The Man Who Made Movies

W.K.L. Dickson

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• Publisher: John Libbey Publishing
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9780861969364
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Science & Technology Biographies
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The story of W.K.L. Dickson—assistant to Edison, inventor, and key figure in early cinematography: "Valuable and comprehensive." — Communication Booknotes Quarterly W.K.L. Dickson was Thomas Edison's assistant in charge of the experimentation that led to the Kinetoscope and Kinetograph—the first commercially successful moving image machines. In 1891–1892, he established what we know today as the 35mm format. Dickson also designed the Black Maria film studio and facilities to develop and print film, and supervised production of more than one hundred films for Edison. After leaving Edison, he became a founding member of the American Mutoscope Company, which later became the American Mutoscope & Biograph, then Biograph. In 1897, he went to England to set up the European branch of the company. Over the course of his career, Dickson made between five hundred and seven hundred films, which are studied today by scholars of the early cinema. This well-illustrated book offers a window onto early film history from the perspective of Dickson's own oeuvre.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction The Man Who Made Movies
• Part I Introducing Mr. Dickson
• Part II. 1883–1888 With Edison, Electricity and Iron Ore
• Part III 1888–1893 The Quest for the Kinetoscope-Kinetograph
• Part IV 1894–1896 Making Movies and Marketing the Kinetoscope
• Part V 1896–2003 Biographing: Filming in the States and Abroad
• Part VI 1903–1935 After the Movies: A Laboratory and a Search for a Place in Posterity
• Bibliography
• Index