The Kinetoscope

Barry Anthony, Richard Brown

Description

The 100th anniversary of cinema was marked throughout the world in 1995/6. Amongst the widespread celebrations it was largely overlooked that genuine motion pictures had been commercially shown 101 years earlier, and that the origins of the film industry lay in a peepshow device rather than the more familiar movie projector. Introduced in New York in April 1894 and in Paris and London later in the same year, Thomas Edison's electrically-driven Kinetoscope was the first practical method of film exhibition. Around a thousand of these state-of-the art machines were manufactured, featuring the first brief fiction films and the earliest newsreels. Techniques such as the close-up and stop-editing were introduced and the 35mm film employed became a universal standard. Edison was able to influence the development of the device in the United States, but he soon lost control of the British and European markets. Spearheaded by two entrepreneurial Greek merchants, George Georgiades and George Tragides, a large and often colorful group of showmen began to exploit the new invention. With Edison neglecting to obtain European patents, his agents fought a losing battle to stem an influx of 'bogus' Kinetoscopes onto the market. Leading the construction of replica Kinetoscopes was a young and ambitious electrical engineer who was to become central to the development of world cinema. In his business arrangements with the Greeks Robert William Paul operated close to the limits of legality, a risk-taking attitude that also led him to enter into a partnership with the notorious fraudster and self-publicist 'Viscount' Hinton. The rush to exploit the Kinetoscope faltered when Edison refused to supply films for pirate machines, but regained momentum when Paul and the American Birt Acres constructed their own camera, shooting the first British movies in March/April 1895. The turbulent and often unlikely events of 1894–5 were a crucial prelude to the birth of British cinema.

The position of the Kinetoscope in film history is central and undisputed. An indication of its importance is provided by the detailed attention American scholars have given to examining its history. However, the Kinetoscope's development in Britain has not been well documented and much current information about it is incomplete and out of date. The purpose of the book is, for the first time, to present a comprehensive account, utilizing many previously unpublished sources. The commercial and technical backgrounds of the Kinetoscope are looked at in detail; the style and content of the earliest British films analyzed; and the device's place in the wider world of Victorian popular entertainment examined. A unique legal case is revealed and a number of previously unrecorded film pioneers are identified and discussed. Each of the three authors are recognized specialists in their chosen area of early British film history, and two of them have collaborated previously in a book-length study of a Victorian film company.

Introduction: An International Perspective and Timeline

Part One [Richard Brown]
Chapter 1. Early Developments
Pre-October 1894 notices in Britain about the Kinetoscope. Exhibition of the 'Electrical Wonder' a forerunner. Original exploitation plans by Colonel Gouraud. The formation of the Continental Commerce Company and their agreement with Edison for the sale of Kinetoscopes in the UK.

Chapter 2. The Arrival of the Kinetoscope in Britain
Initial reaction. Press notices on the opening of the Oxford Street shop. The phonograph business and its background of illegality. Both the Kinetoscope and the phonograph promoted under the 'umbrella' of Edison's name. Leading phonograph personalities, such as J. L. Young and James Hough become interested in the Kinetoscope business. Hough and his connection with the Greeks and Chinnock. Plans to market 'bogus' machines. Arrival on the scene of Robert Paul and Birt Acres.

Chapter 3. The Legal and Historical Context to the Kinetoscope in Britain
The importance of correctly understanding English intellectual property law in interpreting the history of the Kinetoscope. Photographic copyright and how it correctly defines the commercial relationship between Paul and Acres. Claims made by both examined and assessed. The English patent system and Edison's attitude to patents. English patent applications for Kinetoscopes and Kineto-Phonographs. The Merchandise Marks Act and the law relating to 'Passing Off'. The Kinetoscope Court Case. What it did and what it did not do. The incomplete and inaccurate transmission of historical information and the difficulties this has caused to film history before April 1896. The problem of 'manipulation' in the statements of both Acres and Paul.

Chapter 4. Marketing the Kinetoscope ritain
The commercial and operational aspects of Kinetoscope exhibition. The economic base defined. Price behaviour. Profit and capital return periods defined. The importance of West Yorkshire in Kinetoscope history. Cecil Wray, and John Henry Rigg and the design innovation of his 'Baby' Kinetoscope. Other showmen such as James Walker, J. H. Quain, Alfred Lomax and Fred Duval. Advertising methods used.

Chapter 5. Commercial Decline and the Arrival of Projected Film
The decline in both purchase and sale price of machines quantified. Reduction of prices by the Continental Commerce Company. The downgrading 'role' of the Kinetoscope
– from 'star' attraction to peripheral attraction at Church bazaars, etc. Paul sells up his Earl's Court machines. The 'Time Machine' entertainment re-examined. Acres and projected film. Early Acres and Paul demonstrations. January to end of March 1896. Later notices. Ran in parallel with film projection, as it had with the phonograph. Conclusions.

Part Two [Barry Anthony]
Chapter 6. The films of Paul and Acres
Looks at Paul's and Acres' environments in Hatton Garden and Barnet. Study of British Kinetoscope films and their cultural background.

Chapter 7. A Premiere at the Nag's Head
Paul's exploitation of his Kinetoscope and relationship with the notorious Lord Hinton. Break up of Paul/Acres partnership.

Chapter 8. Magic, Magnates and Galvanic Forces
Looks at the careers of Frederick William Trautner/Duval; Samuel Stott/Herr Samuels; 'Professor'Alfred Jones and Alfred Henry Vidler. Also music hall's two main business figures Hugh Moss and Oswald Stoll and their exploitation of Kinetoscope. Discussion of changing face of entertainment. Becoming more family orientated. Creation of large scale entertainment venues.

Chapter 9. The Kaiser's Kinetoscope
Acres filming of the Opening of Kaiser Wilhelm Canal and Sedan Day celebrations. Potential of film as a propaganda medium.

Chapter 10. First Transatlantic Filming
Edison's cameraman Theodore Heise and his short sojourn in Europe. Harry Short's possible filming trip to US in March 1896.

Chapter 11. The Charters Towers Kinetophone Mystery
Compares mysterious Australian Kinetophone films with known phonograph recordings. Looks at Andrew Holland's possible connection. Also examines the importance of celebrities/celebrity in Kinetoscope and film forever after.

Chapter 12. A New World of Entertainment
Looks at social backgrounds of Alfred Lomax, Frederick Dalton and the Simpson brothers and how they fitted into the wider entertainment system. Examines holiday resorts and the Kinetoscope fitting into a world of new technology.

Appendixes
I. The Legal Case; II. List of Kinetoscope Exhibitions in UK; III. List of UK Kinetoscope films (including Acres' German films); IV. Newspaper Review of the play Outcasts of London, July 1895

Sujets

• Película fotográfica
• General officer
• Video
• Documentary film
• Art
• General
• Digital
• Film
• Media
• Cinéma
• Cinema

Informations

• Publié par: John Libbey Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780861969319
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

The Kinetoscope: A British History
This book is dedicated to the memory of Ray Phillips (1920-2017) whose unique work in documenting and replicating the Edison Kinetoscope has contributed greatly to our understanding of the earliest years of the moving image .
The Kinetoscope: A British History
Richard Brown and Barry Anthony
with an additional chapter by Michael Harvey
Foreword by Charles Musser
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
The Kinetoscope: A British History
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 0 86196 730 8 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0 86196 931 9 (Ebook)
Front cover: A reproduction kinetoscope constructed in 2015 by Suphachai Worthong, and exhibited at the Thai Film archive.
The right of Richard Brown to be identified as author of Chapters Two to Six of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The right of Barry Anthony to be identified as author of Chapter One , and Chapters Seven to Thirteen of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The right of Michael Harvey to be identified as author of Chapter Fourteen of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by
John Libbey Publishing Ltd, 205 Crescent Road, East Barnet, Herts EN4 8SB, United Kingdom e-mail: [e-mail] ; web site: www.johnlibbey.com
Distributed Worldwide by
Indiana University Press, Herman B Wells Library-350, 1320 E. 10th St., Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. www.iupress.indiana.edu
2017 Copyright John Libbey Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
Unauthorised duplication contravenes applicable laws.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Contents
Foreword by Charles Musser
Chapter 1 The Kinetoscope: An International Perspective
Chapter 2 The Arrival of the Kinetoscope in Britain and Early Developments
Chapter 3 Cameras and Conflict
Chapter 4 The Legal and Intellectual Property Context
Chapter 5 Marketing the Kinetoscope in Britain
Chapter 6 Commercial Decline and New Beginnings
Chapter 7 Edison s Latest
Chapter 8 The First British Films
Chapter 9 A Premiere at the Nag s Head
Chapter 10 Magic, Magnates and Galvanic Forces
Chapter 11 Birt Acres and the Kaiser s Kinetoscope
Chapter 12 Transatlantic Filming
Chapter 13 Making an Exhibition
Chapter 14 The Machine as Evidence: The Survival or otherwise of the British Kinetoscopes by Michael Harvey
Appendix 1 Kinetoscope Exhibitions in the UK, 1894-1895
Appendix 2 Paul/Acres and Acres Films of 1895
Appendix 3 Outcasts of London and the first portrayal of movie-making on stage
Appendix 4 British Dealers in Kinetoscopes
Appendix 5 The Kinetoscope Legal Action
Bibliography
Index
Biographies of the Authors
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, the authors wish to thank David Robinson for his invaluable help and encouragement during the early stage of this project. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the late Frank Andrews, Jean Anthony, the late John Barnes, Stephen Bottomore, Adam Carter, Reference and Information Librarian, Bury Library; Richard Crangle, Associate Research Fellow, University of Exeter; Bryony Dixon, British Film Institute; the late Geoffrey Donaldson; Frank Gray, Director of Screen Archive South East, University of Brighton; Paul Israel, Director and General Editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University; Elizabeth MacKinney; Luke McKernan, Head Curator, News and Moving Image, British Library; Charles Musser, Professor of American Studies, Film and Media Studies and Theatre Studies, Yale University; Simon Popple, Deputy Head, School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds: Deac Rossell, Lecturer in European Studies, Goldsmith s College, University of London; Irfan Shah; Paul C. Spehr, former Assistant Chief of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress; and Madeleine Stannell.
For the final chapter, Michael Harvey would like to thank former colleague, Toni Booth, at the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford for her help in accessing the Science Museum registry files and her patience in dealing with various enquiries and requests. The quotations from the Science Museum registry files are by kind permission of the Trustees of the Science Museum. Grateful thanks go to the late Ray Phillips and his family for their kindness in allowing quotes from his letters, and to Jeff Oliphant who gave invaluable assistance and insights into American Edison collectors. Thanks also to Stephen Herbert for so generously sharing information and to Gordon Trewinnard for his kind co-operation.
Finally, our gratitude to Le Giornate del Cinema Muto for making the publication of this book possible.
Foreword
Charles Musser
R ichard Brown and Barry Anthony have been long-standing contributors to the intellectual formation focused on the study of early cinema, which emerged as a dynamic field of investigation around the time of the 1978 FIAF Conference in Brighton England and continues to this day. 1 While each have produced significant work in their own right, they may be best known for their previous joint effort, A Victorian Film Enterprise; The History of the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company (1999), which detailed the efforts of a turn-of-the century motion picture syndicate that dominated the high end of film production and exhibition in turn of the century England. Since the publication of this important study, the field of film history has been transformed in at least two respects, both of which are very much on display in their latest undertaking, The Kinetoscope: A British History . First, the digitization of newspapers and other paper documentation has become so extensive that access to potentially relevant data has multiplied exponentially. It is now possible to locate not just one factual needle in the proverbial haystack of printed ephemera but many isolated facts scattered across many such haystacks. As with their current achievement, this enables a more fine-grained sense of the epoch; but it also means scholars can (and must) ask new questions while looking for new and more specific answers to old ones. Second, film history is increasingly practiced under the rubric of media history. More specifically, the history of early cinema - particularly the history of motion pictures in the late nineteenth century - increasingly falls under the rubric of media archeology. 2
Edison s peephole Kinetoscope dominated the field of motion pictures for less than two years (1894-95). The several books that have been written on the subject have focused on the United States and concentrated in large part on motion picture production. 3 Its history in Britain has previously received only the most perfunctory of attention. Using the tools of digital and traditional scholarship, Brown and Anthony show how the Kinetoscope provided a crucial basis for later motion picture developments, not only in Great Britain but in the US and internationally. Edison and his long-standing business associates were frankly inept when it came to effectively exploiting the Kinetoscope in England. By the time that Franck Maguire and Joseph Baucus had taken over, any possibility of a cohesive marketing plan was lost. Maguire Baucus made credible efforts, but what soon occurred was a disorganized free-for-all. Local entrepreneurs - most notably R. W. Paul - began to make knock-off Kinetoscopes and often sold them using Edison s name. While some dealers made illegal dupes of Edison films, Birt Acres and Paul produced an array of innovative short films that could be used in Edison s (and Paul s) Kinetoscopes and featured British and European subject matter. In short Brown and Anthony show how a fledgling infrastructure developed using the Edison film gauge as a standard; and it was this standard that would ultimately prevail worldwide, in part because it flourished outside Edison s control. In other parts of the world, competing motion picture systems often used a different format and/or a different sized film gauge. In the United States, this included Charles Chinnock with his own version of the Kinetoscope, the Lathams with their Eidoloscope system, the Veriscope, and the American Mutoscope Company with its large format cameras and Biograph projectors. In France, the Lumi res, L on Gaumont, Henri Joly and others also employed different film formats. The English, in contrast, pursued extensions of the Edison system and this provided the basis for what ultimately prevailed worldwide.
Given the various British challenges to his Kinetoscope business, we should not be surprised that Thomas A. Edison and his associates were deeply concerned about the imminent invasion of British projectors and films as the new era of projection began. Consider the opening night programme of Edison s Vitascope at Koster Bial s Music Hall on 23 April 1896. Three films by Birt Acres were listed on the programme though only one of them was shown. They screened five others, all of which were made by the Edison Manufacturing Company. The unfamiliar British films would have received a warm reception; instead, the Vitascope people attacked their country of origin. The first film to be projected was a tinted print of Umbrella Dance , with the Leigh sisters. Dance films had been a popular Kinetoscope genre, and the Vitascope programme began by reprising it by featuring two American ladies. Next came Acres Rough Sea at Dover - an English film which seemed to wash away the lovely dancers and threaten the spectators in the