In the 1870s, Eadweard Muybridge sparked the motion picture industry with is work at Leland Stanford’s stock farm in Palo Alto. His multi-camera configuration enabled him to capture sequences of images. These could be presented side-by-side on a single page to show indicate the subject’s motion.
Muybridge went on to invent the first motion picture projector. He placed the images around the edge of a circular disk through which a light would shine to project the sequence of images on a white screen.
This inspired other inventors to experiment, leading to the sprocketed film reels we know today.
Over three decades later, one motion picture company, Exactus Photo Film, set up shop in Palo Alto, California. Like Los Angeles, the climate was quite favorable to motion picture filming. That company did not succeed. It was absorbed into a second motion picture company, Palo Alto Film Company, based in Palo Alto. However, that company also did not succeed.
These are their stories.