Walter R. Booth
Walter R. Booth (born July 12, 1869 in Worcester , † 1938 in Birmingham ) was a British magician and filmmaker .
Life
Booth initially trained as a porcelain painter. On the side he worked as an amateur magician until he joined the wizarding company at the Egyptian Hall in London in the 1890s . From 1899 he produced cartoons for Robert William Paul . Films like Devil in the Studio from 1901, The Voyage of the Arctic from 1903 and The '?' Motorist from 1906 show the influence of Georges Méliès . In 1901 he also produced two of the oldest Christmas films, Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost and Mr. Pickwick's Christmas at Wardle's . In 1906 he went to the Charles Urban Trading Company in London, where he opened his own study in his garden in Isleworth , with Harold Bastick as cameraman. The first British animated film The Hand of the Artist was made there in 1906, followed by The Sorcerer's Scissors and When the Devil Drives the following year . With works such as The Airship Destroyer (1909) and The Aerial Submarine (1910) he developed proto-science-fiction stories with invasive fantasies that are already reminiscent of Jules Verne . Between 1899 and 1916 he produced around a hundred short comedies and fantasy films. In 1915 Booth switched to the advertising film industry, although little is known about the further course of his work.
Filmography (selection)
- 1900: A Railway Collision
- 1900: Kruger's Dream of Empire
- 1901: Devil in the Studio
- 1901: Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost
- 1901: Mr. Pickwick's Christmas at Wardle's
- 1903: Extraordinary Cab Accident
- 1903: The Voyage of the Arctic
- 1906: The '?' Motorist
- 1906: The Hand of the Artist
- 1907: The Sorcerer's Scissors
- 1907: When the Devil Drives
- 1909: The air war of the future (The Airship Destroyer)
- 1910: The Aerial Submarine
literature
- Erik Barnouw : The Magician and the Cinema. Oxford University Press, New York NY u. 1981, ISBN 0-19-502918-6 .
- Denis Gifford: British Animated Films, 1895–1985. A filmography. McFarland, Jefferson NC et al. 1987, ISBN 0-89950-241-5 .
Web links
- Walter R. Booth in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Biography on screenonline.org.uk (English)
- The future of air warfare at Europa Film Treasures
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Booth, Walter R. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British magician and filmmaker |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 12, 1869 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Worcester |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1938 |
| Place of death | Birmingham |