Thomas A. Edison
Also Known As: Thomas Alva Edison, Thomas Edison, The Wizard of Menlo Park
Biography: Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who has been described as America's greatest inventor. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory. Edison was raised in the American Midwest; early in his career he worked as a telegraph operator, which inspired some of his earliest inventions. In 1876, he established his first laboratory facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many of his early inventions were developed. He later established a botanic laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida in collaboration with businessmen Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, and a laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey that featured the world's first film studio, the Black Maria. He was a prolific inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as patents in other countries. Edison married twice and fathered six children. He died in 1931 of the complications of diabetes.
Department: Production
Place of Birth: Milan, Ohio, USA
Birthday: February 11, 1847
Deathday: October 18, 1931
Adult: No
Gender: Male
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Known For:
Edison: The Invention of the Movies
Overview: A history of the Edison Company, the pioneering film production company begun by Thomas A. Edison. Included are more than 140 complete films produced by the company between 1891 and 1918, along with interviews with film historians and archivists, and commentary by Charles Musser, a noted film historian and authority on the films of the Edison Company.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-01-01
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The Film That Was Lost
Overview: In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a look is taken at the problems of film preservation efforts in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-10-31
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Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory
Overview: “This film is remarkable in several respects. In the first place, it is full life-size. Secondly, it is the only accurate recent portrait of the great inventor. The scene is an actual one, showing Mr. Edison in working dress engaged in an interesting chemical experiment in his great Laboratory. There is sufficient movement to lead the spectator through the several processes of mixing, pouring, testing, etc. as if he were side by side with the principal. The lights and shadows are vivid, and the apparatus and other accessories complete a startling picture that will appeal to every beholder.” (Edison Catalog)
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1897-05-31
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A Day with Thomas A. Edison
Overview: A six-part documentary recording the 74-year-old Edison's collaborations with his staff, conversations with industrial leaders, and supervision of the factory's production line. The majority of the film (parts 3, 4, and 5) chronicles Edison's trip to the incandescent light bulb factory and details its manufacturing process.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-03-08
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Meeting of the Motion Pictures Patents Company
Overview: A short film in which the members of the Motion Pictures Patents Company (which had been founded only a year earlier) congratulate Thomas Edison himself on receiving a new patent.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1909-01-01
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The Golden Twenties
Overview: Feature-length compilation of 1920s newsreel footage, with commentary about news, sports, lifestyles, and historical figures.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-04-08
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Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
Overview: The history of cinematic sound, told by legendary sound designers and visionary filmmakers.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2019-10-25
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The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
Overview: With a magical new invention that promised to revolutionize blood testing, Elizabeth Holmes became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, heralded as the next Steve Jobs. Then, overnight, her 10-billion-dollar company dissolved. The rise and fall of Theranos is a window into the psychology of fraud.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2019-01-24
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Murnau, Borzage and Fox
Overview: Documentary focusing on the film careers F.W. Murnau, Frank Borzage and William Fox and their impact on the history of cinema.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2008-12-09
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Edison
Overview: By the time he died in 1931, Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most famous men in the world. The holder of more patents than any other inventor in history, Edison had achieved glory as the genius behind such revolutionary inventions as sound recording, motion pictures, and electric light. Born on the threshold of America's burgeoning industrial empire, Edison's curiosity led him to its cutting edge. With just three months of formal schooling, he took on one seemingly impossible technical challenge after another, and through intuition, persistence, and a unique team approach to innovation, invariably solved it. Driven and intensely competitive, Edison was often neglectful in his private life and could be ruthless in business. Challenged by competition in the industry he'd founded, Edison launched an ugly propaganda campaign against his rivals, and used his credibility as an electrical expert to help ensure that high-voltage electrocution became a form of capital punishment.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2015-01-20
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Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists
Overview: The careers of D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin are chronicled culminating in the formation of United Artists and 1919.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-01-01
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Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
Overview: A documentary overview of the career of silent cinema pioneer Edwin S. Porter.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-10-09
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Okay for Sound
Overview: This short was released in connection with the 20th anniversary of Warner Brothers' first exhibition of the Vitaphone sound-on-film process on 6 August 1926. The film highlights Thomas A. Edison and Alexander Graham Bell's efforts that contributed to sound movies and acknowledges the work of Lee De Forest. Brief excerpts from the August 1926 exhibition follow. Clips are then shown from a number of Warner Brothers features, four from the 1920s, the remainder from 1946/47.
Genres: History Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-09-07
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The Extraordinary Voyage
Overview: An account of the extraordinary life of film pioneer Georges Méliès (1861-1938) and the amazing story of the copy in color of his masterpiece “A Trip to the Moon” (1902), unexpectedly found in Spain and restored thanks to the heroic efforts of a group of true cinema lovers.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2011-12-08
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The Shadow of Hate: A History of Intolerance in America
Overview: The film expresses the history of oppression, discrimination, violence and hate in America. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-06-16
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The Crash of 1929
Overview: Based on eight years of continued prosperity, presidents and economists alike confidently predicted that America would soon enter a time when there would be no more poverty, no more depressions -- a "New Era" when everyone could be rich. But when reality finally struck, the consequences of such unbound optimism shocked the world.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-11-19
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Naqoyqatsi
Overview: A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-09-02
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