....© 2000, Kimit A. Muston
I like obituaries. Behavior that would have shocked and offended in life is rendered merely entertaining just by the act of death. Social graces and business achievements and charity donations get equal mention with petty theft, cross dressing and jail time. About the only disappointing thing about an obit is that you never get to read your own.
On August 13th comes the anniversary of the obituary of a man who was an artist, a fraud, an opportunist, an entrepreneur, a bit of a confidence man and perhaps a bonafide genius. All things you can say about L.A. in general.
His name was J.Stuart Blackton. He was born in England and he started out as an artists but that didn't pay very well, so he became a newspaper cartoonist. He was pretty good. In the 1890's he was working for the "Evening World" in New York City. But Stuart Blackton was also working in Vaudvevillie, billed as "Mademoiselle Stuart and her lightening sketches". It was the "gay nineties" after all. And if most people today would not pay good money to watch a man in women's clothing, accompanied by a pit band, make very fast drawings, it should be noted that his talents and career perched Stuart Blackton on the cusp of a new age. It just goes to show you, you never know through which door the future is going to enter.
Around 1896 Blackton was approached by Thomas Edison, who wanted to know if Mr. Blackton would be interested in recreating his act (in pants) before Mr.Edison's newly invented film camera. Well, of course he would. But rather than merely reproduce his stage act in the film "Enchanted Drawings", Blackton and Edison played some camera tricks with the art work. The short movie would only be shown on the single viewer hand cranked kinescope machines Edison had also invented, but it was the first use of animation in an American film. And when Blackton watched his drawings come to life in the machine, a light bulb went off over his head.
At the time Edison was the film industry, and he was making pretty good money selling his kinescopes and renting the films to be played in them. (Rental is still the basis for the film industry.) So when Stuart tried to convince the wizard of Menlo Park that films projected onto a large screen would fill an entire theatre with paying customers, Edison wasn't interested in taking the chance.
Blackton decided to take the chance himself. In 1897 he and William Paley and Albert Smith formed the Vitagraph Company, to make movies to be shown in vaudeville houses between the live acts. They were using stolen and copied Edison equipment, and they could be arrested at any moment. And who knew if any one would buy a ticket to watch their films? It was a real gamble. But their timing was nearly perfect.
In 1898 the United States declared war on Spain and Bill Paley rushed his stolen Edison equipment off to Cuba to capture the war on film. Audiences loved the footage, real and staged, (a lot of it was shot in Florida). When word came of the huge American naval victory in Manila bay, ("You may fire when ready, Mr. Gridley.") Blackton used his own talents of invention to fill the public demand. He bought some toy boats, some sparklers and some cheap cigars, and recreated the naval engagement in his bathtub.
The footage he shot looks pretty pathetic by today's standards but in 1899 most American's had never seen a bathtub let along a battle ship, and even fewer knew what a naval a battle was supposed to look like. It was the first use of miniatures in an American film, the first docu-drama and the first film fraud. The Vitagraph partners didn't exactly tell people the footage was real, but they didn't rush to correct any miss-impressions, either. The footage caused a sensation and made a fortune.
In fact Vitagraph had become so successful so quickly that Edison filed suit against the company and its partners for copyright infringement. He won, of course. The two sides reached a royalty agreement, but things didn't stick and in January of 1901 Vitagraph went out of business.
All three Vitagraph partners would go on to other careers, (William Paley's son who built CBS into a international powerhouse) but none of them would ever reach the the heights they had at the dawn of the century of film. Blackton went on to make a fortune by publishing the first "fan" magazine, "Motion Picture World". Then he lost that, made another fortune and lost that as well.
His last public appearance was on in Los Angeles, on August 13th., 1941. He stepped off a curb on Pico Blvd. and was struck by a city bus. He died almost immediately. When he died he was guilty of the two most serious crimes in America: he was old and broke. But, oh, what an obit he left to be read. Kimit A.Muston is an angry writer living in North Hollywood. He may be contacted at www.inditer.com.
His work may be also be read in the Los Angeles Daily News