The Beginnings Of The Cinema In England,1894-1901: Volume 3: 1898

By John Barnes

Describing in detail one of the most inventive periods in the history of English cinema, the volumes in this celebrated series are already established as classics in their field and represent a major contribution to international film studies. Each volume details the highlights of a single cinematic year, including details of production, manufacturers of equipment, dealers and exhibitors. This is augmented by numerous carefully chosen illustrations and a comprehensive filmography of English films, fiction and non-fiction, for the year. Particular attention is also paid to the ways in which the cinema of other countries affected the English industry.

Volume 3 explains how by 1898 the playbills of almost every prominent English music hall featured cinema shows with musical accompaniment. Producers such as R.W. Paul, G.A. Smith and James Williamson began to experiment with ‘made up’ productions that anticipated cinema’s development as a storytelling medium. The volume also details the technical improvements in film processing and the influence of French and American film production on the English cinema industry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Exeter Press
• Release date: Mar 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9780859899796

John Barnes

John Barnes (b. 1957) is the author of more than thirty novels and numerous short stories. His most popular novels include the national bestseller Encounter with Tiber (co-written with Buzz Aldrin), Mother of Storms (finalist for both the Hugo and Nebula awards), Tales of the Madman Underground (winner of the Michael L. Printz Award), and One for the Morning Glory, among others. His most recent novel is The Last President (2013).

Book preview

The Beginnings of the Cinema in England

1894–1901

______

Volume Three: 1898

The Beginnings of the

Cinema in England

1894–1901

______

Volume Three: 1898

John Barnes

UNIVERSITY

of

EXETER

PRESS

First published as ‘Pioneers of the British Film 1898: The Rise of the Photoplay' by Bishopsgate Press Ltd in 1988

Re-issued in 1996 by

University of Exeter Press

Reed Hall, Streatham Drive

Exeter, Devon EX4 4QR

UK

www.exeterpress.co.uk

First paperback edition published 2014

©John Barnes 1988

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holder

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 85989 956 7

Printed in the UK by 4edge Limited

Contents

Foreword

1 Production

2 Exhibition

3 Equipment

4 The American Connection

Appendices

1 British Films of 1898

2 Amendments and Additions to Volume Two

Notes

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank all those who have been of assistance to me in assembling the material for this history. They are named in the acknowledgements to my previous two volumes and I extend to them now a further ‘thank you'. I wish also to include among that company the names of A. S. Clover, Antonio J. Ferreira, A. Videira Santos, Stephen Herbert, Karl Malkames, and G. A. F. Ramsden, as well as the St Ives Printing & Publishing Co. which has undertaken most of the photographic work for the present volume.

In particular I wish to thank my brother William Barnes for his continued support and co-operation.

The author and the publishers would like to thank the British Film Institute for their grant towards the publication costs of this volume and the next volume in the series.

Foreword

This volume is a continuation of the author's two previous books The Beginnings of the Cinema in England and The Rise of the Cinema in Great Britain. Those two books covered the history of the cinema in the United Kingdom up to the end of 1897. The present volume takes us through the year 1898. This was a year in which film producers in England began to turn their attention to the production of simple photoplays, perhaps realising for the first time that the future of the cinema lay in this direction. Among the first producers to grasp the need for this type of film was R. W. Paul, who began to construct a special studio for filming these little plots. France had already taken the lead in the production of made-up films, as these early photoplays came to be called, and other producers in England besides Paul, followed suit. Two Brighton film makers in particular, James Williamson and G. A. Smith, distinguished themselves in this genre by exploring the possibilities of the medium and arriving at fundamental techniques of film narrative.

Although the rise of the photoplay in 1898 was by far the most important development during the year, other achievements also demand our attention. For example, a more dynamic type of exhibitor is to be found, of whom the best and brightest were A. D. Thomas and Walter Gibbons. Technical progress too continued to be made in the manufacture of cinematographic equipment, more particularly in new methods of developing and printing the film. The Warwick Trading Company took the lead in this respect, thanks to equipment invented and designed by Cecil M. Hepworth. Such technical innovations led the way to longer films and consequently to more complex methods of film making.

Our completed history will cover the years 1894-1901. Formerly so little was known about these early years that they might be referred to as the lost years of cinema. Yet in actual fact, the period was one of the most inventive in the history of British cinema.

John Barnes

St Ives, Cornwall

1 Production

1898 was a year of change as far as British film production was concerned. There was a decided trend away from ‘actualities’ to ‘made-up’ films. The previous year had been dominated by the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and films of this event had been so successful that there was a certain reluctance on the part of film makers in England to abandon the field of actuality for the more adventurous one of comedy and drama. So successful in fact had the Jubilee films been that one contemporary writer boldly proclaimed that ‘even in the smallest out-of-the-way villages it would be a difficult matter to find many persons who have not seen this interesting event on the screen.’¹ There can be little doubt that the success of the Jubilee films was one reason why film makers in England continued to favour the production of actuality films when producers in France were already concentrating on the production of ‘made-up’ films and thereby gaining a dominant position in the world film markets which was to last for well over a decade.

One of the first producers in England to take up the French challenge was R. W. Paul. (1) Early in 1898, the exact date has yet to be determined, Paul acquired a site at Sydney Road, Muswell Hill, New Southgate, on which to erect a film studio, which appears to have been the first in England. The earliest reference to it which I have been able to find is an advertisement in The Era of 19 March in which Paul refers to it as ‘my new laboratory, Muswell Hill.’² We know that throughout the summer the studio was busy producing a number of comic and dramatic subjects since The Era refers to this activity when reviewing Paul’s catalogue of the new season’s output:

‘Mr. Robert W. Paul, the inventor of the fireproof Animatographe, has had during the past summer a staff of artists and photographers at work in the north of London with the object of producing a variety of pictures - comic, pathetic, and dramatic, and his judicious choice of subjects is spread over eighty films. Mr. Paul’s pictures are fully described in his new art catalogue, and those managers who require an extra attraction at pantomime time should at once write to 44, Hatton-garden, W.C., for one of these interesting and well-illustrated booklets.’³

Fortunately, a copy of the catalogue has been preserved at the National Film Archive, although in a slightly incomplete state.⁴ Before discussing some of the films listed therein, we will try and discover what this early film studio of Paul’s was like.

As far as I know, the earliest description of a film studio at Muswell Hill is contained in Frederick A. Talbot’s book Moving Pictures: How they are made and worked (London, 1912), in which an illustration is also to be found (2). Talbot’s description is probably based on information supplied by Paul himself, since his name is amongst those appearing in the acknowledgements at the beginning of the book. Here then is Talbot’s account:

‘A plot of land was acquired at New Southgate in North London, and here the first building was erected designed essentially for the staging of picture plays. It was a combination of a theatre with an ordinary photographic studio utilised for portraiture, in a commodious lofty hall, with a proscenium opening measuring 18 feet in width by 13 feet in height. The stage level was about 8 feet above the ground, the under part being available for working effects from below, such as bridges, stage traps, and other artifices of the playhouse. The front wall, which faced the northern sky, was divided vertically so as to permit the sections to be opened out on either side to any required extent to reveal the interior. The front roof, set at a sharp angle was glazed to give top light.

A special platform, running on a wheeled carriage and track, the deck of which was level with the floor of the stage, was laid opposite and at right angles to the proscenium opening, to accommodate the camera and operator. Looking into the studio from this point, one saw a familiar theatre stage, with wings, flies, and other facilities. Such was the earliest venture in what is now one of the most important branches in the cinematographic industry. Upon that stage Paul himself produced several hundred plays of infinite variety, comedy, tragedy, melodrama, farce, and magic.’⁵

1. ROBERT WILLIAM PAUL, MIEE (1869-1943) From an illustration in the Kinematograph Year Book, 1915 (British Film Institute)

Another view of the studio, taken at a later date than Talbot’s, is to be found in Samuel McKechnie, Popular Entertainments Through the Ages (London, 1932) (3).

Many years after the publication of Talbot’s description, Paul gave his own account of the studio:

‘To secure space for taking subjects on a more ambitious scale than was possible in town I purchased a four-acre field at Muswell Hill. Pending the erection of a studio, to be described presently, work proceeded on an open-air stage in an adjacent garden, where temporary buildings accommodated the processing operations. …

In 1899 we commenced work in a studio erected in a corner of the field. I believe it was the first in Great Britain to be designed for cinematograph work, and I will describe it briefly. It comprised a miniature stage, about 28 by 14 feet, raised above the ground level and protected by an iron building with wide sliding doors and a glass roof facing north. At the rear of the stage was a hanging frame on which backcloths, painted in monochrome, could be fixed; the frame could be lowered through a slot to facilitate the work of the scene painter. Traps in the stage, and a hanging bridge above it, provided means for working certain effects. … Eventually a scene-painting room was added behind the studio. A trolley mounted on rails carried the camera, which could thus be set at any required distance from the stage, to suit the subject. Sometimes the trolley was run to or from the stage while the picture was being taken, thus giving a gradual enlargement or reduction of the image on the film. Adjacent to the studio a laboratory was erected with a capacity for processing up to 8,000 feet of film per day. With the valuable aid of Walter Booth and others, hundreds of humorous, dramatic and trick films were produced in the studio. … ’⁶

It would appear from Paul’s account that a temporary out-door stage was at first used and that it was not until 1899 that the studio shown in the illustration (2) was built; yet we have a reference to a new laboratory at Muswell Hill dated 19 March 1898 (see above), and we know that this refers to a studio and not a laboratory in the accepted sense of the word, because it is specifically stated by Paul that ‘special pictures taken to order at my new laboratory, Muswell Hill.’ It would have been impossible at that time for the pictures to have been taken inside a regular laboratory because interior cinematography by artificial light was an accomplishment still some little way in the future. It could be that Paul in citing 1899 as the date for the erection of the studio really had in mind the date when the more substantial brick building adjacent to the studio was erected for housing the processing plant, and that the studio itself was already in existence by then. Paul’s memory could easily have been at fault since his account was given some thirty-eight years after the event.⁷ Whatever the case, an ambitious programme of short fiction films was embarked upon during the summer of 1898. By the end of August, Paul was able to issue a 32-page catalogue with short descriptions of each film and numerous frame illustrations. This is the catalogue already mentioned and which is preserved at the National Film Archive. It is prefaced with an introductory note which is worth quoting:

2. R. W. Paul’s film studio at Sydney Road, Muswell Hill, New Southgate, London, ca 1898-9. The camera and operator were mounted on a platform which travelled upon rails. From an illustration published in Frederick A.Talbot, Moving Pictures (London, 1912) (.Barnes Collection)3. A photograph of Pauls’s studio taken at a later date, showing a closer view of the stage. From an illustration published in Samuel McKechnie, Popular Entertainment Through the Ages (London, 1932) (Barnes Collection)

‘Special attention is drawn to the new series of films, illustrated and described within, which are now issued for the first time. The scenes have been produced at great trouble and expense to attain perfection; backgrounds and accessories have been specially prepared, and the dramatic scenes have been enacted by experienced actors, the action being perfectly natural.

The interest of the pictures is maintained throughout the length of the films; and, the films being sold in various lengths suited to the subjects, there is no waste space, as is usual in the foreign productions.

No film has been included in the series which is not a perfect photograph, and, being taken with a new camera, they are not only perfectly steady on the screen and accurate to the Edison gauge perforations, but contain an amount of detail never before attained.

They are all clear, sharp, and suitable for either electric or lime-light. Each film is carefully tested, and packed in an air-tight tin. … ’⁸

Not all the films listed in the catalogue of course, were made at Muswell Hill, for a substantial number are out-door scenes or actualities, but about a dozen of the made-up films are enacted against painted backcloths, sometimes revealing a carpeted floor, suggesting that they were filmed in a studio of the type shown in the illustration. All but one of these films are staged in one scene, with a single static camera set-up. The exception is the film entitled Exhibition, which comprises two scenes (4). The printed synopsis is as follows:

‘Outside an exhibition building, an old couple from the country take a seat, and begin a meal from their basket to the amusement of the passers-by. Seeing the people entering the art gallery, the old couple put away their sandwiches and enter. The interior is then shown with the old people examining the pictures. The man catches sight of a statue of Venus, and examines it with some glee, when he is discovered by the old lady who leads him away with a most amusing expression.’⁹

The film is also known by the title Come Along, Do! and probably owes its origin to a popular stereoscopic photograph of the period which depicts a similar theme and has the same title (5). The film is of particular significance as it is the earliest known example of an English fiction film made up of two linking scenes, and so marks an important step in the development of narrative film technique.

Other films illustrated in the catalogue show that by a re-arrangement of props, the same painted backcloth could be made to serve two different films; cases in point are Parlour and Lodger; Deserter and Departure; Novice and Monks. Paul also issued new versions of two old favourites. One was The Soldier’s Courtship, re-made as Tommy Atkins in the Park (6) and the other The Twin’s Tea Party (7).

By the end of the year, the number of ‘made-up’ films produced by Paul amounted to no less than forty-one, of which 30 were comedies, 7 dramas, 3 vaudeville and 1 fantasy. Their lengths varied from 40 to 80 feet, but one film featuring Fregoli, the protean artiste in his impersonations of famous composers, ran to 400 feet, although shorter extracts of 40 feet and upwards could also be supplied¹⁰ (8). The special feature of the film was that the appropriate music associated with each of the imitated composers could be played in the theatre, so as to synchronise with Fregoli’s conducting and the movements of the orchestra shown in the foreground of the picture. The effect on the audience was like watching a sound film. The film must have been quite successful, for it was retained in Paul’s lists for a number of years. The following is a description of the film taken from his catalogue dated November, 1901:

4. Exhibition, or Come Along Do! (R.W.Paul, 1898) In two scenes, (a) Exterior of exhibition, (b) The interior. This is the earliest known example of an English fiction film to be made in more than one shot, and marks an important development in narrative film technique (British Film Institute)5. Come Along Do! Stereograph, copyright 1878 by F.G.Weller. Published by the Littleton View Co, New Hampshire, USA, and sold by Underwood & Underwood. This popular stereoscopic photograph may have provided the idea for Paul's film (Barnes Collection)

‘Fregoli takes the conductor’s desk - the orchestra of the Alhambra Theatre forming the foreground of the picture. Stooping an instant, he rises fully made up as Rossini, and, with every trick of gesture and action peculiar to that composer leads the orchestra through the overture of William Tell. He next assumes the characters of Verdi, Mascagni and others. Accompanied by the proper music (particulars of which may be had on application), the series is most entertaining to an educated audience, and quite suited to high-class concert or Sunday exhibitions.’¹¹

6. Courtship, or, Tommy Atkins in the Park (R.W.Paul, 1898) This was a re-make of Paul’s 1896 success The Soldier’s Courtship (Sotherby, King and Chasemore)

Another famous music hall artiste to perform for Paul in 1898, was the court conjuror, Charles Bertram. He appeared in two films, Hail Britannia, and The Vanishing Lady Trick. Harry Lamore, the famous slack-wire performer also appeared in an amusing sketch called Fun on the Clothes Line. Paul also produced several comedies of the knock-about variety, in which two persons inevitably come to blows, e.g. Whitewash or Quarrelsome Neighbours; A Lively Dispute; The Miller and Sweep; and Rival Bill-Stickers. The latter was probably suggested by a lantern slide series popular at the time, and The Miller and Sweep was a variation of a G. A. Smith film made the previous year but now enlivened with the addition of a pretty girl in the cast. Shadowed, or Mistress and Maid was also a variation of a former Smith film, Hanging out the Clothes. More original was Paul’s Difficulties of an Animated Photographer, the first film about the movies perhaps. Another comedy depicted a scene from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield which showed Mr. Bumble, the Beadle courting the workhouse matron, described in the catalogue as ‘extremely funny and natural actions, which causes roars of laughter.’¹² There were several comedies of a domestic kind with decided sociological overtones: High Life Below Stairs; Parlour (11a); and The Servant Difficulty. A film called Stockbroker made use of a very effective device which the catalogue entry made a special point of mentioning:

7. The Twin's Tea Party (R.W.Paul, 1898) A re-make of an old favourite of 1896. From a paper print taken from the original negative (Science Museum, London)8. Fregoli, the Protean Artiste (R.W. Paul, 1898) In his impersonations of famous composers. The full version ran to 400ft (Barnes Collection)

‘A stockbroker is seated in his office when he receives a tape message giving the result of his last speculation. He is much agitated at finding that he is ruined, and attempts to blow out his brains. As the revolver fails to discharge, he smashes his image in a large mirror, producing a novel effect.’¹³

Among the dramatic films produced by Paul was one called The Arrest of a Deserter in which a conscious attempt was made to introduce an element of pathos. A Rescue from Drowning (in two parts) endeavoured to heighten the excitement by including a daring leap from the river bank by one of the rescuers. A film called Birdsnesting is of particular interest as it uses a visual approach which is quite removed from the conventional stage set-up. Instead of the action remaining at a fixed distance, the film ends with the characters approaching the camera. We also detect here the embryo of the chase film. The synopsis in the catalogue is as follows:

‘A ragged youth, assisted by a chum, climbs a tree and finds a nest. An angry farmer threatens him from below, and orders a labourer to climb up also. The youth drops, injuring the old man, who chases him towards the camera.’¹⁴

To end the year, Paul issued a seasonal fantasy called Santa Claus and the Children.

Paul was one of the first producers in England to realise that the future role of the cinema lay in the field of entertainment, and in an advertisement published in The Era on 8 October, he issued what was virtually a manifesto:

‘The cinematograph is played out in the sense that the public no longer rush to see photographs moving; but as a means of entertainment it has never yet been properly exploited. The public have been surfeited with trains, trams, and’buses, and beyond a few scenes, whose humour is too French in nature to please English audiences, the capacity of animated pictures for producing breathless sensation, laughter, and tears has hardly been realised.

The day is past when anything in the way of animated pictures will do for an audience. Exhibitors and managers have been seeking for something new, distinctive, telling, and effective; beyond the occasional presentation of topical scenes, their demands have not been met.

All this is changed, for during the past summer a staff of artists and photographers have been at work in the north of London, with the object of producing a series of animated photographs (eighty in number), each of which tells a tale, whether comic, pathetic, or dramatic; and presents it with such clearness, brilliancy, and telling effect that the attention of the beholders should be rivetted. The comic ones are enough to make a cat laugh, and each leads up to a climax at the finish; while the refined humour of such pictures as the series of four depicting The Servant Difficulty, The Nursery Scene, and Come Along, Do! appeal to the better-class audiences; and the roughest audiences will be moved to tears by such pathetic scenes as the Arrest of a Deserter in the cottage of his aged mother, in the Queen’s name!

The clever and natural acting, combined with the judicious choice of subjects suited to effective pictures, mark a new era. These eighty films, which have been produced regardless of expense, with specially-made dresses and backgrounds, are now ready for issue. Wherever they are shown they will make a sensation; and those exhibitors who are sharp enough to obtain them early will find themselves far ahead of their competitors. They will find managers eager for such a novelty. People will talk of the pictures and the impression they make; and like a good play, they bear seeing again and again; so that such exhibitors will find engagements plentiful.

Even a few of the new subjects will place the exhibition above the common level, while a judicious selection of some of the eighty subjects will, each time a picture is shown, bring down the house.

They are perfect in steadiness, brilliancy, clearness, and durability, and accurate to standard gauge. So fit any machine.

It will probably pay you even to burn your films, and start afresh with a series of the new ones. Do not be forestalled by your rivals.

N.B. - You cannot burn them in the Fireproof Animatographe.

The new films are fully described in a new art catalogue, illustrated with a hundred pictures, reproduced from the films. This catalogue has cost £100 to produce, but will be sent to you post-free, for sixpence, which will be repaid on first order. The price of the films is from thirty shillings, as before, and orders will be executed in rotation. The demand for these films, and enquiries already received, though the catalogue has not yet been issued, are so great that you must not wait, but write for the list at once, even if you are not showing at present. They are excellently adapted to Pantomime shows. You are invited to call and see the films, and also latest improvements in Paul’s Fireproof Animatographe, which is still ahead of all other machines, and costs, with arc or limelight, lantern and lenses, complete on stand, £15.

When used with my films it ensures a technically perfect exhibition, free from flicker or unsteadiness.

Robert W. Paul, 44, Hatton Garden, London, E.C. Telegrams, Calibrate. ‘¹⁵

In addition to the fiction films that we have mentioned, Paul produced a number of topical or news items, as well as several subjects of more general interest. Among the latter were three railway films that were considered of sufficient merit to be retained in Paul’s lists for over five years. They included a view of a London Express bearing down on the audience at close range, described in the catalogue as ‘producing a thrilling effect;’ and Slow Trains and Fast in which ‘an up local train is seen leaving, when a down express dashes past, producing an amusing contrast’. But perhaps the best was one called Crossing the Forth Bridge (9), advertised in 1898, as ‘the finest train picture ever produced’.¹⁶ Paul’s catalogue entry for this film quite vividly captures the scene:

‘Magnificent picture of the Forth Bridge, with an express passing within a few feet of the camera. The express is first seen in the distance, and the effect of the light shining on the engine through the girders is very fine.’¹⁷

It is rather surprising not to find a ‘phantom ride’ included among Paul’s train subjects, as this visual effect was very much in favour at the time. It entailed photographing the scene from the front of a speeding locomotive, a common place enough shot today, but then considered quite a startling novelty. Paul did however take three moving shots of shipping from a tug: Steamers; Shipping on the Thames; and Cory; the latter, a view of an enormous steam floating derrick shown coaling several steamers at once. He also produced three panoramic views, or panning shots, an effect first introduced by the Lumières’ cameraman, A. Promio. Paul’s films showed the Thames Embankment from Cleopatra’s Needle to Waterloo Bridge (Cleopatra); a view of Greenwich Pier and Hospital with passing steamers (Greenwich); and a lively panorama of a fair at Alexandra Palace (Fair).

Paul may not have produced a ‘phantom ride’ in the accepted sense of the term, with the camera mounted on the front of a locomotive, but he did take the idea a step further by taking the camera for a ride on a roller-coaster (10). The effect was even more startling. Of course it should be realised that audiences in those days were not accustomed to such cinematic view-points and would have found the film much more thrilling than we do today. A copy of Switchback, as the film was called, is preserved in the National Film Archive.* It is an interesting film and it still entertains, but its appeal today is far different from that which was originally intended. One of the difficulties of a film historian is being able to transfer himself back in time and to see a particular film through eyes still innocent of the complexities of modern-day cinema.

9. Crossing the Forth Bridge (R.W.Paul, 1898) The express passes within a few feet of the camera and the effect of the light shining on the engine through the girders was regarded at the time as ‘very fine’. From a paper print taken from the original negative (Science Museum, London)10. A Switchback Railway (R.W.Paul, 1898) Filmed from one of the moving cars in the manner of a ‘phantom ride’. From a paper print taken from the original negative (Science Museum, London)

Following the success of West’s Our Navy, to be described later, Paul produced a similar programme called Ashore and Afloat, consisting of a series of