Mutoscopes in Budapest
While visiting Budapest, Hungary, like most tourists I visited the Matthias Church located on top of the Buda Castle hill.The church and the viewing terrace, called the Fishman’s Bastion, is one of the most visited historic sites in Budapest, Hungary. The church has breathtaking colors & designs inspired by orientalism with Neo-Gothic features. Its steeples overlook the Danube River and the Pest side of Budapest. At night the church is lighted up for all to see from most parts of the city.
The church was used as a coronation church by Hungarian kings for centuries, also a mosque for over 150 years by the Ottoman Turks, and, now a thriving Catholic church. The current building was constructed in the late Gothic style in the second half of the 14th century and was extensively restored in the late 19th century.
Imagine my surprise when I noticed that in the middle of the terrace there was a clamshell mutoscope. It was weatherworn but when I put a coin in it, it was fully working showing views of the Fishman’s Bastion and views from the terrace showing the Pest side of Budapest.
First some history:
The Mutoscope was an early motion picture device. It worked on the same principle as the flip book. Rather than being bound into a booklet, the cards were attached to a circular core, like a huge Rolodex. A reel typically held about 850 cards, giving a viewing time of about a minute.
Mutoscopes were coin-operated. The patron viewed the cards through a single lens enclosed by a hood, similar to the viewing hood of a stereoscope. The cards were generally lit electrically, but the reel was driven by means of a geared-down hand crank. Each machine held only a single reel and was dedicated to the presentation of a single short subject, described by a poster affixed to the machine.
Mutoscopes were originally manufactured from 1895 to 1909 for the American Mutoscope Company. In the 1920s the Mutoscope was licensed to William Rabkin who started his own company, the International Mutoscope Reel Company, which manufactured new reels and also machines in a variety of models from 1926 until 1949.
Mutoscopes were a popular feature of amusement arcades in the US and pleasure piers in the UK from the turn of century to the 1960s when video games became popular. During the 1970s they became a popular with collectors of old coin operated machines. Today they are increasingly in short supply and the original clamshell models can command prices in excess of $7000.
