Albert E. Smith

Albert Edward Smith (born June 4, 1875 in Faversham , Kent , United Kingdom , † August 1, 1958 in Hollywood , California ) was a pioneer in the American film industry. Smith was a stage artist, director, and film producer, and a naturalized American. In 1948 he was honored with an honorary Oscar for his pioneering work on film .

biography

Smith, who would later become a landmark film producer, was the son of a gardener and had seven brothers and a sister. When he was three years old, the entire family immigrated to the United States and settled in Santa Barbara , California. Before entering the film business, however, Smith fought in the British Army in the Boer War in South Africa and was a member of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Battle of San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

After Smith had experimented a little with regard to which career path to choose, he started under the name "The King of Entertainers" as an illusionist . Eventually he teamed up with another emigrant, the British James Stuart Blackton , and together they performed on the streets. The duo was successful, but not as much as both had imagined. However, the men saw great potential in the burgeoning film business. They teamed up with William T. Rock and Ronald A. Reader to create the American Vitagraph Company, renamed the Vitagraph Company of America in 1900, to produce and distribute films. While Blackton was the head of the productions and took care of the casting, the script, the production and the direction and also covered other functions, Smith mainly focused on the financial aspects, but also got involved in the process of filmmaking. Smith's financial management skills for Vitagraph were above average, identifying him as an accomplished entrepreneur, with some even describing him as ruthless. So did Mary Pickford an experience with Smith that led them to leave the room during contract negotiations once. Smith's foresight and business acumen, however, helped Vitagraph become the premier film studio in the early days of film. The fact that Edison's company dragged Vitagraph into a lawsuit regarding patent infringement and copyright infringement did not change that, but it was settled amicably.

Vitagraph, whose first film was made in 1898 and is called The Burglar on the Roof , produced a total of 2,534 films, including first film adaptations of various dramas by William Shakespeare . Well-known actors such as Florence Turner , Maurice Costello , Clara Kimball Young and John Bunny and Flora Finch have been won over for their productions . Bunny and Finch made more than 100 comedic films for Vitagraph and became known as the "Bunnyfinches". At the time, many thought that both of them were a couple in their private lives, but in truth they were linked by a kind of love-hate relationship.

William T. Rock died in 1916 and Blackton left Vitagraph in 1917 to start his own business. The film studio gradually lost the power and status it once had and was sold to Warner Bros. in 1925 . Smith largely withdrew from the film business and devoted himself to his favorite pastime, sailing, and also wrote an autobiography

Smith was married three times; first marriage to Mary May from 1897 to 1912; the marriage was divorced. In his second marriage, he was married to the actress Hazel Neason from 1913 to 1920, the year she died. His last marriage was in December 1920 with Jean Paige, also an actress. It lasted until his death in August 1958. The marriage had six children. Smith rests in Forest Lawn Cemetery .

Award

Smith was at the Academy Awards in 1948 as well as William Nicholas Selig , George K. Spoor and Thomas Armat with an honorary Oscar awarded "as a pioneer whose faith to its development paved the way to a new medium and its contributions to the film has taken since then" ("One of the small group of pioneers whose belief in a new medium, and whose contributions to its development, blazed the trail along which the motion picture has progressed, in their lifetime, from obscurity to world-wide acclaim.").

Filmography (selection)

• 1898: The Burglar on the Roof
• 1898: Tearing Down the Spanish Flag (war short film, on camera + producer)
• 1898: Vanishing Lady (short film, as an actor + director)
• 1898: The Fleet Steaming Up North River (short film, on camera)
• 1898: Astor Battery on Parade (short documentary film, on camera)
• 1898: Shamrock and Columbia Yacht Race: First Race (short film, director, producer)
• 1898: Little Mischief (short film, producer)
• 1898: 'Shamrock' and 'Erin' Sailing (short film, producer)
• 1900: Panoramic View of Tremont Hotel, Galveston (short documentary film, on camera)
• 1900: The Clown and the Alchemist (short film, director)
• 1900: The Enchanted Drawing (short film, on camera + producer)
• 1900: Searching Ruins on Broadway, Galveston, for Dead Bodies ( short documentary film, director)
• 1900: Hooligan Assists the Magician (short film, producer)
• 1901: Hooligan Visits Central Park (short film, in front of the camera, director)
• 1901: Mysterious Cafe, or Mr. and Mrs. Spoopendyke Have Troubles with a Waiter (short film, producer)
• 1907: Oliver Twist (short film, with the camera)
• 1912: A Vitagraph Romance (short film, as an actor)
• 1907: The Haunted Hotel (at the camera)
• 1908: Humpty Dumpty Circus (short film, director)
• 1915: The Wheels of Justice (as moderator)
• 1917: The Marriage Speculation (Author)
• 1918: Cavanaugh of the Forest Rangers (producer)
• 1918: The Mysterious Document ( Huns and Hyphens , producer)
• 1919: Jimmy Aubrey as a bullfighter ( Tootsies and Tamales , producer)
• 1920: Hidden Dangers (Author)
• 1921: Black Beauty (as producer)
• 1921: Larry Semon as a police inspector ( The Fall Guy , short film, producer)
• 1922: The Little Minister (as moderator)
• 1922: The Ninety and Nine (as moderator)
• 1923: No Wedding Bells (short film, as moderator)
• 1923: Smashing Barriers (Author)
• 1923: The Man from Brodney's (as moderator)
• 1924: Captain Blood (director + moderator)
• 1925: The Redeeming Sin (as moderator)
• 1925: The Happy Warrior (as moderator)
• 1927: Two to One (short film, producer)
• 1933: The Film Parade (participant "Battle of Manila Bay")

Web links

• Albert E. Smith in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Images by Albert E. Smith In: Virtual History

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Albert E. Smith in collaboration with Phil A. Koury: Two Reels And A Crank Garden City , New York, Doubleday & Company Inc., 1952 (English)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Albert Edward Smith at victorian-cinema.net (English). Retrieved January 30, 2017.
3. ↑ Academy Awards for 1948 in the imdb (English)