Spooktober 30: The Colors of Nosferatu (1922)--Tints & Hues

 

Born Today June 12: Georges Demenÿ

1850-1917

French inventor,  pioneering photographer and filmmaker/inventor Georges Demenÿ was born on this day in Douai in the north of France. Demenÿ's main claim to fame was his contribution to Chronophotography, which--to be clear--he did not invent; far from it actually. He did, however, make significant advances in the technique, which is considered the direct predessor to actual moving pictures. Demenÿ was a student of the brillant French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey; and Demenÿ's main contribution lie in his personal invention of a superior projector that he dubbed the Stroboscope; it is where we get the term "strobe light"--so beloved in live musical performances...and discos of the 1970's. Again, Demenÿ didn't event the mechicnism on which his design was based (that is generally attributed to Belgian inventor Joseph Plateau which actually included what is probably the earliest animations), but rather utililzed the technology to fashion of projector of series photographs that projected onto surfaces that appeared to show normal motions (ie: "moving pictures"). Demenÿ worked with German inventor/photographer Ottomar Anschütz on this invention to use in scientific study--it was Anschütz who would take parts of the mechinism further and attempt to use them for entertainment purposes. For his part, Demenÿ is widly over-looked as a significant contributor to the invention of motion pictures due, in no small part, to his lack of interest or belief in the technology's use in such a capacity early on (he would come to regret this). There are a remarkable number of his experiments (some with Marey) that have survived--though only two seem to be regarded as "films" (a subject to address for sure!).  The first of these is Je vous aime, a film experiment of himself dating from 1891. The second, which dates from 1897, was actually a popular subject of the time..namely dance in film...and serpentine dances in particular. That film, Serpentine Dance: Loïe Fuller, featured American born dancer Fuller who had moved to France and made a second "career" out this particular dance (note: this dance was a big subject of film at Edison's studio as well!). Both of these films run under a minute in time (and both are embedded below, along with a couple of other experiments of his with Marey).  Demenÿ was what can only be called a "fitness nut"--which accounts for the physical nature of most of the film experiements that he worked on. His film Je vous aime was made at the request for a work for projection by a school of the deaf in Paris teaching lip-reading, which accounts for it's rather odd look and lack of any sort of exercise or sport; and the Serpentine Dance and an exemplary example of early hand coloring! Demenÿ lived until 1917, long enough to see a whole host of innovation in film and the birth of a brand new industry and art. He died in Paris on the 26th of October at that age of 67 and is buried at Montmartre. 

[source: Find A Grave]

[source: Find A Grave]

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Born Today August 26: Ruth Roland

1892-1937

Silent movie and serial maven Ruth Roland was born into a theatrical family on this day in San Francisco, CA. It is no surprise then that she became a child actress in vaudeville, and eventually went on to tour the circuit as such, ending up in New York City.  She is one of the first California girls, having gone to Hollywood High School, to go on to be a movie star in the first studio system back east.  Her first appearance in film came under contract with Kalem in The Scarlet Letter in 1908 with silent star Gene Gauntier in the leading role as Hester Prynne.  She was not long after billed as one of the "Kalem Girls."  It was not long before Kalem sent her back to California to work in their brand new west coast production studio (they were one of the first studios to began that migration).  She stayed with the company through most of the year 1915, when she signed a lucrative contract with Balboa Amusement, this is when she went from darling of the short film to one of the queens of the early serial.  The first serial that she starred in for them was The Red Circle (1915) (having made one melodrama for them before this:  Comrade John 1915).  At Balboa she went from being a star to something like a true movie, or super, star.  In the most lucrative part of the her career--from the mid 1910's through the mid 1920's--she appeared in more than 200 pictures, though most of these for filmed before 1920.  She stayed with Balboa through the first part of 1918, then after making films for different companies.  The first film that she made after leaving Balboa was one for the history books.  Cupid Angling 1918 was made by the Douglas National Color Film Company and was shot in it's own proprietary color process called "Naturalcolor."  Having become accustomed to acting in serials, she eventually founded her own company Ruth Roland Serials in 1919.  The first production featuring her in the starring role that the company produced was The Adventures Of Ruth (1919).  After 1927, she was effectively retired.  The last film that she made during her active career is the now lost The Masked Woman (1927).  She appeared in just two more films during her lifetime.  She starred in the all sound Reno in 1930; her last film was From Nine To Nine in 1936.  Tragically she died the following year at the young age of 45 in Hollywood on the 22 of September from cancer.  She is interred at Forest Lawn in Glendale in the Mausoleum.  

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