Using the pseudonym Spectator, Frank E. Woods began the tradition in the June 1908 issue of the New York Dramatic Mirror.
Six years later, the Chicago Tribune began the first regular publication of movie reviews.
The first columnist was Jack Lawson; when he died shortly after the feature’s inauguration, Miss Audrie Alspaugh took over.
Under the pseudonym Kitty Kelly, she turned the review into a force the studios had to reckon with.