1898 in animation
Events in 1898 in animation.
Events
November: The German toy manufacturer Gebrüder Bing introduced their toy "kinematograph", at a toy convention in Leipzig. In late 1898 and early 1899, other toy manufacturers in Germany and France, including Ernst Plank, Georges Carette, and Lapierre, started selling similar devices. The toy cinematographs were basically traditional toy magic lanterns, adapted with one or two small spools that used standard "Edison perforation" 35mm film, a crank, and a shutter. These projectors were intended for the same type of "home entertainment" toy market that most of the manufacturers already provided with praxinoscopes and magic lanterns. Apart from relatively expensive live-action films, the manufacturers produced many cheaper films by printing lithographed drawings. These animations were probably made in black-and-white from around 1898 or 1899. The pictures were often traced from live-action films. These very short films typically depicted a simple repetitive action and most were designed to be projected as a loop - playing endlessly with the film ends put together. The lithograph process and the loop format follow the tradition that was set by the stroboscopic disc, zoetrope and praxinoscope.Specific date unknown: The Motograph Moving Picture Book was published in London at the start of 1898 by Bliss, Sands & Co. It came with a "transparency" with black stripes to add the illusion of motion to the pictures in the book. The illustrations were credited to "F.J. Vernay, Yorick, &c.". The book is an early form of stereography.
Births
January
January 2: Dick Huemer, American animator, comic strip artist, and illustrator,.January 20: Tudor Owen, Welsh actor,.
February
February 2: Billy Costello, American actor,.February 8: André Rigal, French animation producer and animator,.
May
May 1: Hazel Sewell, American animator, head of the ink and paint department at Walt Disney Animation Studios,.May 11: Sam Slyfield, American sound engineer,,.
June 7: Earl Duvall, American animator, writer, lay-out artist, director and comics artist,.June 18: Dink Trout, American actor, voice artist and radio personality,.June 28: Nat Falk, American illustrator and cartoonist,.
July
July 4: Johnny Lee, American singer, dancer and actor,.July 24: Bernard B. Brown, American film composer and sound engineer,.July 31: Ken Harris, American animator,.
August
August 15: Charles Tobias, American songwriter,.August 30: Shirley Booth, American actress,.
October
October 5: Kenzō Masaoka, Japanese animator and director,.October 28: Rollin Hamilton, American animator,.
November
November 4: Joe Dougherty, American actor,.
December
December 1: Cyril Ritchard, Australian actor,.December 14: Lillian Randolph, American actress and singer,,.