To make pictorial trips in the cinema darkness was of course tempting, particularly for the working classes, which were the majority of the regular audience. However, to travel in pictures was not new to the film medium.

Even in the peep show Panorama International or Kaiserpanorama, as the attraction was named internationally, seen to the left, there were travels to be made without literally moving your body. Round 1900, there were at least four Kaiserpanoramas' in Sweden, two in Stockholm, one in Gothenburg and one on tour, showing geographic stereoscopic photos.

Panorama international established itself in Stockholm 1889 as a pre-film attraction, and promised in ads, "the cheapest and most comfortable way to travel round the globe". The attraction was popular, and it combined usefulness with pleasure. The reviews for example commented that - as was later the case regarding early non-fictions film - school pupils could learn a lot from a visit.