Alfred Clark (1873–1950) was a pioneer of music recording and cinema. As a cameraman and director of productions at
Edison's first studio, he was the first to make moving pictures with innovations like
continuity,
plot
Plot or Plotting may refer to:
Art, media and entertainment
* Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction
Music
* ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava
* The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003
Other
* ''Plot' ...
, trained actors and
special effect
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
s. In 1896, he joined
Emile Berliner
Emile Berliner (May 20, 1851 – August 3, 1929) originally Emil Berliner, was a German-American inventor. He is best known for inventing the lateral-cut flat disc record (called a "gramophone record" in British and American English) used with a ...
's
Gramophone Company
The Gramophone Company Limited (The Gramophone Co. Ltd.), based in the United Kingdom and founded by Emil Berliner, was one of the early recording companies, the parent organisation for the ''His Master's Voice (HMV)'' label, and the European ...
and then went to Europe where he became an important manager of companies like
HMV
Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom.
The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...
and
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
. He was naturalized as a British citizen in 1928 and he became a leading member of the
Oriental Ceramic Society in London, establishing a valuable collection including rare pieces which had been made for the emperors of the
Tang
Tang or TANG most often refers to:
* Tang dynasty
* Tang (drink mix)
Tang or TANG may also refer to:
Chinese states and dynasties
* Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...
and
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
.
In 1921 he married Ivy Sanders, who survived him and died in 1973.
Early life
Alfred Clark was born in New York on 19 December 1876. He was educated at the
Franklin School in Washington and the
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
. He took an early interest in electricity and left college at sixteen to join the
North American Phonograph Company
The North American Phonograph Company was an early attempt to commercialize the maturing technologies of sound recording in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Though the company was largely unsuccessful in its goals due to legal, technical and financ ...
. This collapsed in 1894 and Clark then joined
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...
to make early short movies using the
Kinetoscope
The Kinetoscope is an precursors of film, early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic ...
technology at the
Black Maria
Black Maria may refer to:
Art and literature
*Black Mariah (comics), a character in the Luke Cage comics series
*List of One Piece characters#Animal Kingdom Pirates, Black Maria, a character in the manga series ''One Piece''
*Black Maria (nove ...
studio. Previously, Edison's output had been boxing and vaudeville but Clark introduced the first productions with continuity and plot such as the brief ''
Execution of Mary Stuart'' which introduced the first
special effect
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
to show her decapitation.
Gramophone
Clark's main interest was sound recording so, after a year of pioneering cinema, he worked for Edison's
phonograph
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
company while taking evening classes at the
Cooper Institute and collaborating with
Emile Berliner
Emile Berliner (May 20, 1851 – August 3, 1929) originally Emil Berliner, was a German-American inventor. He is best known for inventing the lateral-cut flat disc record (called a "gramophone record" in British and American English) used with a ...
and
Eldridge Johnson on development of the
gramophone
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
– a superior technology to the phonograph, as it enabled mass production of recordings from a metal
master
Master or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
* Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans
*Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...
. Clark's innovations included a
governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
to control the speed of playback and an improved
sound box
A sound box or sounding box (sometimes written soundbox) is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vibr ...
.
In 1899, Clark went to France, representing both Edison and Berliner. The gramophone technology did well, and Clark founded the ''Compagnie de Gramophone Française'' which recorded major artists such as
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
and
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...
. In 1904, Clark sold his French holdings for £23,000 and, in 1907, he helped establish the ''Musée de la Voix'' for which he was awarded the
Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...
. In 1908, he moved to Britain where he became the managing director of the Gramophone company there, reorganising it and establishing a factory in
Hayes. The First World War was disruptive as the business had to focus on war work but Clark gained greater control of the company when the non-executive directors terminated his employment but found that the bank would not accept them as managers. Clark was rehired with better pay while the board was reorganised.
After the war, he developed the partnership with Eldridge Johnson's
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidia ...
and acquired the
Marconiphone
Marconiphone was an English manufacturer of domestic receiving equipment, notably radio receivers and reel-to-reel tape machines.
Early History
After World War I, the Marconi Company began producing non-industrial receivers, principally for the ...
business for its new technologies of radio and electronics, which were now becoming important for home entertainment. In 1931, the business was merged with the
Columbia Graphophone Company
Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest phonograph, gramophone companies in the United Kingdom.
Founded in 1917 as an offshoot of the American Columbia Records, Columbia Phonograph Company, it became an independent British-owned ...
to form
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
. This focussed on cost-cutting and rationalisation to survive the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
but continued to develop its technology, including television which the BBC started broadcasting using an
EMI system in 1936. The Second World War interrupted such consumer developments as the business again had to switch to war work such as radar. Clark was the chairman and sometimes managing director during this period and he then retired in 1946.
Chinese ceramics
Clark formed one of the most important Western collections of Chinese ceramics (though it was outshone by that of Sir
Percival David
Sir Percival Victor David Ezekiel David, 2nd Baronet (21 July 1892 – 9 October 1964) was a Bombay-born British financier who is best known as a scholar and collector of Chinese ceramics. He also formed a collection of Chinese stamps and pos ...
). His first donation to the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
was a
Ru ware
Ru ware, Ju ware, or "Ru official ware" () is a famous and extremely rare type of Chinese pottery from the Song dynasty, produced for the imperial court for a brief period around 1100. Fewer than 100 complete pieces survive, though there are ...
brush-washer bowl in 1936; this was lent to an exhibition in the
Palace Museum
The Palace Museum () is a huge national museum complex housed in the Forbidden City at the core of Beijing, China. With , the museum inherited the imperial royal palaces from the Ming and Qing dynasties of China and opened to the public in 192 ...
in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
in 2015–16. This was one of a pair; the other was later sold to a Japanese collection. When sold again, on 4 April 2012 by
Sotheby's
Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...
in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
, it fetched 207,860,000
Hong Kong dollar
The Hong Kong dollar (, currency symbol, sign: HK$; ISO 4217, code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cent (currency), cents or 1000 Mill (currency), mils. The H ...
s (US$26.7 million), an auction record for Song ceramics. Several other pieces from the Clark collection, including three Chinese paintings, were donated or sold to the British Museum, mostly by Mrs Clark in 1972. There was a sale of much of the collection in 1956. The rest of the collection was sold or donated by his widow during the 1970s, but is recorded in a catalogue by Edgar Bluett, first published as a series of articles in ''
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
'' magazine.
Clark was on the Council of the Oriental Ceramic Society for most of the period 1934–48, and lent several pieces to the important
Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
exhibition of Chinese art in 1935–36. As recalled by Lady David (wife of Sir Percival) in 1992, most of the collection was displayed in the living rooms, with a "little room upstairs" where their
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
pieces were displayed. She described the collection as "small, formed by two people with extremely good taste".
[Pierson, pp. 171–172]
Filmography
These were the short films made for the Kinetoscope in 1895 at
Edison's Black Maria
The Black Maria ( ) was Thomas Edison's film production studio in West Orange, New Jersey. It was the world's first film studio.
History
In 1893, the world's first film production studio, the Black Maria, or the cinematographic Theater, wa ...
studio.
Historical
*A Frontier Scene
*Indian Scalping Scene
*Joan of Arc
*Rescue of Capt. John Smith by
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...
*
The Execution of Mary Stuart
''The Execution of Mary Stuart'' is a short film produced in 1895. The film depicts the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. It is the first known film to use special effects, specifically the stop trick.
The 18-second-long film was produced by Th ...
Vaudeville
*Acrobatic Dance – the
Leigh sisters
*Cyclone Dance – dancer
Lola Yberri
*Fan Dance – dancer Lola Yberri
*Umbrella Dance – the Leigh sisters
References
Citations
Sources
*"British Museum"
Biography by the British Museum*
*
*
*
*Pierson, Stacey, ''Collectors, Collections and Museums: The Field of Chinese Ceramics in Britain, 1560–1960'', 2007, Peter Lang, , 9783039105380
google books*
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Alfred
1873 births
1950 deaths
American inventors
Artists from New York City
British art collectors
British music industry executives
Cinema pioneers
Chinese art collectors
Thomas Edison