A history of the movies (1931)

22 A HISTORY OF THE MOVIES and all producers of films in America were operating in violation of Edison's patents. The lineage of each machine, they alleged, could be traced back to Edison's kinetoscope; and no matter how many devices might have been added, his machine was the father, or the grandfather, of the entire family. Threats of lawsuits did not, however, deter competition. The film industry had entered its first boom stage, and numerous men, deciding they would run the risk of litigation in preference to foregoing the opportunity of quick profits, continued their efforts to devise and manufacture machinery and to produce and trade in pictures. Various moving picture projects bloomed quickly, and died so quickly as to leave almost no trace; impractical machines absorbed the slender capital of some of the promoters, a fire destroyed the models and patterns of one, and quarrels among partners disrupted others. A few individuals and small companies survived and wrote their names large on the early movie scroll. James Stuart Blackton, a clever but none too prosperous painter, had two ways of adding to his income: one, which he called "chalk talks," consisted of a lecture and pictures rapidly drawn in view of the audience; and, when business was dull in lecture halls and on variety stages, and he was at home in New York waiting for engagements, he wrote special articles for newspapers and illustrated them with his own drawings. Tall, handsome, magnetic, with a rich, melodious baritone voice, Blackton always managed to keep busy at one or another of his occupations. In lyceum and variety theater work he became acquainted with a youth named Albert Edward Smith, who followed the profession of public entertainer, usually as a magician; when stage engagements were not available, he fell back on his trade of book-binding. Smith was a quiet chap who liked to stay in his room at night, reading and thinking. After he and Blackton