Un programma e un libro a cura di / A programme and a book by Paul Spehr
Introduzione/Introduction
Schede film/Programme notes
Introduction
Even though his name is familiar to regulars at the Giornate – even well-known to those interested in the beginning years – William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (1860-1935) remains an enigmatic figure. What is known about him is ofttimes fragmented and incomplete: he was Edison’s assistant, who may, or may not, have invented his Kineto-whatchamacallit; he had something to do with the Lathams and their projector; he turns up as a member of the group that started what became the Biograph Company – and, oh, yes, he also shot some movies during the early years. The other aspects of his career must be dealt with elsewhere, but for this year’s festival we will sample a few of those early movies.
There are valid reasons why Dickson’s name may not immediately leap to mind as a prominent pioneer filmmaker. He considered himself an inventor, and regarded film production as a secondary avocation. He was interviewed by several prominent film historians, but they were interested in him as Edison’s assistant and rarely asked about production. Also, because he was a multinational figure who worked internationally, he did not jibe with the interest in feature entertainment and national output that dominated interest through much of the 20th Century. Dickson was born in France of Scotch-English and American parentage, and was educated in France and Germany. He worked primarily in America and Britain, but was too British to be American and too American to be British; and though he filmed in France and Germany, it was as a foreigner. But his familiarity with the culture, language, and geography of North America and Western Europe was a distinct asset in creating film subjects with international rather than merely national appeal.
His career as a filmmaker extended over a dozen years, and during that time he made between 300 and 500 films – perhaps more. The number is imprecise because in addition to making films he taught others, and taught them well. By the beginning of the 20th century others working for the companies he was associated with were making films worthy of their master. His best-known student, Billy Bitzer, called him “...the grandad of us all”.
His influence was most profound in the U.S., where he created production facilities for Edison and then for Edison’s rival, the American Mutoscope Co. (later the American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., and then the Biograph Co.), the companies that dominated the American industry in the pre-Hollywood years. Establishing production meant creating every aspect of filmmaking. Dickson designed cameras, viewing devices, studios, machines to perforate and trim film, contact printers (to make positives from negatives), developing tanks, and drying reels; he trained operators to load and unload cameras and process the film; planned and rehearsed film takes; made copies for exhibition, etc. He left Edison in April 1895, and repeated the process with the American Mutoscope Co. (though his good friend Herman Casler contributed to the design of the Mutoscope, Biograph projector, and the company’s camera). In 1897 he went to England, where he set up production for the British Mutoscope Co., which soon added production facilities in France and Germany. By 1898 crews trained in his production system were working in each of these countries.
While Dickson’s influence on European filmmaking is less evident than in the U.S., the films he produced were almost universally regarded as the gold standard wherever they were shown. The Biograph’s large-format films (called 68mm today, though that term was not used in the 1890s) produced an image which was impressive not only for size, but for lack of flicker (the films were shot at 30 to 40 fps). From the time it was introduced at Oscar Hammerstein’s Olympia Theatre in New York, the Biograph was accepted as the leader. It was featured at Keith-Albee theatres in New York, Boston, Providence, and Philadelphia for the better part of a decade. In London it was a prominent attraction at the Palace Theatre of Varieties, the city’s leading variety house, where it was featured from 1897 through 1901. In Paris it opened at Casino de Paris in 1897, and moved to the Folies-Bergère, where it remained until after the turn of the century. In Berlin it was on the bill at the Wintergarten for a similar span.
To supply these houses Dickson filmed scenes, military activities, transportation, comedy sketches, theatrical personalities, and, above all, the famous and newsworthy. In fact, for several years both the British and American companies served as a pictorial news agency, working in close alliance with several prominent publishing houses. Among those appearing before his cameras were the strongman Sandow, boxing champion James J. Corbett, Buffalo Bill, actors Joseph Jefferson and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree; Chinese diplomat Li Hung Chang, presidential candidate William McKinley (in the first political ad), Admiral Dewey, Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, and other members of the British royal family, President Fauré of France, Kaiser Wilhelm, Emperor Franz Josef, and Pope Leo XIII.
While the novelty of the Biograph image was an initial attraction, it was the quality of the film subjects that kept the Biograph on the program at the world’s most prominent variety houses. Maintaining quality was Dickson’s primary concern. He was a skilled photographer who inherited artistic skills from his father, who was a painter, and mother, who was a musician. In addition to his native abilities, at Edison’s laboratory research was done by groups of skilled specialists who helped each other. Dickson applied this to filmmaking, and always worked in concert with at least one skilled assistant, which left him free to conceptualize the production, plan, rehearse (if possible), and then set up and shoot.
Dickson worked almost entirely in the 19th Century. Shortly after returning from filming the Boer War he retired from filmmaking and opened a research and testing laboratory in London. When he left for South Africa in 1899, the American and British Mutoscope and Biograph companies had others producing films of quality and the branches in France and Germany were active, so he left production, seemingly without regret.
– Paul Spehr
