Page 69 - All About History - Issue 52-17

Magic lantern

for a congregation, creating a blend of melodrama
with moral message and giving the lantern shows
their unique appeal to an audience at that time; the
ability to entertain as well as instruct and guide.
As a piece of mass media the magic lantern
shows had become an advertiser’s dream.
Newspaper and magazine advertising was well
established, but where they were at a disadvantage
was in the ability to cheaply and frequently
reproduce photographic imagery to support their
stories. And the same applied to advertisers.
In an industry where a picture could tell a
thousand words, lanternists became inundated
with offers of free slides from companies wishing
to get as much exposure for their products as
they could through the phenomenon of the magic
lantern show. Products were offered to a captive
audience that was eager to be entertained and, just
like the Church and Temperance groups, happy to
be exposed to a not-so-subtle message.
In a format that was to be copied by both cinema
and later on television, commercial breaks in the
The melodramatic slides
told tales of temptation lantern show were introduced. Major companies
and drunkenness such as Pear’s Soap, Fry’s Chocolate and Bird’s

This lantern had three
lenses that could create
special effects

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