The origin of the loss of the Fourth Wall?

"The Fourth Wall", for the uninitiated, is the wall that separates the movie from the audience, allowing the audience to be spectators to the events depicted. Famously, the Fourth Wall was demolished like the end of a Pink Floyd concert in the 1986 film, Ferris Beuller's Day Off.

In the movie, the main character spent almost as much time talking directly to the audience as he did interacting with the film's other characters, filling us in on plot lines, thoughts and emotions so we got a deeper understanding of what was going on in the movie.

What I'm wondering is, when was this device first used in film? While I'm not film student or expert, I can not think of a single movie prior to FBDO where the device is used. I know John Cusack's character in High Fidelity did it often, and it was used throughout Fight Club, but it seems such an obvious method to really clue the audience in on what the character(s) is/are feeling. Or is that just the reason not to; then you leave little to interpretation?

Best Answer

According to TVTropes, the first use of this was in 1895!:

[The breaking the fourth wall trope] dates back to the Lumière brothers and the first films made for publicviewing in 1895—specifically, The Photographical Congress Arrives in Lyon, in which several of the photographers wave or doff their hats to the camera.

You can see more in the video.

If you don't like that though, the second oldest is Hellzapoppin' (1941):

The characters comment on other plots, they talk to the audience, they talk to the projectionist (and in fact, when the shot goes out of frame, they confront the projectionist, who it turned out was getting a little action in his booth), they deconstruct myths, they talk to still photographs (which come alive), they pause the phrase, mock the movie they're watching and the movie they're in (including muting the soundtrack and making jokes over it MST3K-style), criticize the writing, talk about their roles, use double-exposures deliberately, control the direction, and have a running joke with overlaid wording that "Stinky Miller" needs to go to the lobby because his mother is looking for him, and the characters stop in the middle of a musical number to yell at Stinky, who eventually (in silhouette), gets up and leaves. Whew.

- TVTropes on Hellzapoppin'

The projectionist fight scene described above can be seen here.