Thomas Edison, whose laboratory created some of the technology that made movies possible, apparently had a blind spot about the potential of motion pictures. The Wizard of Menlo Park was convinced that movies should be viewed by people individually peering into boxes known as Kinetoscopes rather than projected onto a large screen where a mass audience could watch the film. Edison's view was influenced, one suspects, by the fact that he hoped to build a profitable business manufacturing and selling Kinetoscopes.