The Wizard of Menlo Park (47 page)

“Last night I felt blue”:
TAE to Mina Edison, 11 August 1895,
PTAED,
B037AAZ.

He humored her:
TAE to Mina Edison, 9 August 1895,
PTAED,
B037AAY.

He teased her:
TAE to Mina Edison, 12 August 1895,
PTAED,
B037ABA.

He praised her:
TAE to Mina Edison, 15 August 1895,
PTAED,
B037ABB.

He lectured her:
TAE to Mina Edison, 16 August 1895,
PTAED,
B037ABC.

He teased her:
TAE to Mina Edison, 18 August 1895,
PTAED,
B037ABD.

He advised her:
TAE to Mina Edison, 15 August 1895,
PTAED,
B037ABB.

His chief assistant:
TAE to Mina Edison, 21 August 1895,
PTAED,
B037ABE.

Edison wrote a colleague:
TAE to Richard Bowker, 6 August 1897,
PTAED,
LM245410.

he was proud:
TAE to Mina Edison, n.d. [summer 1896 conjectured],
PTAED,
B037ABM.

In 1902, at a time when General Electric shares:
Dyer and Martin,
Edison,
504–505.

As late as 1892:
Tate,
Edison’s Open Door,
253.

By the next year:
TAE to Edison United Phonograph Company, 16 June 1893,
TAEPM,
134:740.

Public health authorities worried:
Untitled,
Chicago News,
31 July 1890,
PTAED,
SC90041D.

Phonograph dealers who invested:
The general manager of the Chicago Central Phonograph Company declared that he felt the 50 percent royalty was unjust, and that his company would not give it up “if we can possibly help it, and I believe we can.”
Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of Local Phonograph Companies
(Nashville, Tenn.: Country Music Foundation Press, 1890 [reprint 1974]), 181–182.

A San Francisco distributor:
Ibid., 163–164.

prurient storytelling:
Charles Musser,
The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 61.

“Kinetoscope Moving View”:
TAE, patent caveat, filed 8 October 1888,
PTAED,
PT031AAA1.

The first version:
W. K. L. Dickson and Antonia Dickson,
History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kinetophotograph
(privately printed, 1895) [facsimile edition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2000], 8.

It was Dickson who would advance:
Historians of early cinema have given much attention to apportioning credit for the development of the technology we would recognize today. In these appraisals, Dickson receives the bulk of the credit that the general public has mistakenly bestowed upon Edison. Gordon Hendricks’s
The Edison Motion Picture Myth
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961) is particularly critical of Edison’s ethical lapses, listing in detail numerous examples of Edison laboratory records that were altered in order to give a false impression that Edison’s contributions were greater, and took place earlier, than was in fact the case.

designed an ingenious camera:
Israel,
Edison,
294; Hendricks,
Edison Motion Picture Myth,
52; Terry Ramsaye,
A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture Through 1925
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1926), 145.

While Edison was in Paris:
Dickson and Dickson,
History of the Kinetograph,
19.

Another month went by:
Hendricks,
Edison Motion Picture Myth,
82.

a console made of wood:
Tate,
Edison’s Open Door,
283.

Blacksmith Scene:
Charles Musser,
Thomas A. Edison and His Kinetographic Motion Pictures
(New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995), 14–15.

When he filed:
Ramsaye,
Million and One Nights,
76. Historian Charles Musser suggests that Edison knew that his patent claims were so dependent upon the prior work of Europeans that they would never survive challenge overseas. Musser,
Emergence of Cinema,
71–72.

When Edison visited Chicago:
“Wizard Edison’s Vision,”
NYT,
13 May 1891.

would provide one visitor:
Katherine M. Rogers,
L. Frank Baum, Creator of Oz
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002), 46.

the Wizard of Oz:
Frank Morgan, the actor who played the Wizard in the 1939 film adaptation of Baum’s book, bears considerable physical resemblance to Edison.

burden proved too much to bear:
Charles Musser,
Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 38.

Tate had proceeded:
Tate,
Edison’s Open Door,
284–285.

Before closing in October:
Norm Bolotin and Christine Laing,
The World’s Columbian Exposition: The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 20.

machines were not completed:
Tate,
Edison’s Open Door,
284–285.

too late for the fair:
Expectations were so high that a number of writers who have written about the 1893 fair have erroneously assumed that the kinetoscopes had been delivered as promised. See, for example, Erik Larson,
The Devil in the White City
(New York: Crown, 2003), 247; and Robert Sklar,
Movie-Made America: A Social History of the American Movies
(New York: Random House, 1975), 13.

In February 1894:
TAE to Eadweard Muybridge, 21 February 1894 [conjectured],
PTAED,
D9425AAF.

“The wizard Edison’s idea”:
“Fun in a Phonograph,”
New York Morning Advertiser,
8 April 1894,
PTAED,
SC94013a.

an Albany newspaper:
“Some of Edison’s Latest,”
Albany Telegram,
7 January 1894,
PTAED,
SC94001A.

Edison, however, continued:
Thomas A. Edison, “Introduction to ‘Edison’s Invention of the Kineto-Phonograph,’”
Century,
June 1894, 206.

The bodybuilder had agreed:
“Sandow at the Edison Laboratory,”
Orange Chronicle,
10 March 1894. The very short film
Sandow,
like
Blacksmith Scene
(mentioned above), is now available on DVD. Kino International and the Film and Media department of the Museum of Modern Art, with the Library of Congress, released in 2005
Edison: The Invention of the Movies,
a beautifully produced set of four DVDs containing 140 Edison Company films produced between 1891 and 1918.

It does not, however, include:
“Sandow at the Edison Laboratory.”

a group of young entrepreneurs:
Ramsaye,
A Million and One Nights,
106–107.

Rector, who had a background:
Ibid., 108; Tilden Co. and Enoch Rector to Edison Manufacturing Company, 30 July 1894,
PTAED,
D9427AAH.

On 15 June 1894:
“Jack Cushing’s Waterloo,”
NYW,
16 June 1894.

Edison took great personal interest:
Ibid.; “Fight for Edison,”
New York Journal,
16 June 1894,
PTAED,
SC94009C.

The plan went well:
“Jack Cushing’s Waterloo.”

When the Kinetoscope Exhibiting Company:
Ramsaye,
Million and One Nights,
109–110.

the Latham brothers moved quickly:
Ibid., 110.

Corbett, on his part:
Musser,
Emergence of Cinema,
84.

Gentleman Jack:
Gentleman Jim,
the 1942 movie adaptation of his autobiography, starred Errol Flynn.

On the day of Corbett’s fight:
“Knocked Out by Corbett,”
NYS,
8 September 1894.

One account said:
“Before the Wizard,”
Los Angeles Times,
8 September 1894.

A bit later:
“Knocked Out by Corbett.”

when a local judge heard:
“Pugilist Corbett May Be Indicted,”
NYT,
9 September 1894.

Mina told the authorities:
“Inventor Edison and the Grand Jury,”
NYT,
14 September 1894.

As pleased as they were:
Ramsaye,
Million and One Nights,
110–112.

others urged Edison:
Ramsaye,
Million and One Nights,
119.

“there will be a use”:
Edison’s prediction brings to mind the prediction invariably attributed to IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson, circa 1943: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” The Watson quotation turns out to be difficult to verify. Biographer Kevin Maney did his best and concluded, “No evidence exists that Watson made the remark about five computers.” See Kevin Maney,
The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr., and the Making of IBM
(Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 355.

without his boss’s approval:
Ramsaye,
A Million and One Nights,
118–119, 121, 126.

The projected images:
“Magic Lantern Kinetoscope,”
NYS,
22 April 1895.

Professor Latham wrote a letter:
“Latham’s Pantopticon,”
NYS,
23 April 1895.

A few weeks later:
Ramsaye,
Million and One Nights,
134–136.

a broadside printed for the occasion:
“Latham’s Eidoloscope,” broadside, reproduced in Musser,
Emergence of Cinema,
98.

“Edison Not in It!”:
Ramsaye,
Million and One Nights,
135. The source for the headline is the
Chicago Inter-Ocean,
11 June 1895.

Not only in the United States:
Musser,
Emergence of Cinema,
91.

In September 1895:
Ibid., 103–104.

Edison personally handwrote:
TAE to Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Co., 3 October 1895,
PTAED,
LM229175.

In one letter he tells her:
TAE to Mina Edison, n.d. [1896 conjectured],
PTAED,
B037ABN. In a subsequent letter to Mina, Edison asked if she had figured out the “Coming Woman” joke. If she hadn’t, he joked that when he returned home “I will bring diagrams and explanatory notes.” TAE to Mina Edison, n.d. [1896 conjectured],
PTAED,
B037ABO.

While Raff & Gammon:
Ramsaye,
Million and One Nights,
218–219.

Their plan also required:
Raff & Gammon to Thomas Armat, 5 March 1896, quoted in ibid., 224–225.

when it made its debut:
“Edison’s Vitascope Cheered,”
NYT,
24 April 1896; “Edison’s Latest Invention,”
NYT,
26 April 1896.

The inaugural film program offered:
“At the Playhouses,”
Los Angeles Times,
7 July 1896.

At another site:
“Edison Vitascope,”
Los Angeles Times,
25 July 1896.

In the first week:
“A Mysterious Invention,”
Los Angeles Times,
12 July 1896.

CHAPTER 10. KINGLY PRIVILEGE

Edison Chemical Company:
“Suit by Inventor Edison,”
Wilmington Evening,
21 January 1903,
TAEPM,
221:241.

I probably never will:
TAE Jr. to Mina Edison, 15 May 1897,
PTAED,
FC001AAK.

Later that year:
TAE Jr. to Mina Edison, 12 November 1897,
PTAED,
FC001ABC.

Within a few days:
“Edison, Jr., Wizard,”
NYH,
5 December 1897,
PTAED,
SC97058A.

He soon landed:
“The Electrical Exhibition,”
NYT,
24 April 1898.

A small accident:
“Accident in the Garden,”
NYT,
24 May 1898; “Electrical Inventors’ Risks,”
NYT,
3 July 1898.

So it was he:
“Cooking by Electricity,”
NYT,
22 May 1898.

Fortuitously, investors appeared:
Israel,
Edison,
390.

Edison Sr. was outraged:
William Edison to TAE Jr., [Dec] 1898,
TAEPM,
227:591.

Tom Jr. wrote his father:
TAE Jr. to TAE, 19 Dec 1898,
TAEPM,
227:586–90.

gold-digging strumpet:
Israel,
Edison,
390.

His brother Will:
William Edison to Mina Edison, 25 May 1899,
TAEPM,
221:749.

He had come up with:
“Young Edison’s Fame Is Now International,”
NYT,
1 June 1903.

the Edison Chemical Company:
“Suit by Inventor Edison,”
Wilmington Evening,
21 January 1903,
TAEPM,
221:241.

he wrote his father:
TAE Jr., to TAE, 29 December 1902. Tom Jr. claimed to be in a desperate situation exacerbated by poor health. He told his father that “I am confined to my bed and have been for several weeks past with the prospect of remaining there for sometime to come.” He was fully aware that his business dealings with strangers eager to exploit his name would end unhappily—“I know of no business deal that I have ever made that [
sic
] I was not taken advantage of.” But he believed he had no choice because the contracts “are of course the only means by which I derive a living.”
TAEPM,
187:756.

In the father’s retrospective account:
“Wizard Edison Menaces with Prison the Men Who Used His Son’s Name,”
New York American,
8 October 1904,
TAEPM,
221:283.

A press account:
“Suit by Inventor Edison.”

The future would bear this out:
H. F. Miller to Mrs. Martha H. Kirk, 8 March 1911, ENHS.

“incapable of making”:
“Barred by Fraud Order,”
NYT,
5 October 1904. Tom Jr. was persuaded to falsely attest in a separate affidavit that he was not the Vitalizer’s inventor. See “Suit by Inventor Edison.”

Contending that selling:
“Barred by Fraud Order”; “That Edison Company,”
NYT,
6 October 1904; “Edison Jr. Mail Held for Fraud,”
NYH,
6 October 1904,
TAEPM,
221:282.