Lumieres train
I don't know the origin but it has always struck me as highly unlikely as the supposed phenomenon was never reported to have occurred at subsequent screenings (as it logically ought to have done until audiences became accustomed to the new medium). I suspect it is an urban myth. It might also have had its origins in, or been consolidated by, films such as Uncle Josh at the Picture Show (1902?) which posited a naïve, credulous viewer that more sophisticated audiences could laugh at and feel superior to -- again, not so different from more recent moral panics about what media do to other people. Of course it might equally have been a smart bit of fictional self-publicity by the Lumieres themselves.
Nigel Morris
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