Buccaneer: James Stuart Blackton and the Birth of American Movies

by Donald Dewey

Overview

A man of many film firsts, James Stuart Blackton promoted motion pictures as a mass commercial medium by creating the first true movie studio, adopting the star system, pioneering film animation, and publishing Motion Picture Magazine, one of the first film periodicals. As much of a seminal figure to the film industry as Thomas Edison and D.W. Griffith, James Stuart Blackton nonetheless remains unknown to most film enthusiasts and even many cinema scholars.

In Buccaneer: James Stuart Blackton and the Birth of American Movies Donald Dewey recounts the drama, intrigue, and romance of this motion picture trailblazer. A gifted director, producer, and founder of Vitagraph studios, Blackton’s personal escapades were nearly as dramatic as his contributions to the medium he helped establish. Decades ahead of his time, Blackton also played a critical role in propagating war-time sentiment during both the Spanish-American War and World War I and was an influence on such key historical figures as Theodore Roosevelt.

A fascinating look into the life of a truly distinguished filmmaker, Buccaneer narrates the volatile world of the early motion picture industry, as influenced by a man whose own story rivaled anything on screen. A must read for film lovers, this book will also prove to be invaluable to readers with an interest in American history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442242593
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/15/2016
Series:	Film and History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Donald Dewey has written hundreds of magazine stories and articles, many about the film industry. He is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, nonfiction, and drama, including Marcello Mastroianni: His Life and Art (1993), James Stewart: A Biography (1997), and Lee J. Cobb: Characters of an Actor (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

1 Fish and Chips Tales 1

2 In America 9

3 Wives and Widows 17

4 Movie Magic 25

5 Burglaries 37

6 War Is Good 45

7 Real Wars and the Other Kind 55

8 Wizardry 63

9 Division of Labors 75

0 What's Playing 85

1 Reaching for Couth 97

2 New Sets 105

3 Star Powers 113

14 Longer Views 127

15 The Commodore 139

16 General Chaos 149

17 The High Cost of Peace 157

18 Independent-Sort Of 169

19 Don't Arise, Sir James 177

20 At Homes with the Blacktons 191

21 The Eagle Has Crashed 203

22 Other Dimensions 213

23 The Not-So-Great Depression 221

24 Parading On 229

25 Gin and Ham 239

26 Last Glorious Adventures 247

Epilogue 253

Appendix A Vitagraph and South Africa 259

Appendix B The Directors Guild Brouhaha 265

Notes 267

Bibliography 287

Index 291

About the Author 297