Cinema News and Property Gazette (1912)

10 THE CINEMA. May, 1912. MEN OF THE MOMENT IN THE CINEMATOGRAPH WORLD. No. IV. Mr. James Williamson, of the Williamson Kinematograph Company, Limited. the FTER chatting for a few minutes with Mr. James Williamson, the managing director of the Williamson Kinematograph Company, one realises how far the industry has travelled since the early days when moving pictures first assumed practical form. As a malter of fact, I believe I am right in saying that since retirement of Mr. Paul, Mr. Williamson is now the only man in the trade who was engaged in the production of films in those early days. It is, therefore, only natural that his recollections of those early days, when no one dreamed of the vast possibilities which the future held for the moving picture, are full of interest. Twenty-six years ago. "My start? I must go away back to the eighties— twenty-s'x years ago to be exact — when I went into business ? s a chemist in Brighton. That was long before animated pictures, as we know them today, were even thought of. I took up photography as an additional branch of the business, but became so interested in it that eventually my spare time was largely devoted to it as a hobby. I started the Hove Camera Club, and became its first secretary, and this ultimately led to my connection with the cinematograph industry — I mean, of course, in an indirect way. "Part of my business as secretary of the Hove Camera Club was to introduce anything new that came along, and in this way I was the first to give a demonstration in X Rays in Brighton. In the autumn of 1896 I bought a Wrench projector and about half a dozen short films, and showed these to the members of the Camera Club. But 'how is it done? ' everybody wanted to know, and I set about to find out. In those days there were no trade papers with advertisements of cameras, &c. Those who had them were very careful of them and watched them with jealous eyes. The only one I could learn about was one by Messrs. Lumiere at about /ioo, sold by Mes'rs. Fuerst Bros. But this was not my price. During that winter I managed to fix up the Wrench projector in a box in such a way that I succeeded in taking pictures with it. I was rather proud of this achievement, but it was obviously only a makeshift. About this time pictures were being made in Brighton by Mr. Esme Collings, a photographer who had over his doer ' formerly partner with Mr. W. Frieze Greene,' and Mr. Collings made use of St. Ann's Well and Wild Garden c'ose by for producing some of his pictures. The lessee of this pleasure garden was Mr. G. A. Smith, and I became acquainted with him as a customer for chemicals and so found that he too was experimenting with the kinematograph. First Rotary Perforator. " Although I considered myself a fairly expert photographer in those days, Mr. Smith who had never taken a photograph before went far ahead of me, and during 1897 produced some very excellent subjects. My productions during this time were hardly more than experimental. Later in that year, however, I discovered Alfred Darling, and found that 1 e was the source of all the cameras and appliances, which had enabled Esm6 Collings and G. A. Smith to accomplish their work. And I am bound to admit that as far as I am concerned it was Darling's ingenuity in carrying out our ideas that made work in those early days at all possible, for we were thrown upon our own resources entirely, and were confronted by innumerable difficulties in working cut and per'ecting our apparatus. Darling made the first rotary perforator, I believe, which made perforating easy work. He afterwards designed a camera which has been the standard design now for many years. I might say, by the way, that the camera we have on the market is from Darling's design, but the patent movement is our own. " In those days the average length of a film subject was 60 feet, and my earliest productions were comics, 'Winning the gloves,' ' Washing the sweep,' 'The raughty boys,' and about 20 others of a similar length. The work fascinated me and I determined to ' cut ' the physic business and devote my whole time to i'. Large and commodious works were erected at Wilbury Road, Hove, and there we continued to make films down to the summer of last year when the premises and studio equipment were acqu red by Mr. Charles Urban for the production of Kinemacolor films. Work at Hove. " Our work? Well, yes, we were kept fairly busy in those days at Hove. Some of our best known subjects, such as ' Attack on a China Mission Station,' 'Spring Cleaning,' 'An Interesting Story,' 'Fire! Fire!' (the first subject to be supplied tinted; this was coloured red in the fire part), ' Our new Errand Boy,' and later dramatic subjects, such as ' The Stowaway,' and 'Two Little Waifs,' had quite considerable sales. Most of the sales were in England for in those days showmen bough t their films outright ; renting was quite the exception. However about the year 1908 when picture theatres increased so enormously in America the experts to that country were very large, and English films sold by fifties which buyers would not look at now. We were rather late in getting into this market, but we had fixed up a contract to send fifty copies of everything we made, and this ran for three months only, when we received a cable 'stop all further shipments.' The Trust had come ; the American markets were for some time entirely closed to mo't of the European makers, and remain so for the most part down to the present time. " The immediate result of this was a rush to the London market .if all the makers shut out from America, and later on an overwhelming invasion by the American producers themselves. The Paris Convention was the immediate outcome of this, but the only solid result that I have any recollection of was a sumptuous banquet by Mr. George Eastman of the Kodak Co to the members. I think I have told you sufficient to give you an idea of what I know about the Trade, and I would only wish to add that in my opinion there is no reason whatever why the British producer should not repel this invasion and regain the country for himself. Unfortunately the British capitalist does not believe in picture production ?s a profitable investment. Apparently he is better content to lose his money at the other end." Building up Anew. "We ourselves gave up producing because we realised that the whole business of making pictures required to be handled in an entirely different way. I therefore came to London, and from our Sales Department at 27, Cecil Court, began to build up the business on new lines. We dropped the manufacture of films, and my second son, an engineer, who had been experimenting with cameras and printers, and already had a good sale for them, helped me to start a depot for our machinery, and we then established a renting department, which has since grown to very large proportions. "Various branches of the busit ess kept on growing till last summer we overflowed into iC, Cecil Court, and finding that we required still more room we looked about lor a facte y where we cou'd house all our departments under one roof, and finally we decided upon our present premises in Denmark Street, which we are still busy fitting up as you can see." A Factory Under One Roof. The new premises of the Williamson Kinematograph Compan) are as commodious and well equipped as any in the ttade The whole business is now carried on under one roof — an immense advantage, and one which makes for economy in organisation and administration. Temporally the counting house is on theground floor, but when the alterations are complete this department will be transferred upstairs, and the space available will be used as a