James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 - August 13, 1941), usually known as J. Events 1477 - Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France. Year 1875 ( MDCCCLXXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 3114 BC - According to the Lounsbury correlation the start of the Maya calendar. Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Stuart Blackton, was an American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A film producer is a person who creates the conditions for making movies. American Vitagraph was a United States Movie studio, founded by J Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is an Animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own The bouncing ball animation (below consists of these 6 frames He is considered the father of American animation.
Blackton was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, in 1875. Sheffield ( is a city and Metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England Yorkshire is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in Great Britain. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Year 1875 ( MDCCCLXXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common At the age of ten, he and his family immigrated to New York City. The City of New York In 1894, Blackton and two fellow English émigrés, Albert E. Year 1894 ( MDCCCXCIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Smith and Ronald A. Reader, formed a partnership to break into vaudeville. Vaudeville was a Genre of variety entertainment prevalent on the stage in the United States and Canada, from the early 1880s Smith called himself the "Komikal Konjurer", Blackton was the "Komikal Kartoonist", and Reader operated an early version of the slide projector called a "magic lantern". The magic lantern or Lanterna Magica was the ancestor of the modern Slide projector. Blackton's act consisted of "lightning sketches", where Blackton drew and rapidly modified drawings on an easel pad before the audience's eyes, accompanying this with a stream of talk nearly as rapid. The act failed to make enough money and the trio broke up to get regular jobs.
Blackton ended up as a reporter/artist for the New York Evening World newspaper. The New York World was a Newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931 In 1896, Thomas Edison publicly demonstrated the Vitascope, one of the first film projectors, and Blackton was sent to interview Edison and provide drawings of how his films were made. Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Eager for good publicity, Edison took Blackton out to his "Black Maria", the special cabin he used to do his filming, and created a film on the spot of Blackton doing a lightning portrait of Edison. The Black Maria (pronounced ma-RYE-uh was Thomas Edison 's movie production studio in West Orange New Jersey. The inventor did such a good job selling the art of movie-making that he talked Blackton and partner Smith into buying a print of the new film as well as nine other films, plus a Vitascope to show them to paying audiences (Reader was brought back in to run the projector).
The new act was a great success, largely despite the various things Blackton and Smith were doing between the Edison films. The next step was to start making films of their own. In this way the American Vitagraph Company was born.
During this period J. Stuart Blackton was not only running the Vitagraph studio, but also producing, directing, writing, and even starring in his films (he played the comic strip character "Happy Hooligan" in a series of shorts). Happy Hooligan was a popular and influential early American Comic strip by Frederick Burr Opper. Since profits were constantly increasing, Blackton felt that he could try any idea that sprang to his head. In a series of films, Blackton developed the concepts of animation.
The first of these films is The Enchanted Drawing, with a copyright date of 1900 but probably made at least a year earlier. The Enchanted Drawing is a silent film made in 1900 It was directed by J Year 1900 ( MCM) was an exceptional Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar In this film, Blackton the lightning artist sketches a face, cigars, and a bottle of wine. He appears to remove the last drawings as real objects, and the face appears to react. The "animation" here is of the stop-action variety (the camera is stopped, a single change is made, and the camera is then started again) first used by Méliès and others. Georges Méliès ( December 8, 1861 &ndash January 21, 1938) full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French
The transition to stop-motion was apparently accidental and occurred around 1905. Year 1905 ( MCMV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting According to Albert Smith, one day the crew was filming a complex series of stop-action effects on the roof while steam from the building's generator was billowing in the background. On playing the film back, Smith noticed the odd effect created by the steam puffs scooting across the screen and decided to reproduce it deliberately. A few films, some lost, use this effect to represent invisible ghosts or to have toys come to life. In 1906, Blackton directed Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, which uses stop-motion as well as stick puppetry to produce a series of effects. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is a silent cartoon by J Stuart Blackton in the year 1906 After Blackton's hand draws two faces on a chalkboard, they appear to come to life and engage in antics. Most of the film uses life action effects instead of animation, but nevertheless this film had a huge effect in stimulating the creation of animated films in America. In Europe, the same effect was had from "The Haunted Hotel" (1907), another Vitagraph short directed by Blackton. Year 1907 ( MCMVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The "Haunted Hotel" was mostly live-action, about a tourist spending the night in an inn run by invisible spirits. Most of the effects are also live-action (wires and such), but one scene of a dinner making itself was done using stop-motion, and was presented in a tight close-up that allowed budding animators to study it for technique.
Blackton made another animated film that has survived, 1907's "Lightning Sketches", but it has nothing to add to the art of animation. In 1908 he made the first American film version of Romeo and Juliet, filmed in New York City's Central Park. The first ever American film version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was a Silent film short made in 1908 made by Central Park is a large public Urban park in New York City, with about twenty-five million visitors annually By 1909, Blackton was too absorbed in the business of running Vitagraph to have time for filmmaking. Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting He came to regard his animation experiments in particular as being rather juvenile (they receive no mention in his unpublished autobiography).
Blackton left Vitagraph to go independent in 1917, but returned in 1923 as junior partner to Alfred Smith. In 1925, Smith sold the company to Warner Brothers for a comfortable profit. Warner Bros Entertainment Inc (or Warner Bros, Warner Bros Pictures) is one of the world's largest producers of Film and
Blackton did quite well with his share until the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which destroyed his savings. The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the ’29 Crash, the Crash of 1929, the Great Crash of 1929, the Great Crash of October 1929 He spent his last years on the road, showing his old films and lecturing about the days of silent movies. His daughter Violet Virginia Blackton (1910-1965) married writer Cornell Woolrich in 1930 but their marriage was annulled in 1933. Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich ( December 4, 1903 — September 25, 1968) was an American novelist and short story writer
Blackton was married to actress Evangeline Wood when he was killed in a road accident in 1941. This is a list of notable people who have been killed in Road accidents This list does not include those who were killed competing on closed road events whether in motorsport or in competitive Cremated, his ashes were placed in the columbarium at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately-owned Cemetery in Glendale, Los Angeles, in the United States. Glendale ( is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States.
Media
 The Enchanted Drawing (1900) |
 Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906), regarded as the first animated film |
External links
- J. Stuart Blackton at the Internet Movie Database"Before Walt" DVD, 2006, Inkwell Images, Inc. Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is a silent cartoon by J Stuart Blackton in the year 1906
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