Buccaneer (eBook)

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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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.