Buccaneer : James Stuart Blackton and the Birth of American Movies.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Fish and Chips Tales -- 2 In America -- 3 Wives and Widows -- 4 Movie Magic -- 5 Burglaries -- 6 War Is Good -- 7 Real Wars and the Other Kind -- 8 Wizardry -- 9 Division of Labors -- 10 What's Playing -- 11 Reaching for Couth -- 12 New Sets -- 13 Star Powers -- 14 Longer Views -- 15 The Commodore -- 16 General Chaos -- 17 The High Cost of Peace -- 18 Independent-Sort Of -- 19 Don't Arise, Sir James -- 20 At Homes with the Blacktons -- 21 The Eagle Has Crashed -- 22 Other Dimensions -- 23 The Not-So-Great Depression -- 24 Parading On -- 25 Gin and Ham -- 26 Last Glorious Adventures -- Epilogue -- Appendix A -- Appendix B -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author.

This is an in-depth look at the life and career of James Stuart Blackton (1875-1941), the first great commercial vendor of cinema who grasped that motion pictures were not merely a technical innovation, but a popular entertainment form for the masses. Blackton was a man of many firsts in the film industry: the first combination actor-director-producer in the United States, the country's first national exhibitor, and the first film propagandist. He contributed landmark innovations in everything from special effects to single-frame animation, for which he is often regarded as the father of the animated cartoon.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.