The Beginnings Of The Cinema In England,1894-1901: Volume 5 , livre ebook

The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894–1901
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Volume Five: 1900
The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894–1901
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Volume Five: 1900
John Barnes
With an Introduction by Richard Maltby
UNIVERSITY of EXETER PRESS
First published in 1997 by University of Exeter Press
Reed Hall, Streatham Drive
Exeter, Devon EX4 4QR, UK
www.exeterpress.co.uk
Text © John Barnes 1997
Introduction © Richard Maltby 1997
First paperback edition published 2014
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 0 85989 958 1
Typeset in 10/12 pt Times New Roman by Exe Valley Dataset Ltd, Exeter
Printed in the UK by 4edge Limited
Contents
Illustrations
Publisher’s Acknowledgements
Introduction : Richard Maltby
Foreword
1.   Three Pioneers—Paul, Acres, and Hepworth
2.   The South Coast Filmmakers—Smith, Williamson, and West
3.   American and French Connections
4.   Manufacturers and Dealers
5.   Exhibitors
6.   Home Movies
Appendix 1:  British Films of 1900
Appendix 2:  Revised List of Biograph Films for the Year 1899
Appendix 3:  Amendments and Additions to Volume 4
Epilogue and Acknowledgements
Notes
Illustrations
1 R. W. Paul’s film laboratory at Muswell Hill
2 Circular announcing the opening of R. W. Paul’s Animatographe Depôt
3 R. W. Paul’s Animatographe Depôt
4 The New Century Animatographe
5 His Mother’s Portrait (R. W. Paul, 1900)
6 The Soldier’s Dream (engraved by Edmund Evans)
7 Diving for Treasure (R. W. Paul, 1900)
8 The Hindoo Jugglers (R. W. Paul, 1900)
9 A Railway Collision (R. W. Paul, 1900)
10 Plucked from the Burning (R. W. Paul, 1900)
11 The Hair-Breadth Escape of Jack Shephard (R. W. Paul, 1900)
12 The Last Days of Pompeii (R. W. Paul, 1900)
13 A Naughty Story (R. W. Paul, 1900)
14 Army Life; or How Soldiers are Made . Front cover of brochure
15 Cronje’s Surrender to Lord Roberts (R. W. Paul, 1900)
16 Entry of Scots’ Guards into Bloemfontein (R. W. Paul, 1900)
17 The Royal Engineers’ Balloon (R. W. Paul, 1900)
18 Wrotham Cottage, Barnet. Birt Acres’ residence and workshop, 1896–1897
19 Film Coating machine used by Birt Acres
20 Film splitting machine used by Birt Acres
21 Cecil M. Hepworth in Algiers
22 Explosion of a Motor Car (Cecil M. Hepworth, 1900)
23 How it Feels to be Run Over (Cecil M. Hepworth, 1900)
24 Cecil M. Hepworth’s first studio
25 Advertisement for Hepworth’s developing and printing services
26 A Quick Shave and Brush-up (G. A. Smith, 1900)
27 The Grimacer . Articulated magic lantern slide
28 Grandma’s Reading Glass (G. A. Smith, 1900)
29 The entrance to St Ann’s Well, Furze Hill, Hove
30 As Seen Through the Telescope (G. A. Smith, 1900)
31 A Photograph Taken From Our Area Window (G. A. Smith, 1901)
32 The House That Jack Built (G. A. Smith, 1900)
33 Advertisement for A. H. Tee’s Animated Pictures
34 G. A. Smith in his office, Furze Hill, Hove
35 G. A. Smith arranging a film set, St Ann’s Well, Hove
36 The Warwick Trading Company’s Brighton Works at St Ann’s Well
37 Brighton Aquarium
38 Interior of the Brighton Aquarium
39 Brighton Aquarium programme, 29 March 1897
40 Notice of a comic harlequinade and shadow pantomime, Brighton Aquarium
41 Attack on a China Mission (James A. Williamson, 1900), frame illustrations from the Charles Urban Trading Co., catalogue
42 Attack on a China Mission , text and illustrations from Urban’s catalogue
43 Attack on a China Mission , page from Urban’s catalogue
44 Attack on a China Mission , frame enlargement
45 Postcard from J. A. Williamson
46 Advertisement for J. A. Williamson’s cinematograph Film Works, Hove
47 Hove town hall
48 Brighton sea front at the turn of the century
49 Handbill for West’s ‘Our Navy’
50 Palace Theatre of Varieties, London and premises of the British Mutoscope & Biograph Co.
51 Charles Morton
52 Photographers arriving in South Africa to cover the Boer War
53 W. K.-L. Dickson with Mutagraph camera, South Africa
54 Biograph films of the Boer War, photographed by W. K.-L. Dickson
55 Biograph films of the Boer War, photographed by W K.-L. Dickson
56 W. K.-L. Dickson with E. B. Koopman
57 Jack Wiggins
58 Advertisement for the Warwick Trading Company
59 The Boer War: Joseph Rosenthal with Bioscope cameras and cart
60 The Boer War: Joseph Rosenthal filming
61 A thumbnail cinematograph of Lord Roberts at Capetown
62 The Boer War: war correspondents
63 Blair Film Works, Foot’s Cray, Kent, 1900
64 Warwick Bioscope 35 mm Projectors
65 Assembling Warwick Bioscope Projectors
66 Warwick Bioscope cameras (Models A and B)
67 Warwick cinematograph accessories
68 The Gaumont Chrono 35 mm Projector
69 Alice Guy
70 Leon Gaumont
71 Blackheath Village, turn of the century, showing W. Butcher & Son
72 Two 35 mm film projectors, W. Butcher & Son
73 Newman & Guardia advertisement
74 Prestwich No. 7 reversing cinematograph projector
75 Prestwick automatic light cut-off
76 Advertisement, A. Rosenberg & Co.
77 Advertisement for Wrench cinematographs
78 The London Hippodrome
79 Matt Raymond
80 The Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly
81 Egyptian Hall programme
82 Walker & Company’s Royal cinematograph
83 Schoolchildren attending a Bioscope show
84 Fairground Bioscope show, Tranmore, Ireland, circa 1900
85 The Great American Bioscope
86 The Picture House, Hill St, Lydney
87 Open-air theatre, Westcliff-on-Sea, Southend, circa 1911
88 W. C. Hughes’ ‘La Petite’ Living Picture Camera
89 Publicity sheet for ‘La Petite’ sub-standard guage cinematograph
90 Hughes’ ‘La Petite’ Projector
91 Chrono de poche, or Pocket Chrono
92 Le Mirographe
93 Advertisement for the Kammatograph
94 The Kammatograph (interior view)
95 Factory of L. Kamm & Co., 27 Powell St, London
96 German toy cinematographs
97 The Kineograph
98 The Filoscope
99 Page from Hamley’s toy catalogue, circa 1900
100 Label on the lid of a Filoscope box
101 Instructions supplied with the Filoscope
102 Casler’s Parlour or Home Mutoscope
103 Royal children and the Mutoscope
104 Le Kinora
105 Advertisement showing the Kinora (Model 1)
106 The Kinora (Model 2)
107 In the Tunnel . A picture postcard
108 Edgar M. Hyman
109 John Benett-Stanford
110 Scenes from ‘King John’
111 Hearts are Trumps
112 The Open-air Theatre, Crystal Palace
113 The Landing of ‘Savage South Africa’ (M & B, 1899)
114 J. Williamson’s chemist shop, 144 Western Rd, Hove
115 John Frederick Tester
116 Leaflet for John Tester’s Scientific Entertainments
117 H.R.H. The Prince of Wales on Board the Royal Yacht Britannia in Nice Harbour (Edisonia, 1897)
118 John Tester
119 Clips from four films photographed by J. F. Tester
120 Handbill announcing the Royal Cinematographe (1897)
121 Cinématographe-Lumière
122 Poster for Lumière’s Triograph
123 Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Procession, 1897; and Funeral Cortège, 1901
University of Exeter Press gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support of the British Film Institute.
The series of which this is the fifth volume is published in association with the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture in the University of Exeter.
Finally, the publisher would like to thank Richard Maltby: for introducing them to John Barnes’ series, for editing the text and for providing the Introduction that gives the contextual background for this publication.
Introduction
RICHARD MALTBY
It is astonishing how soon one grows accustomed to new wonders. Otherwise the exhibition of animated photographs now on view at the West Street concert hall would be nothing short of sensational. As it is we have been trained within a very brief space of time to accept photographic records of events, showing all the life and movement and excitement of a scene, almost as much a matter of course as a newspaper record. The Biograph has speedily taken a place in our life as a supplemental chronicler of the more notable events of the day in all quarters of the world, and a highly interesting chronicler it is, enabling us to realise the spirit of scenes with an actuality and vividness hitherto unattainable.
Brighton Herald , 8 December 1900
This book, the fifth volume of John Barnes’ The Beginnings of the Cinema in England , brings his archaeology of Victorian cinema to a conclusion in the final days of Queen Victoria’s reign. As he shows, these early years were arguably the most inventive in the history of British cinema, as pioneers such as Robert Paul, George Albert Smith and James Williamson experimented with techniques of film narrative on some of the most innovative equipment in the world. Seldom if ever again would British filmmakers make so substantial a creative contribution to world cinema. The moment of British cinema’s greatest influence coincided with the apogee of Empire itself. In 1897, William K.-L. Dickson had returned to Britain to film the celebrations of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, the height of British imperial spectacle at the moment of its greatest self-esteem. Two-and-a-half years later, Dickson sailed from Southampton to take the Biograph to battle in South Africa. The Anglo-Boer War which features so prominently in this volume became by far the largest, the most costly and the most humiliating war fought by Britain during its century of imperial pre-eminence. Despite the displays of jingoism at its outset, by the time the war ended in May 1902 it had drained the imperial enthusiasm of the British people, exposed the Empire’s military vulnerability, and provoked anxieties about the ‘decline of the race’ and the onset of national decadence’. The pictorial record of the war also records, in its off-screen space, the beginnings of the decline of British international influence, cinematic and otherwise.
By 1900, Britain had cea