Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1922)

This photograph record* the first meeting of all of the members of the k. 1/. C. D. Syndicate, September 22, 1895, at Canasiota, N. Y. Left to right —H.N. Marvin, W. K. I.. Dickson, Herman Caster, E. B. Koopman, founders of the world famous American Muloscope <$ Biograph Company, later known to the screen world as "Biograph" Perhaps the most significant among those primitive early through Edison's neglect of his rights, the London copy of the kinetoscope pictures was the subject which portrayed Fred kinetoscope thrived. And in New York and West Orange it Ott, the Edison mechanic, in the throes of a sneeze. It will was being noted by Edison interests with mingled pleasure be recalled that Mr. Ott was the first person to "monkey and alarm that a considerable export business in films was shine" for the motion picture camera, in connection with Edi growing up. son experimental work some years before. But more importantly engaged, a night crew was at work in the Paul workshops, laboring over a model of a projection •"THE sneeze that Mr. Ott tossed off that day in the "Black machine, designed and ordered by Birt Acres, who has been Maria" studio becomes a highly interesting piece of the previously mentioned. Acres as a photographer and student genesis of the modern motion picture. The sneeze was en had a definite idea of a method of putting the kinetoscope tirely accidental, but the photographic effect was excellent. pictures on a screen and he went to Paul as a mechanic to con .<> Interestingly enough it was made very near to the camera, so near that it pictured only Mr. Ott's head and shoulders. This was unquestionably the first close-up — and for a good many years the only one in motion pictures. But the sneeze alone did not take up enough footage to make a full length kinetoscope subject. It was . desirable to pad it a bit and give the sneeze a sufficient length to fill the fifty foot capacity of the kinetoscope spool banks that carried the film. Instantly the scenario was born. The action consisted of having Mr. Ott take a seat at a desk, whereupon a small boy with a pepper-box entered from the rear and shook the sneezeprovoking spice into the air. ...*.. The picture was then cut and assembled. It consisted of two scenes, the long shot of the desk set and the close-up of the sneeze. Thus came the first germ of plot and story telling to the films. Many years were to pass before further possibilities were to be recognized. The kinetoscope business was proving something of a windfall for Robert W. Paul in London. His little shop at 44 Haddon Garden was busy making replicas of the sample Edison kinetoscope brought to him from the World's Fair at Chicago. Unhampered by patent restrictions in Great Britain :„<>.. The Birth of Biograph YV7HEN Henry N. Marvin saw Edison's kinetoscope he * * thought that a simpler machine could be built to present the peep show pictures and do it better. When he and Herman Casler had built the machine they sought Edison pictures to put in the machine. "No," was the decision from the Edison plant. Right then and there was the motion picture's biggest moment. Marvin and Casler had to invent a machine to make their own pictures. Out of that moment came the force that through a long series of dramatic sequences brought to the motion picture and its world the names of Griffith, Pickford, Sweet, Marsh, Gish, Normand, Nielan, Ince, Sennett, and all that glory that was Biograph. vert the drawings into a machine. Sometime late in April or maybe in early May. a few weeks after Woodville Latham's projection success at 35 Frankfort Street in New York, the Acres-Paul machine was complete. It was late in the night when the little crew in the Haddon Garden workshop tightened the last screw and threaded up ' the projector with an Edison film. They turned on the machine and a projected picture flashed upon the wall of the darkened shop. ;■<>• THE whole working crew shouted in exultation. They were beside themselves with excitement. In the street below a solemn London policeman was making his rounds. He paused and hark ened to the outcry. Three o'clock in the morning! The peace and dignity of London was being assaulted. The officer turned in a general alarm. Shortly a squad of helmeted police broke into the Paul workshop. "I say, what's all this?" The workmen quieted down to explain. The policemen, skeptical, remained for a demonstration of the living pictures. Then they cheered, too. Records do not tell what 45