became starring attractions on the vaudeville bill. Exhibitors could exhibit films from the Edison inventory. The Edison Company developed its own projector known as the Projectoscope or Projecting Kinetoscope in November 1896, and abandoned marketing the Vitascope. Marketing Thomas Edison and Thomas Armat profited greatly while many investors defaulted, even ending up in the red in some cases. Investors lost money on the Vitascope because of how it was marketed for audiences. Raff and Gammon were in charge of franchising in the US and Canada. They would offer investors the opportunity to buy out the rights to use the Vitascope exclusively in their state. This created somewhat of a monopoly effect for a short time and essentially forced audiences to take whatever the exhibitor was giving them. Raff & Gammon put the cart before the horse when they began their marketing campaign. At the time they only had approximately 20 films for Vaudeville managers to use. They did not have the resources to continually update the audience’s cinematic experience with new films. See also List of film formats References External links History of Edison Motion Pictures: The Shift to Projectors and the Vitascope (1895-1896) Archives and records Raff and Gammon records at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School Audiovisual introductions in 1895 Projectors American inventions