Early cinema’s touch(able) screens: From Uncle Josh to Ali Barbouyou

Last spring a ‘magic moment’ happened at an afternoon screening of Martin Scorsese’s 3D film HUGO (2011). When the end credits were scrolling across the huge screen-wall and the audience was leaving the auditorium, a little girl ran to the front. At first a bit hesitant, she reached up and touched the screen. Then she ran to her father who was waiting for her back at the entrance. Is this the ‘return of the rube in the digital age’, Malte Hagener wondered when he posted the anecdote on Facebook? Why did this little girl want to touch the screen? Was it indeed to find out ‘the location of the images’, as Hagener suggests?