The History of British Film (Volume 1)

The History of the British Film 1896 - 1906

Rachael Low

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781136205576
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

This set is one of the cornerstones of film scholarship, and one of the most important works on twentieth century British culture. Published between 1948 and 1985, the volumes document all aspects of film making in Britain from its origins in 1896 to 1939.
Rachael Low pioneered the interpretation of films in their context, arguing that to understand films it was necessary to establish their context. Her seven volumes are an object lesson in meticulous research, lucid analysis and accessible style, and have become the benchmark in film history.

PART ONE

PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND EXHIBITION

CHAPTER ONE
Principal Film Producers before 1906

THE PRODUCERS

The transformation of the motion picture from a toy or a curiosity discussed at scientific and photographic societies into a major industry, a young art and an educational force started when it became a regular commercial form of entertainment. In the half-century since the first audience paid to see a moving picture show an entirely new industry has sprung up to fill an important place in the national economy. A new art form appealing to one of the widest publics any art has ever known, has forced its way to a position of cultural importance despite the hostility of many devotees of the older arts. Led by artists, intellectuals, pioneering spirits with inspired faith in its possibilites; debased by the cynics, the commercially minded, and the socially irresponsible—in the hands of an uneasy and unwieldy fusion of artists, technicians and businessmen, parasites and creative workers—the youngest art has developed in all directions, good as well as bad. At the same time, undifferentiated and unintended, one of the most powerful means for influencing public opinion has formed itself in the hands of this same chance agglomeration of adventurers, crusaders and craftsmen. Even the educational and instructional film and the documentary, films with a deliberate and responsible social purpose, have their origins in the same burst of undis-criminating enterprise which characterizes the first ten years of the commercial film.

The dozen or so companies which produced films in this period show a typical pattern of development which is in most cases the story of one man of exceptional versatility and initiative. As might be expected, many of the pioneer producers came to cinematography through photography or the optical lantern—Birt Acres, James Bamforth, Esme Collings, Cecil Hepworth, Frank Mottershaw, G. A. Smith and James Williamson had all been connected professionally with one or the other. Becoming interested in the projection of motion pictures, in most cases as a novelty to add to their own lantern lectures, they were faced with the difficulty of buying apparatus and films, especially the latter. Being the type of men they were, they proceeded to make their own—not only their own films, but in many cases their own apparatus as well. Small companies sprang up all over the country in the last four years of the nineteenth century—in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Sheffield, London, and Brighton. Almost every firm was dominated by one man, who devised his own equipment and methods: wrote, produced, and as often as not acted (with members of his family) in his own films: and marketed and sometimes exhibited them himself. In most cases he also sold cinematograph equipment, as well as taking films to customers’ orders, and carrying on an extensive export business.

This combination of inventor, artist, business man and showman was possible because of the elementary methods used in production. Actuality and topical films (see pages 51 and 61) and even simple “made-up”¹ films needed even less preparation than amateur theatricals. But as films became longer and more elaborate, professional actors were employed, indoor studios came into use, and technical equipment became more complex. Cinematography was becoming increasingly specialized, and those producers who either could not, or would not, make the transition from semi-amateur Jack-of-all-trades to full professional status gradually dropped away.

¹ The term is Hepworth’s. See lecture to the B.K.S., February 3, 1936.

This process had hardly begun in the period covered in this survey. In 1906 R. W. Paul, who was to retire from cinematography about 1910, was still one of the most popular producers in this country. Travelling showmen up and down the country were producing their own films, and not only “locals” (i.e. films of local scenes or events to arouse special interest in the audience) but stories as well. Walter Haggar, one of these travelling showmen, is included in the present chapter as an outstanding example of this type of producer. This has been possible because his films were circulated widely through Gaumont. Many other showmen, because they had no regular channels of distribution, have left little trace. If only for this reason, therefore, the following list of producers cannot claim to be comprehensive. It contains brief biographical sketches of each of the more important concerns and representative examples of the smaller companies. But it should be remembered that even in 1906 anyone with the ingenuity to devise or adapt the elementary apparatus needed, and film a few hundred feet of “phantom ride,” comic scene or news event, could claim to be a film producer.¹

Autoscope Company

William George Barker, later to become one of the most famous and spectacular of British films producers, began film production as an amateur in 1896. For a few years his film activities consisted of showing his own films at occasional free film shows, and it was not until 1901 that he became a professional. In this year he founded the Autoscope Company (50, Gray’s Inn Road), and towards the end of the same year erected an open-air stage at Stamford Hill. This, a very elementary affair, consisted of two scaffold poles and a drop roll canvas background borrowed from Stoke Newington Theatre. It was erected in the Running Grounds at Stamford Hill, for which privilege Barker paid £5 a year in rent and gave free shows from time to time. This modest arrangement was superseded in 1904 by the famous studio at Ealing (see p. 32), which for years was one of the largest and most up-to-date studios in this country.

Barker, who subsequently became famous for his lavish dramatic productions, was at this time chiefly known for his concentration on topical subjects. Towards the end of the period under review, he became Managing Director of the Warwick Trading Company (see p. 27), by which the Autoscope Company was absorbed.

Bamforth & Company, Ltd.

James Bamforth of Station Road, Holmfirth, Yorkshire, was one of the smaller producers who for some time existed on equal terms with the larger concerns.

Originally fairly important dealers in lantern slides and picture postcards, Bamforth’s did not take up cinematography until 1899 or 1900, when they teamed up with Riley Brothers of Bradford,¹ who were the proud possessors of a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction: Rachael Low and the British Cinema
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Note on the Constitution of the History Research Committee
• Table of Contents
• Illustrations
• Part One. Production, Distribution and Exhibition
• Part Two. The Films Themselves
• Appendices
• Bibliography
• Film Index
• General Index