The Beginnings Of The Cinema In England,1894-1901: Volume 1 , livre ebook

The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894–1901
———
Volume One: 1894–1896
( revised and enlarged edition )

The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894–1901
———
Volume One: 1894–1896
( revised and enlarged edition )
John Barnes
edited by Richard Maltby with a foreword by David Robinson
UNIVERSITY of
EXETER PRESS
First published as ‘The Beginnings of the Cinema in England’ by David and Charles in 1976
Revised and enlarged edition published in 1998 by
University of Exeter Press
Reed Hall, Streatham Drive
Exeter, Devon EX4 4QR, UK
www.exeterpress.co.uk
© John Barnes 1976, 1998
First paperback edition published 2014
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 85989 954 3
Typeset in 10/12 pt Times New Roman
by Exe Valley Dataset Ltd, Exeter
Printed in the UK by 4edge Limited
Contents
Illustrations
Foreword by David Robinson
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgements
   1    The Kinetoscope
   2    The Paul–Acres Camera
   3    Paul’s Time Machine
   4    The Theatrograph
   5    The Kinetic Camera and Kineopticon of Birt Acres
   6    The Cinématographe-Lumière
   7    Exploitation of the Theatrograph
   8    Independent Exhibitors of the Theatrograph
   9    Other Inventors and Exhibitors
10    Apparatus from Abroad
11    Royal Film Performances
12    Film Production
13    Conclusion
Appendices
1   British Films of 1895–1896
2   Lumière Films Photographed in the United Kingdom 1896–1897
3   Chronology
Notes
Illustrations
Frontispiece: William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson
1 R.W. Paul’s Kinetoscope
2 Edison Kinetoscope
3 Advertisement for A. Lomax’s Phonograph and Kinetoscope Office
4 Pickaninnies (Edison, 1894)
5 Film cans for Kinetoscope loops
6 Kinetoscope Parlours
7 Dicksons’ booklet, History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope and Kineto-Phonograph
8 The Horse Shoe Hotel, Tottenham Court Road, London and menu card
9 Frame illustrations from five Kinetoscope films
10 Edison’s Kinetoscope Parlour in the Strand
11a Descriptive pamphlet issued by the Continental Commerce Co.
11b Descriptive pamphlet issued by the International Kinetoscope Co.
11c Descriptive pamphlet issued by Edison’s Kinetoscope and Phonograph
12 Robert William Paul
13 Advertisement for Edison Kinetoscopes
14 The sample strip of Kinetoscope film sent by Paul to Edison
15 Letter from Paul to Edison
16 ‘The first Kinetoscope film made in England’
17 Birt Acres
18 Paul’s rotary film perforator
19 Paul’s film printer
20 Birt Acres filming the Derby of 1895
21 Paul’s Cinematograph Camera No. 1
22 Souvenir card issued by Hale’s Tours, London
23 Paul’s first film projector, the Theatrograph
24 Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 1
25 Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 1 adapted for touring
26 Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 1
27 Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 1
28 The intermittent mechanism of Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 1
29 Paul’s intermittent film perforator
30 Paul’s Theatrograph No. 2, Mk 2
31 Paul’s Cinematograph Camera No. 2
32 Souvenir postcard of the Kiel Canal
33 Rough Sea at Dover (Birt Acres, 1895)
34 The Kiel Canal (Birt Acres, 1895)
35 The Kiel Canal , enlargements of two sections
36 The Kinetic Camera of Birt Acres
37 Working drawing for the Kinetic Camera
38 The Birt Acres Experimental Camera
39 The Birtac, patented by Birt Acres in 1898
40 Press notice of the first film projection demonstration in the UK
41 Handbill advertising the Kineoptikon
42 Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist, Sketching Kaiser Wilhelm II (Paul–Acres, 1895)
43 Advertisement for the Kineopticon
44 The Queen’s Hall, People’s Palace, London
45 Programme of the Queen’s Hall
46 Handbill for programme of films by Birt Acres
47 Letter from R.W. Paul to the Lord Chamberlain’s Office
48 Auguste and Louis Lumiere
49 The Cinématographe-Lumière
50 Felicien Trewey
51 Frame enlargement from Partie d’écarté (Lumière, 1896, cat. 73)
52 Felicien Trewey’s booklet on shadowgraphy
53 The Polytechnic, Regent St, London
54 (a) Programme for the Cinématographe-Lumière; (b) Francis Pochet
55 Handbill for the Cinematographe-Lumiere
56 The Empire Theatre, Leicester Square
57 Theatre programmes and Trewey’s booklet on shadowgraphy
58 Handbill for the Cinematographe-Lumiere
59 Advertisement for the Cinematographe-Lumiere
60 Matt Raymond
61 Letter from Trewey to Mr De Vere
62 City and Guilds Technical College, Finsbury
63 The Royal Institution, Albemarle St, London
64 (a) Olympia, Addison Rd, Kensington; (b) official programme
65 Front cover of programme from Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Sq., London
66 Alhambra Theatre
67 Handbill advertising Paul’s Theatrograph
68 Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London
69 Programme of the Royal Canterbury Theatre of Varieties, Westminster Bridge Rd, London
70 The Filoscope, invented by H.W. Short
71 The Soldier’s Courtship (R.W. Paul, 1896)
72 Mary and Flora Hengler
73 The Derby (R.W. Paul, 1896)
74 A Sea Cave Near Lisbon (R.W. Paul, 1896)
75 (a) David Devant; (b) The Egyptian Hall
76 (a) Carl Hertz; (b) SS Norman
77 Programme of the Royal Command Film Performance at Windsor Castle
78 (a) Hercat; (b) Skegness Pier
79 Playbill announcing Cole’s ventriloquist and film entertainment
80 (a) Advertisement for the Victoria Hall, Brighton; (b) The Victoria Hall
81 Posters advertising Paul’s Theatrograph
82 The Royal Aquarium, Westminster
83 Advertisement for Rigg’s Kinematograph
84 Rigg’s Kinematograph and Camera
85 Rigg’s Kinematograph including detail of intermittent mechanism
86 The intermittent mechanism of Rigg’s Kinematograph
87 Alternative mechanism for Rigg’s Kinematograph
88 The intermittent mechanism of Rosenberg’s Cinematograph
89 Rosenberg’s Cinematograph
90 Advertisement for Wrench’s Cinematograph
91 The Wrench Cinematograph
92 The Motorgraph camera and projector
93 Wray’s Kineoptoscope
94 Appleton’s Cieroscope
95 Appleton’s Cieroscope No. 1
96 The Animatoscope
97 The Ottway Animatoscope projector
98 Queen Victoria and royal visitors at Balmoral
99 The Velograph
100 The intermittent mechanism of the Grand Kinematograph
101 The Newman Cinematograph
102 Naish’s Cinematograph
103 John Nevil Maskelyne
104 Poster advertising the Mutagraph
105 The Greene-Prestwich Projector
106 Cabinet photograph by A. Esmé Collings
107 Cabinet photograph taken in studio controlled by Friese-Greene and Collings
108 Dean’s Yard, 25 Ditchling Rise, Brighton
109 Auguste Van Biene
110 Programme of the Anarithmoscope at the People’s Palace
111 Handbill issued by Randall Williams in 1897
112 The Agricultural Hall, Islington
113 The Vitagraphe made by Clement & Gilmer
114 The Kinetographe de Bedts
115 The Kinetographe de Bedts
116 Anderton’s Hotel in Fleet St, London
117 The Chronophotographe of Georges Demeny
118 Cabinet photographs of the Prince and Princess of Wales
119 Marlborough House, London
120 The Ross-Hepworth arc-lamp
121 70 mm film depicting Queen Victoria and Tzar Nicholas II
122 Advertisement issued by the European Blair Co. Ltd
123 George Eastman
124 35 mm film measurer
125 Paul’s developing and drying outfit
126 (a) List of films for the Theatrograph; (b) Incident Outside Clovelly Cottage, Barnet
127 Frame illustrations from two films by Birt Acres
128 Films by Esmé Collings and Birt Acres offered for sale by Romain Talbot
129 Train: Arrival of the Paris Express (Paul, 1896)
130 A Comic Costume Race at the Music Hall Sports
131 Westminster: Street Traffic near the Houses of Parliament
132 Children at Play
133 David Devant: The Egg Laying Man
134 Chirgwin (Hat)
135 Chirgwin (Pipes)
136 Mr Maskelyne Spinning Plates and Basins
137 Blackfriars’ Bridge with passing traffic and pedestrians
138 The Gordon Highlanders
139 The Twins’ Tea Party
140 List of films showing at the Alhambra Theatre
141 Donkey Riding (Esmé Collings, 1896)
Foreword by David Robinson
John and William Barnes are modest men, yet—whether or not the British film community appreciates the fact—they are a national treasure. Perhaps, rather, an international treasure, for they are the undisputed pioneers of scientific film history, in the sense of the uncompromising rigour with which, for some sixty years, they have collected and researched the primary sources.
The twins’ first discovery of cinema, in 1932, when they were twelve, was traumatic. On the day of their father’s funeral, they were given a Pathé-Baby projector, to console them. It did more than that: it launched an obsession, which very soon led them to make films and to collect apparatus, stills and dcuments—all the detritus of film history. The miracle is that so many years after that first discovery, the initial enthusiasm for collecting and recording has never faded, as this revised edition of John Barnes’ account of the first years of the British film proves.
John Barnes has found it necessary to revise very little of the text of the original edition of the book, published twenty-two years ago, even though the sharp-eyed will spot a lot of new information embedded in the story—including the revelations that we have been mistaken for more than a century about the date of the earliest projection of motion pictures in this country.
Taken together, the five volumes that constitute The Beginnings of the Cinema in England represent a monumental achievement. No era of a national cinema has been examined in such depth or with such precision—and at the same time with such vitality. The scholarship is enlivened throughout by personal enthusiasm and affection, by fascination with the words that were written at the time and the look of the original artefacts. That is why these volumes are able to bring to life so vividly