Historical information
A Bioscope show was a fairground attraction consisting of a travelling cinema. The heyday of the Bioscope was from the late 1890s until World War I.
Bioscope shows were fronted by the largest fairground organs, and these formed the entire public face of the show . A stage was usually in front of the organ, and dancing girls would entertain the crowds between film shows.
Films shown in the Bioscope were primitive, and the earliest of these were made by the showmen themselves. Later, films were commercially produced.
Bioscope shows were integrated, in Britain at least, into the Variety shows in the huge Music Halls which were built at the end of the nineteenth century.
After the Music Hall Strike of 1907 in London, bioscope operators set up a trade union to represent them. There were about seventy operators in London at this point. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioscope_show)
The Projector was a rather unreliable piece of apparatus, powered by a variety of light sources, including Calcium Oxide (Lime-Light). A Calcium Carbide Burner, or the rather more superior Carbon Arc. All these methods were highly unpredictable & quite frankly...dangerous! Often resulting in explosions, burning down the entire Show! (which is probably why NO original Shows still exist. Alfred Ball's Bioscope, pictured below, built in 1905 was struck by lightning, shortly after the picture was taken! (http://www.circus-entertainer.co.uk/heritage.htm)
In 1909 the first bioscopes pictures were shown at the Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute.
Physical description
Brass and green painted metal film projector
