George Kirke Spoor and the Early Waukegan Film Industry-- Part 1

GEORGE KIRKE SPOOR

Born Dec. 18, 1871   Died Nov. 24, 1854

Early film pioneer.  Founded Essanay Studios in Chicago with Gilbert M. "Bronco Billy" Anderson in 1907.  Essanay lasted until 1917 and made 2,000 films of which, 215 survive to this day.

He also played a part in the career of Charlie Chaplin and some of the filming was done in Waukegan.

Spoor and Anderson also were instrumental in discovering other early movie stars like Wallace F. Beery, Francis X. Bushman and Gloria Swanson.In 1894, while Spoor was the manager of the Phoenix Opera House in Waukegan, he teamed up with inventor Edward Amet to build and exhibit the "Magniscope," the first practical 35 mm movie  projector ever designed and used for large audience display.

--Cooter

Edward Amet in the IMDb

The International Movie Database has this to say about Edward Amer:

KNOWN FOR:

Freedom of Cuba  (1898)

Bombardment of Mantanzas (1898)

Dynamite Cruiser "Vesuvius"  (1898)

**************************

He was the first American filmmaker to use miniatures.

Invented the first practical 35-millimeter motion picture projector.

And you never heard of him before?  Neither had I.

--CootHuh?

Waukegan (Illinois) in Early Film Industry-- Part 4: What Else?

So, Edward Amet gets firsts for:

**  First use of props

**  First newsreel

**  First "Fake" newsreel

Edward Amet ceased producing his magniscope in 1900 after the release of the polyscope by the Selig Polyscope Company.  He sold his  share of their company to George Spoor.Afterwards, Amet went on to try to find a cure for cancer.

He also  returned to his film career in 1911 when he designed the Auto-Moto-Photo, a combination phonograph and film projector.    The phonograph recorder was hooked up directly to the  camera, allowing the first synchronized  sound.  However, the contraption evidently id not accomplish its objective as it never made an impact.

Amet died on August 16, 1948, in Redondo Beach, California.

--Cooter

Waukegan in the Early Movie Industry-- Part 3: "Fake News" Back Then?

Edward Ahmet also filmed the William McKinley presidential inauguration and he wanted to film some of the Spanish-American War but could not get permission so he created his own Spanish-American War using model ships in his backyard in Waukegan.  (The first special effects?)

In these days of "Fake News," you might say Amet had the first one.

The Bess Dunn Museum, which is the Lake County History Museum, has one of the model ships, which were quite realistic-looking and even had puffs of smoke in the movie.

The magniscope was a success and was sold to several high profile theaters, however, Amet concentrated on inventing and never got a patent for his invention.  Thomas Edison even went so far as to sue Amet but when Amer didn't contest it, Edison dropped the suit.

Amet went on to shoot more films with George Kirke Spoor and made a series of war films, shooting footage from staged military camps and using miniatures in the bathtub for staged naval battles.

--Cooter

Waukegan In the Early Movie Industry-- Part 2: Of Phonographs and Early Films

This is from the November 16, 2019, presentation for the Fox Lake/Grant Township Historical Society at the museum on Washington Street in Ingleside, Illinois.

This is taken from my notes and Wikipedia.  When they turned off the lights in the hall, boy was it ever dark, plus, I was holding the notepad (no desk) plus my handwriting is not the best in the world.  So there were more than a few things I couldn't read.

Two men, Edward H. Amet and George Kirke Spoor had a lot to do with the movie industry in Waukegan.

Edward Hill Amet (Nov.10, 1860 to August 16, 1948), an electric engineer and inventor, was born in Philadelphia, and worked for a time with Thomas Edison.  In 1891, he developed the first spring motor for phonographs and his Echophone was the first cylinder phonograph to have a distinct tone arm.

In 1894, he was living in Waukegan, Illinois, where he teamed up with George Kirke Spoor, a theater manager, and they financed and developed a new projector they called a magniscope.  Their first film was of two young women boxing each other for ten minutes, calling it "Young Ladies in a Boxing Exhibition."

--CootBoxer