Elias Koopman. The company, which eventually became the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, soon became a major competitor to the Edison Company. During the same period, C. Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat modified Jenkins' patented Phantoscope. It was publicly demonstrated in Atlanta in the Autumn of 1895 at the Cotton States Exposition. The two soon parted ways, each claiming credit for the invention. Armat showed the Phantoscope to Raff & Gammon, owners of the Kinetoscope Company, who recognized its profit potential in the face of declining kinetoscope business. They negotiated with Armat to purchase rights to the Phantoscope and approached Edison for his approval. The Edison Manufacturing Company agreed to manufacture the machine and to produce films for it, but on the condition it be advertised as a new Edison invention named the Vitascope. Edison skeptics argue that the Vitascope has a jaded past. In addition, critics claim the Vitascope was nothing more than a repackaging of the phantoscope with slight modifications. The Vitascope's first theatrical exhibition was on April 23, 1896, at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City. Other competitors soon displayed their own projection systems in American theaters, including the re-engineered Eidoloscope, which copied Vitascope innovations; the Lumière Cinématographe, which had already debuted in Europe in 1895; Birt Acres' Kineopticon; and the Biograph, which was marketed by the American Mutoscope Company. The premiere of the Vitascope was a quick response to threat of losing a very large amount of money to the Lumiere Cinematographe, which vaudeville managers were about to invest in. Even though the Lumiere Cinematographe existed since 1895, it had not gained popularity in the US yet, as it had already in the UK. People were going crazy for the Lumiere Cinematographe especially in London. Raff and Gammon recognized that they would get more money and positive exposure by releasing their technology ahead of the Lumiere Cinematographe in the United States. After the Vitascope made its infamous debut in Manhattan, the device was distributed across the nation including exhibitions in Boston, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Portland, Scranton, New Haven, New Orleans, New London, Cleveland, Buffalo, San Francisco, Asbury Park, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and more. The Vitascope's exhibition made its way across 25 cities in one summer. The Vitascope, along with many of the competing projectors, became a popular attraction in variety and vaudeville theaters in cities across the US. Motion pictures soon