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The Man Who Made Movies: W.K.L. Dickson
By Paul Spehr Indiana University Press
Copyright © 2008 John Libbey Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-86196-936-4
CHAPTER 1
Family Matters
"I was born Aug. 3rd 1860 of Scotch parents at the old chateau of St Buc, Minihic on the picturesque River Rance near Dinan, France – When old enough we traveled much in many lands absorbing the French, German Italian languages, then returned to England for that part of my Education with instructions in science."
He was William Kennedy Laurie Dickson. The name was important! He was never Bill, Billy or even William, and certainly not Will – or Willy. At work he was William Kennedy Laurie or W.K.L., but usually just "Dickson", or "Mr. D.". His family apparently knew him as Laurie. When Edison wrote notes to him he almost always addressed them to "Dixon" – perhaps to take him down a peg. His fellow Brit, Samuel Insull once referred to him as the "Right Honorable" William Kennedy Laurie Dickson. About 1900 he added a hyphen between the two middle names and became William Kennedy-Laurie. In late life he moved the hyphen and became Laurie-Dickson, the form that appears on his death certificate. But though the hyphen moved, the full roster of names remained.
As all of this attention to names indicates, the family heritage they represent was important to him. "Dickson", of course, came from his father, James Waite Dickson, a painter and lithographer, who, the family claimed, numbered Hogarth and Judge Waite, one of the judges who sentenced King Charles I to death, among his ancestors. "Kennedy" and "Laurie" were the legacy of his mother, Elizabeth Kennedy-Laurie Dickson, who listed among her antecedents the Lauries of Maxwellton, celebrated in the ballad Annie Laurie, as well as the Robertsons, of Strowan, related to the Earl of Cassilis, the Duke of Athol, and the Royal Stuarts. Heritage and blue blood made little difference for Dickson in his work for Edison, but may, in fact, have been useful during his years spent producing films in England and on the continent as rank and station aided negotiations with military officers, politicians and representatives of royalty.
As stated above, William Kennedy Laurie was born in France at Château St. Buc near the Breton village of Le Minihic-sur-Rance at 3:00 a.m., 3 August 1860. His birth was registered at Le Minihic by Mayor Gaubert and witnessed by Jean Marie Lecharpentier, a gardener living at the château and by Julien Lemasson, verger. The registration listed his father's age as fifty and his mother's as thirty-seven and referred to both parents as "propriétaire domicilié au château". A census a year later in 1861 recorded that William Kennedy Laurie was James Dickson's fifth child and the only male child in the family. The older sisters were Dora, thirteen, Hanna, twelve, Antonia Eugénie, seven and Linda, three. Another sister, Eva, was born 3 March 1865, in Dinan, France. Dickson's mother, Elizabeth, was James' second wife and, apparently, the two older girls, Dora and Hanna were half sisters while Antonia, Linda and Eva were full sisters.
Beyond these fairly firm records from the early 1860s, there is only sketchy information about Dickson's childhood. Although Dickson said that both of his parents were Scottish, his mother was, apparently, not born in Scotland. Her burial record gave her birthplace as Chesterfield County, Virginia. There is no apparent record of his father's birth, but using the information from W.K.L. Dickson's birth registration that he was 50 years old in August 1860, he would have been born about 1809 or 1810, presumably in Scotland or England. There is a remote possibility that James Dickson might have been born in the United States. There were Dicksons living and working in Virginia in the early 19th century, including a John Dickson who was editor of the Petersburg Intelligencer, a newspaper in Petersburg, Virginia. Chesterfield County, where Elizabeth Kennedy-Laurie was apparently born c. 1823, is the county situated between Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia located 23 miles north of Petersburg. If the Dicksons lived for a while in the area, they might well have been acquainted with a family of fellow Scots. Though it is pure speculation, this might explain how two people who were apparently so widely separated geographically came to marry. As we shall see, William Kennedy Laurie and his two sisters Antonia and Eva were very much attached to this area of Virginia, even though they did not live there until they were young adults.
W.K.L. Dickson said that his father was an artist specializing in miniatures and lithographs who was also interested in astronomy and the study of dead languages. His mother was "... a brilliant scholar, musician, and renowned for her beauty ...". The record of James Dickson's career as an artist is, to say the least, skimpy. In 1842, a J. Dickson, 3 Bentinck Terrace, London, a miniature painter exhibited "Portrait of a Lady, Portrait of a Gentleman; Portrait of a Lady" at the Royal Academy Exhibition and in 1850 J. Dickson exhibited "Italian Peasant Girl" also at the Royal Academy Exhibition. Photographs of paintings that at least match the titles of the three portraits from 1842 were among the photographs belonging to Dickson that historian Gordon Hendricks acquired from a former neighbor of Dickson in Twickenham, England. Beyond this, we must rely on Dickson's information about his father.
Other than these scant references there is little, if any, indication that James Dickson made a lasting impression on the art world, but skill in drawing, perspective and composition were talents he passed on to his son and there is ample evidence of these skills in W.K.L.'s drawings, photographs and films. Dickson also inherited musical talent, apparently from his mother. He played the violin in amateur performances in Virginia and New Jersey and was reported to have a pleasing tenor voice which he occasionally displayed in concert.
Dickson's birthplace, St. Buc, is a handsome manor house located outside the village of Le Minihic-sur-Rance on the north coast of Brittany. It is on the west side of the river Rance about midway between Dinan and Dinard. The estate of St. Buc is inland from the river, but within walking distance of the village's small harbor area. The Rance is very broad and subject to remarkably extreme tides, which are now partially controlled by a dam across the mouth between Dinard and St. Malo. It is not too far from one of France's premiere tourist attractions, Mont St. Michel. LeMinihic is a pleasant village located on a rise above the river and there are splendid vistas along the river and to the west there are prosperous looking farm areas. The town is by-passed by most of the major roads in the area and it has no special qualities to attract tourists so it is quiet and very much off the beaten path, but it is not far to either Dinard, a lively and picturesque market town, or St. Malo, a major sea port and trading center.
It is not clear what the family was doing in Le Minihic or how long they remained there. They were not listed in residence at St. Buc in the census records that survive in Rennes for 1856 or 1866 and the marriage of James and Elizabeth Dickson apparently took place elsewhere because it was not recorded at Le Minihic. Among the photographs that Gordon Hendricks acquired are two made by Dickson that he captioned in his own hand as being his birthplace in St. Buc, one is an attractive picture of the impressive manor house, the other is of a much more modest cottage attached to the main house. It is not clear which house the Dicksons occupied – whether as the principal occupants or as a secondary residents. The specification on the birth certificate that both his mother and father were "propriétaire" indicates that each of them had property or independent income. The 1861 census entry for Elizabeth Dickson also classified her as "rentière", another indication of independent means – but how much and how independent? As we shall see, in later life, Dickson complained that he was poor and dependent upon others for financial support, yet there are hints that in his youth if his family was not well off, they were at least quite comfortable.
Apparently both of his parents were well educated and Dickson received a very broadly based education, apparently patterned on the Victorian conception of the Renaissance ideal. In addition to training in art, letters and music, he was skilled at languages, an avid amateur photographer and well trained in science. He told film pioneer and historian Will Day that when old enough "... we traveled much in many lands absorbing the French, German Italian languages ...". He probably lived for a while in Germany while his older sister, Antonia, studied at music conservatories in Leipzig and Stuttgart. He seems to have finished his education in England where, in addition to his training in music and art, he added enough skill in science, with a speciality in electricity, to qualify him for work with Edison's electrical specialists.
Beyond this rather general sketch, there is very little specific information about Dickson's childhood. The family vanished during most of the 1870s, emerging from the shadow in February, 1879, when 18 year old William Kennedy Laurie wrote a letter to "Mr. Eddison [sic]" asking for employment for "... a friendless and fatherless boy". He said that he did not have Edison's talents and was willing to start at the bottom of the ladder. He had "... patience, perseverance, an ardent love of science, and above all a firm reliance on God".
"I ... have had a good English education, can speak French and German, being born on the Continent, have a fair knowledge of accounts, and draw well. For all these things, I have certificates from the Cambridge Examiner ... I am neat handed and inventive, and have already constructed, or attempted to construct ... [an] electric bell, worked by two Bunsens, two Micro Telephone transmitters, a couple of switches, four Leclanches, etc. I also gained a prize for the best model of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness at school last year."
There is no record in the University Archives at Cambridge that W.K.L. Dickson or W.K. Laurie-Dickson passed the Cambridge Examinations in the late 1870s, so this may be an untruth told to impress Edison. However, the roll of students examined and approved in the Michaelmas Term 1877 and the Easter Term of 1877 include a "Dixon", listed without a first name and with no college affiliation. Dr. E.S. Leedham-Green, Assistant Keeper of the Archives told me that this might indicate a student not enrolled full time but taking the examination anyway. The family name was important and Dickson was fussy about his heritage and identity, but it is possible that an error was made by the University records turning Dickson into Dixon. This happened frequently during his life. If this is the case, the University would have examined Dickson in Greek. In 1877 it was Mark's Gospel in Greek and Greek classic, a selection from Lucian; and a Latin classic, Terence: Heauton timoroumenos, as well as a paper in Greek and Latin Grammar. This was for Part I, the Michaelmas Term. For Part II, the Easter term, it was Paley, Euclid, Arithmetic and Algebra. A rather full plate for a lad of 16 or 17, but quite impressive if he did pass it.
The family's view of a liberal education defied the stereotype of Victorian sexism. His sisters were also well educated. Dickson's older sister, Antonia was a child prodigy, a pianist who reportedly performed with an orchestra in Leipzig at the age of 12, playing from memory and after completing studies at the conservatories in Leipzig and Stuttgart she performed in concert in France, Scotland and at the Crystal Palace. She completed her musical education at the music conservatory at Trinity College, London. In January 1879 she was made an associate of the College of Organists, the only woman to pass the examination and only the third woman to be made an associate. The family claimed that her performance was praised by Sir Julius Benedict, conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic who also conducted at Covent Garden and Drury Lane. Antonia was particularly close to William Kennedy Laurie and their life-long relationship and her intense devotion to the cultural life had a strong influence on him. She never married and lived with "Laurie" throughout her life. In addition to performing skills, she composed music, lectured on musical history and theory, wrote essays and poetry and collected rare manuscripts. At seventeen her first published work appeared in Chamber's Journal and she became a frequent contributor. She was co-author with William Kennedy Laurie of a biography of Edison and a small book on the invention of the Kinetoscope-Kinetograph.
By February 1879, when he wrote to Mr. "Eddison" the family had shrunk to four: W.K.L., his mother, Antonia and Eva. Dickson's father was dead, but it is not clear when he died, though he had probably been dead for a year or more. The two older half-sisters, Dora and Hanna probably remained in England. Hanna was living in Chester, England in 1913 when she appeared on the list of stockholders for a company Dickson formed. She apparently never married because she was listed as Hannah Dickson, "Spinster". At least one sister apparently married because Dickson made references to nieces and a nephew in Australia at various times in later life. The third sister, Linda, died though the date is not clear. In the nineteenth century the death of young children was a tragedy suffered by many families. Her name never appears in Dickson's comments about his life but it was mentioned in Antonia's obituary.
While it may seem like a foolish, boyish error for Dickson to address his application for employment to Mr. Eddison, his mistake was probably an honest one. It is likely that he had read an article, "Cet étonnant Eddison" (This astonishing Edison) which appeared in the Paris newspaper, Figaro in 1878. It reported that the Paris Exhibition had the celebrated "Eddison's" latest invention, the stupendous aerophone, "It is a steam machine which carries the voice a distance of eight kilometres. You speak in the jet of vapor "a friend previously warned understands readily words at a distance of two leagues. Let us add that the friend can answer you by the same method ...". Dickson mentioned this article in a biographical piece about Edison which he co-wrote with his sister in Cassier's Magazine, March 1893. Edison biographer, Frank Dyer, was particularly incensed about Figaro's article which he cited as an example of the work of "yellow Journalists" who were creating the "Edison myth". He quoted the article: "'It should be understood', said this journal, 'that Mr. Eddison does not belong to himself. He is the property of the telegraph company which lodges him in New York at a superb hotel; keeps him on a luxurious footing, and pays him a formidable salary so as to be the one to know of and profit by his discoveries. The company has, in the dwelling of Eddison, men in its employ who do not quit him for a moment, at the table, on the street, in the laboratory. So that this wretched man, watched more closely than ever was any malefactor, cannot even give a moment's thought to his own private affairs without one of his guards asking him what he is thinking about.'" Despite, or perhaps because of, this ominous implication of luxurious captivity Dickson pushed ahead with his application.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Man Who Made Movies: W.K.L. Dickson by Paul Spehr. Copyright © 2008 John Libbey Publishing Ltd.. Excerpted by permission of Indiana University Press.
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