George Albert Smith (inventor)
Encyclopedia
George Albert Smith was a stage hypnotist, psychic
, magic lantern
lecturer, astronomer, inventor, and one of the pioneers of British cinema, who is best known for his controversial work with Edmund Gurney
at the Society for Psychical Research
, his short-films from 1897-1903 which pioneered film editing and close-ups, and his development of the first successful colour film process, Kinemacolor
.
(SPR) accepted Smith's claims that the act was genuine, although Blackburn later admitted that it was a hoax, and after becoming a member of the Society he was appointed private secretary to the Honorary Secretary Edmund Gurney
from 1883 to 1888. In 1887, Gurney carried out a number of 'hypnotic experiments' in Brighton, with Smith as his 'hypnotizer', which in their day made Gurney an impressive figure to the British public. Since then it has been heavily studied and critiqued by Trevor Hall in his study The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney. Hall concluded that Smith (using his stage abilities) faked the results that Gurney trusted in his research papers, and this may have led to Gurney's mysterious death from a narcotic overdose in June 1888. Following Gurney's death his successors, F.W.H. Myers and F. Podmore, continued to employ Smith as their private secretary and he co-authored the paper, Experiments in Thought Transference for the Society's journal the following year.
In 1892, after leaving the SPR, he acquired the lease of the St. Anne's Well Gardens
in Hove from the estate of financier and philanthropist Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid
, which he cultivated into a popular pleasure garden, where from 1894 he started staging public exhibitions of hot air ballooning, parachute jumps, a monkey house, a fortune teller, a hermit living in a cave and magic lantern shows of a series of dissolving views. Smith also begins to present these dioramic lectures at the Brighton Aquarium, where he had first performed with Douglas Blackburn in 1882. Smith's skilful manipulation of the lantern, cutting between lenses (from slide to slide) to show changes in time, perspective and location necessary for story telling, would allow him to develop many of the skills he would later put to use as a pioneering film maker developing the grammar of film editing. Smith had attended the Lumière programme in Leicester Square in March 1896 and spurred on by the films Robert Paul
, which played in Brighton for that summer season, he and local chemist James Williamson
acquired a prototype cine cameras from local engineer Alfred Darling
, who had begun to manufacture film equipment after carrying out repairs for Brighton-based film pioneer Esmé Collings. In 1897, with the technical assistance of Darling and chemicals purchased from Wiliamson, Smith turned the pump house into a film factory for developing and printing and developed into a successful commercial film processor as well as patenting a camera
and projector
system of his own. Both he and his neighbour Williamson would go on to become pioneering film makers in their own right creating numerous historic minute-long films.
On March 29 1897 Smith added animated photographs to the end of his twice daily programme of projected entertainment at the Brighton Aquarium as an outlet for his burgeoning film production. Many of Smith's early films, including The Miller and the Sweep
and Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer
(both 1897) were comedies thanks to the influence of his wife, Laura Bayley, who had previously acted in pantomime and comic revue. However Smith also corresponded with special effects pioneer Georges Méliès
whose influence can be seen in The X-Rays
and The Haunted Castle
(both 1897) the later of which, along with The Corsican Brothers, Photographing a Ghost
and, perhaps his most accomplished work from this time, Santa Claus
(all 1898), include special effect's created using a process of double-exposure patented by Smith. Many of Smith's films were acquired for distribution by Charles Urban
for the Warwick Trading Company
and the two began a long business relationship with a joint show of Smith and Méliès' films at the Alhambra Theatre
, Brighton in late 1898 and early 1899.
In 1899 Smith, with the financial assistance of Urban, constructed a glass house film studio at St. Ann's Well Gardens, ushering in a highly creative period for him as a film maker. That year he shot the single scene The Kiss in the Tunnel
(1899) which was then seamlessly edited into Cecil Hepworth
's View From an Engine Front - Train Leaving Tunnel (1899) to enliven the staid phantom ride
genre and demonstrate the possibilities of creative editing. The following year he experimented with reversing in The House That Jack Built
(1900), developed dream-time and the dissolve effect in Let Me Dream Again
(1900) and pioneered the use of the close-up with Grandma's Reading Glass
, As Seen Through a Telescope
and Spiders on a Web
(all 1900). In 1902 Smith collaborated with old friend Georges Méliès at the Star Films studio in Montreil, Paris, on a pre-enactment of the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra commissioned by Charles Urban of the Warwick Trading Company after rival company Mutoscope and Biograph acquired the rights to film the actual event. In 1903 Charles Urban
left the Warwick Trading Company
to form the Charles Urban Trading Company
taking the rights to Smith's films with him, at what marked the end of his most active period as a film-maker.
In 1904, A.H. Tee took over the lease on St Ann's Well Gardens, and Smith moved to a new home in Southwick, Sussex, dubbed Laboratory Lodge, where with finance from Charles Urban, he went on to develop the Lee and Turner process, which had been acquired by Urban following the death of Edward Turner in 1903, into the first successful colour film process, Kinemacolor
. Smith proved the new process, which substituted the three-colour approach of Edward Turner with favour of a two-colour (red-green) process, with early test films such as Tartans of Scottish Clans
(1906) and Woman Draped in Patterned Handkerchiefs
(1908) before giving a trade demonstration of A Visit to the Seaside
(1908) on 1 May 1908, followed by public demonstration from early 1909 as far afield as Paris and New York, for which Smith was awarded a Silver Medal by the Royal Society of Arts
. In 1910 Urban founded the Natural Colour Kinemacolor Company, which successfully used the process to produce over 100 short features at its studios in Hove and Nice, until it was put out of business by a 1914 patent suit filed by William Friese-Greene
, which ended Smith's film career.
In his later life Smith became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
and in the late 1940's was rediscovered by the British film community, which made a Fellow of the British Film Academy in 1955. Smith died in Brighton on 17 May 1959. Hove Museum has a permanent display on Smith and Williamson.
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
, magic lantern
Magic lantern
The magic lantern or Laterna Magica is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century.-Operation:The magic lantern has a concave mirror in front of a light source that gathers light and projects it through a slide with an image scanned onto it. The light rays cross an aperture , and...
lecturer, astronomer, inventor, and one of the pioneers of British cinema, who is best known for his controversial work with Edmund Gurney
Edmund Gurney
Edmund Gurney was an English psychologist and psychic researcher.-Early life:He was born at Hersham, near Walton-on-Thames. He was educated at Blackheath and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a high place in the classical tripos and obtained a fellowship. His work for the tripos was...
at the Society for Psychical Research
Society for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...
, his short-films from 1897-1903 which pioneered film editing and close-ups, and his development of the first successful colour film process, Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson. It was launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of...
.
Biography
Although, Smith was born in London, he moved with his family to Brighton, where his mother ran a boarding house on Grand Parade, following the death of his father. It was in Brighton in the early 1880s that Smith first came to public attention touring the city's performance halls as a stage hypnotist. In 1882 he teamed up with Douglas Blackburn on a muscle-reading, in which the blindfolded performer identifies objects selected by the audience, and second sight act, in which the blindfolded performer finds objects hidden by his assistant somewhere in the theatre, at the Brighton Aquarium. The Society for Psychical ResearchSociety for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...
(SPR) accepted Smith's claims that the act was genuine, although Blackburn later admitted that it was a hoax, and after becoming a member of the Society he was appointed private secretary to the Honorary Secretary Edmund Gurney
Edmund Gurney
Edmund Gurney was an English psychologist and psychic researcher.-Early life:He was born at Hersham, near Walton-on-Thames. He was educated at Blackheath and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a high place in the classical tripos and obtained a fellowship. His work for the tripos was...
from 1883 to 1888. In 1887, Gurney carried out a number of 'hypnotic experiments' in Brighton, with Smith as his 'hypnotizer', which in their day made Gurney an impressive figure to the British public. Since then it has been heavily studied and critiqued by Trevor Hall in his study The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney. Hall concluded that Smith (using his stage abilities) faked the results that Gurney trusted in his research papers, and this may have led to Gurney's mysterious death from a narcotic overdose in June 1888. Following Gurney's death his successors, F.W.H. Myers and F. Podmore, continued to employ Smith as their private secretary and he co-authored the paper, Experiments in Thought Transference for the Society's journal the following year.
In 1892, after leaving the SPR, he acquired the lease of the St. Anne's Well Gardens
St. Ann's Well Gardens, Hove
St. Ann's Well Gardens is a park in Hove, East Sussex about half a mile from the shore. The park is renowned for its chalybeate spring, which is now named St. Ann's Well....
in Hove from the estate of financier and philanthropist Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid
Isaac Lyon Goldsmid
Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, Baronet was a financier and one of the leading figures in the Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom....
, which he cultivated into a popular pleasure garden, where from 1894 he started staging public exhibitions of hot air ballooning, parachute jumps, a monkey house, a fortune teller, a hermit living in a cave and magic lantern shows of a series of dissolving views. Smith also begins to present these dioramic lectures at the Brighton Aquarium, where he had first performed with Douglas Blackburn in 1882. Smith's skilful manipulation of the lantern, cutting between lenses (from slide to slide) to show changes in time, perspective and location necessary for story telling, would allow him to develop many of the skills he would later put to use as a pioneering film maker developing the grammar of film editing. Smith had attended the Lumière programme in Leicester Square in March 1896 and spurred on by the films Robert Paul
Robert Paul
Robert Paul was a Canadian figure skater, who competed in pairs with Barbara Wagner. He was born in Toronto. From their start as a team in 1952, they captured five Canadian titles and four world titles, and capped their career by winning the gold medal at the 1960 Winter Olympics.After skating as...
, which played in Brighton for that summer season, he and local chemist James Williamson
James Williamson
James Robert Williamson is an American guitarist, songwriter, record producer and electronics engineer who is best known for his contribution to the protopunk rock band Iggy & The Stooges.-Early years:...
acquired a prototype cine cameras from local engineer Alfred Darling
Alfred Darling
Alfred Darling began to manufacture film equipment at his engineering works at 25 Ditchling Rise, Brighton after carrying out repairs for Esmé Collings. His clients included George Albert Smith and James Williamson. In 1897 he took out a patent, jointly with Alfred Wrench, for a camera with a...
, who had begun to manufacture film equipment after carrying out repairs for Brighton-based film pioneer Esmé Collings. In 1897, with the technical assistance of Darling and chemicals purchased from Wiliamson, Smith turned the pump house into a film factory for developing and printing and developed into a successful commercial film processor as well as patenting a camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
and projector
Image projector
An image projector is an optical device that projects an image onto a surface, commonly a projection screen.Most projectors creates an image by shining a light through a small transparent image, but some newer types of projectors can project the image directly, by using lasers...
system of his own. Both he and his neighbour Williamson would go on to become pioneering film makers in their own right creating numerous historic minute-long films.
On March 29 1897 Smith added animated photographs to the end of his twice daily programme of projected entertainment at the Brighton Aquarium as an outlet for his burgeoning film production. Many of Smith's early films, including The Miller and the Sweep
The Miller and the Sweep
The Miller and the Sweep is a 1897 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a miller carrying a bag of flour fighting with a chimney sweep carrying a bag of soot in front of a windmill, before a crowd comes and chases them away. The film,...
and Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer
Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer
Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer is a 1897 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a man drinking a glass of beer whose face and hands become increasingly lively as a result...
(both 1897) were comedies thanks to the influence of his wife, Laura Bayley, who had previously acted in pantomime and comic revue. However Smith also corresponded with special effects pioneer Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects...
whose influence can be seen in The X-Rays
The X-Rays
The X-Rays is a 1897 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a courting couple filmed in X-ray. The trick film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "contains one of the first British examples of special effects created by means of jump-cuts"...
and The Haunted Castle
The Haunted Castle
The Haunted Castle , also known as Schloß Vogelöd and Castle Vogeloed, is a silent chamber-drama directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau.- Plot summary :...
(both 1897) the later of which, along with The Corsican Brothers, Photographing a Ghost
Photographing a Ghost
Photographing a Ghost is a short film that was directed by George Albert Smith. It is about photographers that try to take a picture of a ghost, but they repeatedly fail....
and, perhaps his most accomplished work from this time, Santa Claus
Santa Claus (1898 film)
Santa Claus is a 1898 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, which features Santa Claus visiting a house on Christmas Eve...
(all 1898), include special effect's created using a process of double-exposure patented by Smith. Many of Smith's films were acquired for distribution by Charles Urban
Charles Urban
Charles Urban was an Anglo-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in British cinema before the First World War...
for the Warwick Trading Company
Warwick Trading Company
The Warwick Trading Company was formed in 1898 out of the British branch of the American firm Maguire and Baucus. It was the leading film producer in Britain at the turn of the century, specialising in actuality, travel and reportage. The managing director was Charles Urban. He left the company in...
and the two began a long business relationship with a joint show of Smith and Méliès' films at the Alhambra Theatre
Alhambra Theatre
The Alhambra was a popular theatre and music hall located on the east side of Leicester Square, in the West End of London. It was built originally as The Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts opening on 18 March 1854. It was closed after two years and reopened as the Alhambra. The building was...
, Brighton in late 1898 and early 1899.
In 1899 Smith, with the financial assistance of Urban, constructed a glass house film studio at St. Ann's Well Gardens, ushering in a highly creative period for him as a film maker. That year he shot the single scene The Kiss in the Tunnel
The Kiss in the Tunnel
The Kiss in the Tunnel is a 1899 film British short silent comedy film, produced and directed by George Albert Smith, showing a couple sharing a brief kiss as their train passes through a tunnel, which is said to mark the beginnings of narrative editing...
(1899) which was then seamlessly edited into Cecil Hepworth
Cecil Hepworth
Cecil Milton Hepworth was an English film director, producer and screenwriter. He was among the founders of the British film industry and continued making films into the 1920s....
's View From an Engine Front - Train Leaving Tunnel (1899) to enliven the staid phantom ride
Phantom ride
Phantom rides were an early genre of film popular in Britain and the US at the end of the 19th century. Known more generally as "panoramas" at the time, phantom rides were one of the first types of motion picture ever publicly demonstrated. Pre-dating true narrative, the films simply show the...
genre and demonstrate the possibilities of creative editing. The following year he experimented with reversing in The House That Jack Built
The House That Jack Built (film)
The House That Jack Built is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a boy who knocks over a house made of bricks built by his sister and then rebuilds it when the original sequence is shown in reverse...
(1900), developed dream-time and the dissolve effect in Let Me Dream Again
Let Me Dream Again
Let Me Dream Again is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a man dreaming about an attractive young woman and then waking up next to his wife...
(1900) and pioneered the use of the close-up with Grandma's Reading Glass
Grandma's Reading Glass
Grandma's Reading Glass is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a young Willy who borrows a huge magnifying glass to focus on various objects, which was shot to demonstrate the new technique of close-up...
, As Seen Through a Telescope
As Seen Through a Telescope
As Seen Through a Telescope is a 1900 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring an eldrly gentleman getting a glimpse of a woman's ankle through a telescope. The three-shot comedy, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "uses a similar technique to...
and Spiders on a Web
Spiders on a Web
Spiders on a Web is a 1900 British short silent documentary film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a single shot close-up of two spiders trapped in an enclosure...
(all 1900). In 1902 Smith collaborated with old friend Georges Méliès at the Star Films studio in Montreil, Paris, on a pre-enactment of the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra commissioned by Charles Urban of the Warwick Trading Company after rival company Mutoscope and Biograph acquired the rights to film the actual event. In 1903 Charles Urban
Charles Urban
Charles Urban was an Anglo-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in British cinema before the First World War...
left the Warwick Trading Company
Warwick Trading Company
The Warwick Trading Company was formed in 1898 out of the British branch of the American firm Maguire and Baucus. It was the leading film producer in Britain at the turn of the century, specialising in actuality, travel and reportage. The managing director was Charles Urban. He left the company in...
to form the Charles Urban Trading Company
Charles Urban Trading Company
The Charles Urban Trading Company was formed in 1903 by the Anglo-American film producer Charles Urban. It specialised in travel, educational and scientific film. It made its name with coverage of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 from Joseph Rosenthal and George Rogers...
taking the rights to Smith's films with him, at what marked the end of his most active period as a film-maker.
In 1904, A.H. Tee took over the lease on St Ann's Well Gardens, and Smith moved to a new home in Southwick, Sussex, dubbed Laboratory Lodge, where with finance from Charles Urban, he went on to develop the Lee and Turner process, which had been acquired by Urban following the death of Edward Turner in 1903, into the first successful colour film process, Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson. It was launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of...
. Smith proved the new process, which substituted the three-colour approach of Edward Turner with favour of a two-colour (red-green) process, with early test films such as Tartans of Scottish Clans
Tartans of Scottish Clans
Tartans of Scottish Clans is a 1906 British short silent documentary film, directed by George Albert Smith as a test for his newly patented Kinemacolor system, which features a sequence of appropriately labelled Scottish tartan cloths, with an abundance of reds and greens, the two colours used by...
(1906) and Woman Draped in Patterned Handkerchiefs
Woman Draped in Patterned Handkerchiefs
Woman Draped in Patterned Handkerchiefs is a 1908 British short silent documentary film, directed by George Albert Smith as a showcase of his new Kinemacolor system, which features a woman displaying assorted tartan cloths, both draped on her body and waved semaphore-style...
(1908) before giving a trade demonstration of A Visit to the Seaside
A Visit to the Seaside
A Visit to the Seaside was the first successful film in natural color and the film was filmed with Kinemacolor. It is an 8 minute short film of Brighton that shows people doing activities. It was directed by George Albert Smith. It is ranked high historical importance....
(1908) on 1 May 1908, followed by public demonstration from early 1909 as far afield as Paris and New York, for which Smith was awarded a Silver Medal by the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
. In 1910 Urban founded the Natural Colour Kinemacolor Company, which successfully used the process to produce over 100 short features at its studios in Hove and Nice, until it was put out of business by a 1914 patent suit filed by William Friese-Greene
William Friese-Greene
William Friese-Greene was a British portrait photographer and prolific inventor. He is principally known as a pioneer in the field of motion pictures and is credited by some as the inventor of cinematography.-Career:William Edward Green was born on 7 September 1855, in Bristol...
, which ended Smith's film career.
In his later life Smith became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
Royal Astronomical Society
The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society that began as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820 to support astronomical research . It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving its Royal Charter from William IV...
and in the late 1940's was rediscovered by the British film community, which made a Fellow of the British Film Academy in 1955. Smith died in Brighton on 17 May 1959. Hove Museum has a permanent display on Smith and Williamson.
Filmography
- The Haunted CastleThe Haunted Castle (1897 film)The Haunted Castle is a film directed by George Albert Smith in 1897.-Story:The setting was an inn run by ghosts. Wires were used to make objects move on their own, a technique of a nineteenth-century magician.-Production:...
(1897) - The Miller and the SweepThe Miller and the SweepThe Miller and the Sweep is a 1897 British short black-and-white silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a miller carrying a bag of flour fighting with a chimney sweep carrying a bag of soot in front of a windmill, before a crowd comes and chases them away. The film,...
(1897) - Old Man Drinking a Glass of BeerOld Man Drinking a Glass of BeerOld Man Drinking a Glass of Beer is a 1897 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a man drinking a glass of beer whose face and hands become increasingly lively as a result...
(1897) - The X-RaysThe X-RaysThe X-Rays is a 1897 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a courting couple filmed in X-ray. The trick film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "contains one of the first British examples of special effects created by means of jump-cuts"...
(1897) - Photographing a GhostPhotographing a GhostPhotographing a Ghost is a short film that was directed by George Albert Smith. It is about photographers that try to take a picture of a ghost, but they repeatedly fail....
(1898) - Santa ClausSanta Claus (1898 film)Santa Claus is a 1898 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, which features Santa Claus visiting a house on Christmas Eve...
(1898) - The Kiss in the TunnelThe Kiss in the TunnelThe Kiss in the Tunnel is a 1899 film British short silent comedy film, produced and directed by George Albert Smith, showing a couple sharing a brief kiss as their train passes through a tunnel, which is said to mark the beginnings of narrative editing...
(1899) - As Seen Through a TelescopeAs Seen Through a TelescopeAs Seen Through a Telescope is a 1900 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring an eldrly gentleman getting a glimpse of a woman's ankle through a telescope. The three-shot comedy, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "uses a similar technique to...
(1900) - Grandma's Reading GlassGrandma's Reading GlassGrandma's Reading Glass is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a young Willy who borrows a huge magnifying glass to focus on various objects, which was shot to demonstrate the new technique of close-up...
(1900) - Grandma Threading Her NeedleGrandma Threading Her NeedleGrandma Threading her Needle is a 1900 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a grandma trying to get a thread though a needle...
(1900) - Spiders on a WebSpiders on a WebSpiders on a Web is a 1900 British short silent documentary film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a single shot close-up of two spiders trapped in an enclosure...
(1900) - The Old Maid's ValentineThe Old Maid's ValentineThe Old Maid's Valentine is a 1900 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, which features the titular Miss Pimple receiving an unpleasant surprise on February 14...
(1900) - The House That Jack BuiltThe House That Jack Built (film)The House That Jack Built is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a boy who knocks over a house made of bricks built by his sister and then rebuilds it when the original sequence is shown in reverse...
(1900) - Let Me Dream AgainLet Me Dream AgainLet Me Dream Again is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a man dreaming about an attractive young woman and then waking up next to his wife...
(1900) - The Inexhaustible CabThe Inexhaustible CabThe Inexhaustible Cab is a short film that was directed by George Albert Smith. Released in the US by S Lubin and Edison Manufacturing Company 29 June 1901.-Plot:...
(1901) - Mary Jane's MishapMary Jane's MishapMary Jane's Mishap; or, Don't Fool with the Paraffin is a 1903 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, depicting Disaster follows when housemaid Mary Jane uses paraffin to light the kitchen stove...
(1903) - Sick KittenSick KittenThe Sick Kitten is a 1903 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring two young children tending to a sick kitten...
(1903) - Tartans of Scottish ClansTartans of Scottish ClansTartans of Scottish Clans is a 1906 British short silent documentary film, directed by George Albert Smith as a test for his newly patented Kinemacolor system, which features a sequence of appropriately labelled Scottish tartan cloths, with an abundance of reds and greens, the two colours used by...
(1906) - Woman Draped in Patterned HandkerchiefsWoman Draped in Patterned HandkerchiefsWoman Draped in Patterned Handkerchiefs is a 1908 British short silent documentary film, directed by George Albert Smith as a showcase of his new Kinemacolor system, which features a woman displaying assorted tartan cloths, both draped on her body and waved semaphore-style...
(1908) - A Visit to the SeasideA Visit to the SeasideA Visit to the Seaside was the first successful film in natural color and the film was filmed with Kinemacolor. It is an 8 minute short film of Brighton that shows people doing activities. It was directed by George Albert Smith. It is ranked high historical importance....
(1908)