: Henri Joly, Leopold Lobel, Georges Akar and the financier Dubois de Niermont have founded the new Société des photographes et cinénematographes Lux. October, Chicago: Creation of the Carl Laemmle Film Service, a distribution company. October, New York: James Stuart Blackton has perfected a single-frame technique that creates some interesting effects in two animated films he had completed: Humorous Phases of a Funny Face and The Haunted Hotel. 2 November, Paris: Gaumont's latest innovation is the Elgéphone. It is an amplifier for phonographs that functions on compressed air. Sales are aimed at fairground showmen and cinemas. 15 December, Paris: Since the beginning of the year cinemas have mushroomed on the main boulevards of the French capital. There is the Cinématographe Bonne-Nouvelle, the Select Saint-Denis and another on boulevard Poisonnière. Today sees the opening of Cinématographe Pathé at 5 boulevard Montmartre. On 2 November a new company was formed by Edmond Bénoît-Lévy, Charles Dussaud, Maurice Guegan and Emile Maugras to launch this theatre, which will show only Pathé films. Another luxurious, well-appointed cinema called the Kinéma-Théâtre, owned by Gabriel Kaizer, is opening its doors on the boulevard des Italiens. Grand cinemas are now truly with us. 24 December, Melbourne: Australian director Charles Tait has broken new ground with The Story of Ned Kelly, a biopic of Australia's most famous outlas, which, measuring 4,000 feet, has a running time of about 70 minutes. Premiered at the Athenaeum Hall last night, the film was shot over a period of about six months, much of it on location on Tait's farm. The body armor actually worn by Kelly, including a bullet-proof helmet and jerkin made from ploughshares, was borrowed from Victoria's state museum and worn by the actor playing Kelly. But the actor, a Canadian touring player, disappeared before filming was finished and had to be replaced by an extra who was filmed in long shot. Produced by the theatrical company J. & N. Tait of Melbourne, The Story of Ned Kelly recouped its cost within a week and looks set to earn a handsome profit at home and back in the United Kingdom.