THE VITACOPE COMES TO TORONTO The following is an excerpt from Chapter III of Magic Moments: First 20 Years of Moving Pictures in Toronto (1894-1914). The machinery for the Vitascope [Fig. 1] arrived by express today, the first exhibition in Canada of this latest marvel [but not the first exhibition of projected moving pictures in Canada (1)] of Edison's will be given at [Ottawa's] West End Park on Monday night." (2) The sole right for exhibiting the Vitascope in Canada was secured by the Holland brothers (3) [Fig. 2], of Ottawa, as agents for Raff and Gammon, the American Vitascope promoters. The scheme devised for marketing called for the selling of franchises of Thomas Armat's Vitascope (not Edison's, since Armat had allowed Raff and Gammon to use the Edison label strictly for commercial expediency). For an initial advance payment, an agent [read here, the...
