Authorship dispute
''Grandma's Reading Glass'' is one of several films which Dutch journalist Tjitte de Vries claims have been wrongly attributed. This claim is based on the identification of family and friends of film-pioneer Arthur Melbourne-Cooper in the film by his daughter Audrey Wadowska, who concludes that the film must therefore have been made by her father. According to the claim, the film was made by Melbourne-Cooper in his father's photographic studio in St Albans, the grandmother is played by his youngest sister Bertha, the close up of the eye is that of his mother Catherine, the young boy was played by his neighbour's son Bert Massey and the cat is one of the family's Manx kittens. The counterclaim by film historian Frank Gray is that the film was made by Smith at his studio in St. Anne's Well Gardens, Hove, the grandmother is played by his wife Laura Bayley, the close up of the eye is that of character actor Tom Green, the young boy was played by his son Harold and the cat is the family's tabby, which clearly has a tail. The claim by de Vries is further supported by the lack of any mention of payments to Tom Green at the time of production in Smith's cash book, while the counterclaim by Gray is supported by evidence showing that surviving prints were produced on the same step printer as the undisputed ''Let Me Dream Again''. Campaigning by Wadowska resulted in the film being re-attributed to Melbourne-Cooper by New York's Museum of Modern Art Film Archive, but other archives, including the BFI National Film and Television Archive, have not done the same.References
External links
* * {{George Albert Smith 1900 films 1900s British films British silent short films British black-and-white films British drama short films Articles containing video clips Films directed by George Albert Smith 1900s rediscovered films 1900 drama films Rediscovered British films Silent British drama films Trick films