Abstract
In 1897, Smith began to change his life so that he could become an active participant in the nascent British film industry. He established his ‘film factory’ and began to produce his first non-fiction and fiction films. It is his work of fiction that revealed his authorial identity as he began to concentrate on film comedy, drawing upon his knowledge of popular theatre (as expressed through pantomime) and his work as a lantern lecturer. Smith’s actions in 1897 represent his transition from being a film exhibitor operating in Sussex to becoming a film producer and contractor connected to the growing British market through the establishment of his own film laboratory, the production of his own films and the development of a commercial film processing service.
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Notes
- 1.
Bedding 1898, 409.
- 2.
References to The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger: Paul’s Theatrograph, April 1896, vol. 7, no. 83, 71; Patent Intelligence, April 1896, vol. 7, no. 83, 72–3; A. Lomax, ‘Kinetoscope and Lantern’, vol. 7, no. 87, August 1896, 132–134; G. R. Baker, ‘Animated Photographs’, vol. 7, no. 90, November 1896, 189–190; Edmund Robins, ‘The Development of Kinetograph Films’, vol. 8, no.97, July 1897, 102–103; E. A. Robins, ‘Hints on Exhibiting Cinematographs’, vol. 8, no. 99, August 1897, 129–131.
- 3.
‘Notes’, The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger, vol. 8, no. 98, July 1897, 110.
- 4.
G. Albert Smith, ‘Life of a Cinematographic Film’, The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger, vol. 8, no. 103, December 1897, 216.
- 5.
G. A. Smith, Cash Book, 1898 section, entry for 7 May, 4. It is in the collection of the British Film Institute.
- 6.
Barnes vol. 2. (1996) reproduces the 1897 entries from the Cash Book on pp. 200–211.
- 7.
List derived from Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, pp. 200–202. Hydroquinone, also spelt hydrokinone, was a constituent part of the film developer.
- 8.
List derived from Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, pp. 203–210.
- 9.
The Darling Work Book (in the collection of Hove Museum & Art Gallery) refers to Smith’s film camera on 11, 21, 29, 30 & 31 December 1896 and 1–6 January 1897.
- 10.
Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 26 December 1896, 6.
- 11.
- 12.
Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 24 October 1891, 5.
- 13.
Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 26 December 1896, 6
- 14.
Hampshire Advertiser, 20 January 1897, 2.
- 15.
Hampshire Advertiser, 20 January 1897, 4
- 16.
As established, Collings had presented his film programme with local views in October 1896 in Brighton. In November of that same year, he also took his film show to Portsmouth (50 miles west of Brighton) and its Empire Palace Music Hall, where we can assume he screened his views of Portsmouth (The Era, 14 November 1896, 20).
- 17.
The Era, 13 February 1897, 20.
- 18.
Thanet Advertiser, 27 February 1897, 2.
- 19.
Western Morning News, 10 March 1897, 4.
- 20.
Thanet Advertiser, 27 February 1897, 2.
- 21.
‘Brighton Aquarium’, Sussex Daily News, 30 March 1897, 2.
- 22.
‘Animated Photographs. A Chat with Mr. Albert Smith’, Hove Echo, 8 May 1897, 3.
- 23.
Barnes provides a reliable list of the majority of Smith’s non-fiction of 1897 based on references in the Cash Book and the Warwick Trading Company and Prestwich catalogues of 1898. (Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, pp. 232–236) In addition, there are the Hastings films which are detailed in this chapter.
- 24.
The Kinetoscope films of the contortionist Ena Bertoldi (two films, March–April 1894, Musser 1997, pp. 96–97), the rope and slack wire performer Juan Caicedo (two films, 25 July 1894, Musser 1997, pp. 107–111) and Sandow, the ‘modern Hercules’ (three films, 6 March 1894, Musser 1997, pp. 90–94) were all made at the Edison Black Maria Studio by Dickson and Heise. The Brighton press references are: Bertoldi (‘Brighton Alhambra’, Brighton Herald, 24 April 1897, 3) Caicedo (‘Brighton Alhambra’, Brighton Herald, 8 May 1897, 3) and Sandow (‘Brighton Alhambra’, Brighton Herald, 30 October 1897, 3).
- 25.
A single attempt may have been made by Smith in May 1897 to record a stage act but, for reasons unknown, the film was not completed. This is documented by two references in his Cash Book: ‘midgets coachman’ (20 May) and ‘expenses taking midget’ (21 May) [Barnes, vol. 2 (1996), pp. 204–205]. In Brighton during the month of May 1897, there was one recorded visit by a ‘midget’ to a public venue. This was, ‘Little Mab, The Midget Queen, (20 Inches High), the Smallest Performer in the World, in her Golden Carriage, drawn by the Smallest Pony’ (advertisement for the Brighton Aquarium, Brighton Herald, 1 May 1897, 3). This evidence suggests that either Queen Mab or part of her company were involved with Smith on these dates.
- 26.
It was introduced in contemporary advertising as ‘Brighton and Rottingdean Sea Railway—The Large Sea-Going Car, licensed by the Board of Trade to carry 150 passengers, Runs Daily. Fare: 6D. Each Way’ (advertisement, Brighton Herald, 4 September 1897, 5). Paul would also film this subject in 1897 with his, Rottingdean Electric Railway. Volk’s sea-train was a visionary concept but it was highly impractical as an actual mode of transportation. This three-mile railway, which had a speed of roughly three miles per hour at high tide, closed in 1900 after four years of operation.
- 27.
The surviving print is in the collection of the Arxiu De La Filmoteca De Catalunya, Barcelona.
- 28.
This film list and the catalogue descriptions are drawn from Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, pp. 234–235.
- 29.
‘Animated Photographs. A Chat with Mr. Albert Smith’, Hove Echo, 8 May 1897, 3.
- 30.
- 31.
Bakhtin (1984) uses the mediaeval feast as a metaphor for comedy’s potential to subvert and suspend a society’s rules.
- 32.
‘Mr & Mrs. Tom Green (Clothes Line)’, Cash Book entry for 20 September 1897; Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, p. 208.
- 33.
Early references to Green (born c. 1852) associate him with the Royal Christy’s Minstrels (1871), and both he and his wife Nellie Gordon were members of J. B. Clifford’s stock company at the Lyceum Theatre, Workington (1874). Here he is referred to as the Principal Low Comedian and she as the First Walking Lady. By 1891, they were residents of Shoreham-on-Sea (near Brighton) and he had performed at London’s Empire Theatre of Varieties. (Royal Christy’s Minstrels, The Era, Sunday, 17 Dec., 1871, 16; Lyceum Theatre, Workington, The Era, 16 August 1874, 16; Empire Theatre of Varieties, The Era, 18 May 1885, 19). See Booth for descriptions of a low comedian and the nature of a Victorian theatre company (Booth 1991, pp. 127–128).
- 34.
See Fitzgerald’s make-up manual of 1901 for a contemporary understanding of this practice.
- 35.
‘Blue Beard, Southampton’, The Era, 28 January 1893, 20; ‘Cinderella, Hastings’, The Era, 30 December 1899, 7; ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Hastings’, The Era, 29 December 1900, 25; ‘Red Riding Hood, Hastings’, The Era, 18 January 1902, 10.
- 36.
‘Cinderella’, Brighton Aquarium, The Era, 2 January 1897, 22.
- 37.
The film’s description is found within Smith’s advertisement for his films published in the Photographic Dealer, December 1897; source: Herbert, 1998, p. 45. An iconographical reference for the film is found in Caldecott’s illustrated version of the nursery rhyme of 1880.
- 38.
‘Hanging out the Clothes’, Warwick, 1900, p. 130.
- 39.
The postcard is in the collection of Screen Archive South East. In 1905–1906, Green with his wife and their daughter, Jennie, established a stage act entitled ‘Green, Gordon and Green – the Our New Slavey Trio’, for which they played, respectively, the roles of master, mistress and maid (The Era, 22 July 1905, 29).
- 40.
Cash Book entries for 24 July and 24 September, 1897. Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, pp. 206 & 208.
- 41.
‘David Devant: Miller & Sweep, £2 10s’, Cash Book entry for 9 October 1897. Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, p. 209.
- 42.
Letter to the Brighton Aquarium from Daltrey and Higgins, 25 April 1883, in the collection of Hove Museum & Art Gallery.
- 43.
F. Grove Palmer, The Miller and Sweep. Source: Lester Smith Collection, London.
- 44.
The film’s descriptions: Smith’s advertisement published in the Photographic Dealer, December 1897 (Herbert, 1998, 45); The X Rays, Prestwich, 1898, p. 6.
- 45.
Wolff’s advertisement, Optical Magic Lantern Journal, vol. 8, no. 97, June 1897, xiv. Reference to the purchase is found in the Cash Book, dated 11 December 1897, for payment of £2 13s from Williamson for The Haunted Castle (Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, p. 210). From May 1897, Devant became one of Smith’s regular customers for the purchase of his film prints. He acquired Football, The Miller and the Sweep and The X Rays (Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, pp. 204, 209, 211).
- 46.
The Cash Book lists payments to Tom Green for The X Rays on 6 and 7 October 1897, which suggest that the film was made either on or around these dates (Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, p. 209).
- 47.
References to the ‘new’ photography appeared in English periodicals from February 1896, often with accompanying X-Ray photographs. These included: ‘People Photographed as Skeletons’, The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger, vol. 7, no. 81, February 1896, 19–20; ‘A Photograph of the Invisible’, Pearson’s Magazine, vol. 1, April 1896, 376–380; Alfred Porter, ‘The New Photography’, The Strand, vol. 12, July 1896, 107–117.
- 48.
‘Hove Camera Club Exhibition’, Brighton & Hove Guardian, 24 November 1897, 8. The Hove Echo published an article in 1897 on Williamson’s use of X-rays to examine a gentleman’s fractured arm. (‘How I Spent the Time of the Queen’s Jubilee. A Hove Visitor and the X-Rays’, Hove Echo, 28 August 1897, 3.)
- 49.
‘Making Sausages’, Prestwich 1898, 6.
- 50.
Smith’s advertisement for his films; the Photographic Dealer, December 1897 (Herbert, 1998, 45).
- 51.
See Finson for a history of this song. (Finson 1994, p. 290).
- 52.
‘Brighton Kinematograph Factory—Its Wonders and Humours’, Brighton Herald, 14 October 1899, 2.
- 53.
Musser introduces Edwin Porter’s Dog Factory (1904) as, ‘a simple variation on the often used circus gag (filmed by Lumière and others) in which dogs were turned into sausages’ (Musser 1991, p. 274). This is probably the most advanced sausage film because of its reversal of the comic concept. Rings of sausages hang from hooks on the wall of the Dog Factory, each one described by a label as a particular breed of dog. The customer enters, selects a ring and the proprietor places it into the ‘Transformer’ and the requested dog emerges out of the machine.
- 54.
Maguire & Baucus catalogue as no. 1107, ‘Mechanical Butcher’, (Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, p. 213); Wolff’s list, no. 107, ‘Mechanical Meat Chopping’, Optical Magic Lantern Journal, vol. 8, no. 101, October 1897, xvi.
- 55.
A good expression of this concern is found in Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle (1906).
- 56.
The biograph (the projector), with the mutograph (the camera), were the key elements of the 70mm film system designed by W. K. L. Dickson for the American Mutoscope Company. This large gauge format was superior in picture size and quality to 35mm. The American Biograph, as it was known in Britain, had begun its residency at the Palace Theatre, London, in March 1897.
- 57.
‘The Brighton Alhambra’, Brighton Herald, 13 November 1897, 3.
- 58.
‘Sausages from Cats and Dogs’, Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger, vol. 8, no. 96, May 1897, 78.
- 59.
Hove Echo, 27 November 1897, 5.
- 60.
‘Tipsy, Topsy, Turvey’, Prestwich 1898, 7. Cash Book reference: ‘Mr T. Green. 2 Negatives “Reversal” 7s 6d’ (Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, p. 210).
- 61.
‘The Brighton Alhambra’, Brighton Herald, 13 November 1897, p. 3. Smith’s Tipsy , Topsy, Turvey was a ‘true’ reversing film, the product of either filming the scene with the camera upside down or a particular use of a reversing prism. The reversing effect was also made possible by projecting a film backwards. See Hepworth for his reference to this technique (Hepworth 1897, p. 87).
- 62.
All references to this show are from: Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 10 July 1897, 6.
- 63.
The Era, 5 December 1896, 28.
- 64.
Optical Magic Lantern Journal, vol. 8, no. 97, June 1897, xiv.
- 65.
‘Philipp Wolff for Films’, Optical Magic Lantern Journal, Vol. 8, No. 101, October 1897, xv–xviii.
- 66.
As a precursor to the film catalogue, Pritchard has charted the rise of the photographic trade catalogue. M. Pritchard, ‘The Photographic Trade Catalogue in Britain 1839–1916’, The Ephemerist, June 2009, no. 145.
- 67.
All source figures derived from the Cash Book (Barnes, vol. 2, 1996, pp. 200–211).
- 68.
‘From Mr. G. Albert Smith, of St. Anne’s Well and Gardens, Furze Hill, Brighton, we have received his list of English films for cinematographic projection. Many attractive and amusing subjects are embraced in the list’ (The British Journal of Photography, Supplement, 5 November, 1897, vol. XLIV, 88).
- 69.
Smith’s advertisement, The Photographic Dealer, December 1897 (unpaginated); Herbert, 1998, p. 45.
- 70.
Hove Echo, 27 November 1897, 5.
Resources and Bibliography
Books and Articles
Adriaensens, Vito, and Steven Jacobs. 2015. The Sculptor’s Dream: Tableaux Vivants and Living Statues in the Films of Méliès and Saturn. Early Popular Visual Culture 13 (1): 41–65.
Assael, Brenda. 2006. Art or Indecency? Tableaux Vivants on the London Stage and the Failure of Late Victorian Moral Reform. Journal of British Studies 45 (4): 744–758.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1984. Rabelais and His World. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Barnes, John. 1996. Pioneers of the British Film, The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894–1901, Volume Three: 1898. Exeter: University of Exeter Press; first pub.: London: Bishopsgate Press, 1988). [The first edition of 1988 was dated mistakenly as 1983].
———. 1997. The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894–1901, Volume Five: 1900. Exeter: University of Exeter Press.
Bedding, T., ed. 1898. The British Journal Photographic Almanac and Photographer’s Daily Companion, 1898. London: Henry Greenwood.
Booth, Michael. 1991. Theatre in the Victorian Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Finson, Jon. 1994. The Voices that Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hepworth, Cecil. 1897. Animated Photography, The ABC of the Cinematograph. London:. Hazell, Watson & Viney.
Musser, Charles. 1991. Before the Nickelodeon, Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
———. 1997. Edison Motion Pictures, 1890–1900: An Annotated Filmography. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Rittaud-Hutinet, Jacques. 1990. Auguste et Louis Lumière: Les 1000 premieres films. Paris: Philippe Sers Editeur.
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Gray, F. (2019). 1897: Smith Turns to Film. In: The Brighton School and the Birth of British Film. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17505-4_5
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