Taking over from theatres and waxworks the early bioscopes or film shows were huge attractions on the fairgrounds.

The fairground was often the first place where the general public could become acquainted with new technological inventions. Take the cinema for example. The first film was produced in 1895. Already in 1896 living pictures were shown at several fairs. Since there were no cinemas as we now know them today, the cinematographic shows at fairs were the occasions par excellence to see the latest celluloid heroes although in Britain at least local films were very popular the slogan being “See yourself as others see you”. The cinematographic shows had their heyday between 1906 and 1912. Around that time all over Europe permanent cinemas were being built and in the period just preceding World War I films were projected in these permanent cinema halls. From that time onwards film-enthusiasts were no longer dependent on the presence of a fair and could watch movies whenever they wanted. In 1895 the Frenchmen Louis and Auguste Lumière gave the first public demonstration of a film. In 1896 moving pictures were introduced at the Bremen fair, by Wanderkino J. Dienstknecht. In the same year the cinematograph (the forerunner of the cinema), operated by C. Slieker, was an attraction at the Leeuwarden fair in the Netherlands. Randall Williams was the man that introduced moving images in England. He showed them for the first time in 1897, at King’s Lynn. In Italy the travelling cinema arose after the turn of the century. On Italian fairgrounds the first moving pictures were shown in Milan in the year 1902. In those days the cinematographs frequently toured across borders. For instance: fairground exhibitors from Northern Italy moved more easily between their home base, the Adriatic countries, Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland than between the North and the South of Italy itself.