Step back in time for a magical moving image display of the Magic Lantern by John Semmens.

Roll up, roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour of innovation, reservation, and satisfaction guaranteed!!!

Step back into a time before television and cinema. To a time of storytelling and the birth of moving images.

As early as the 1840s, people would gather at public halls, churches, and theatres to watch the magic of moving images to illustrate lectures, concerts, pantomimes, and other forms of theatre.

In colonial Victoria, the use of the magic lantern by The Salvation Army was a popular form of entertainment. Captain Joseph Perry while stationed at the Ballarat in 1890, showed informal slide shows of biblical subjects using the magic lantern to finance The Prison Gate program, which supported men after their release from prison.

Join John Semmens as he shares his love and knowledge for a forgotten art of Limelight magic, on one of the best preserved Magic Lanterns in Victoria as he tells the history and performs a display of antique Royal glass slides in readiness for King Charles' Coronation.