The History of Animation: Etienne Gaspard Robert

Etienne Gaspard Robert, though often known under the stage name "Robertson", was a true Dutch polymath, skilled in many things, namely physics.  However, one of the things he's most famous for, by his own design, is revolutionizing the stage art of phantasmagoria in Paris, a form of horror theater that used "magic lanterns" (early slide projectors similar to Kirscher's).

Indeed, his Phantasmagoria exhibition that began by 1794 was so successful that, three years later, he moved his displays to an abandoned Capuchin monastary to fit the gothic flair of his phantasmagoria, and to adhere to the fascination with ruins that was commonplace at the time.  Capuchin monastaries were especially fitting due to the presence of decorative skulls the monks used to remind themselves of their own mortality.

Robert, or rather, "Robertson", would gather the audience into a skull ridden room with spooky images of fallen heroes of the French Revolution, closing with a spooky final image: An image of the Grim Reaper, saying "the fate that awaits us all."

Angry letters were submitted to magazines from mothers complaining about their children stealing coins to see the show late at night.  Phantasmagoria was a huge hit throughout France, and it became the model of other phantasmagorias to come, even coining the term, "Phantasmagoria".