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Siegmund Lubin was an optician born on Apr. 20, 1851 in
Breslau, Germany, now part of Poland. He emigrated to the
U.S. in 1876 and peddled eyeglasses the length and breadth
of the Eastern states. He also sold jewelry, metal polish
and other goods. He settled in Philadelphia and opened a
successful optical shop in 1885. He used two of his patents
to improve eyeglass frames and promoted the information to
his advantage. The itinerant eyeglass dealers were called
"glimmers". In addition to fairs, exhibitions and
carnivals, it was common for them to sell their wares door
to door in various communities and villages.
At that time his lenses were pre-beveled for a frame in
various ranges of plus powers. These would be suitable for
the majority of presbyopes that existed in those out of the
way places. As a "glimmer", he might even prepare
lenses of low minus strengths to accommodate a few young,
emerging myopes. Wafer-like lenses, ground as plus adds,
could be cemented to the carrier lens as a bifocal. Toric
lenses to correct astigmatism were available only in the
most sophisticated shops located in the big cities. The
frames he dispensed were of simple design and made of steel,
silver or gold filled material. Frames had
"saddle" bridges and no pads. The temples were
mostly the cable, wrap-around type, and there were a few
eyesizes. Ought (0) was a 26 mm round shape and a double
ought (00) was a 28 mm round. Oval shapes were depicted as
vertical difference designation. An Ought five (05) lens
would have a vertical difference of 5 mm. Later the P3 shape
came into use. The rimless fashion also became popular. In
1921 new laws prohibited the business of
"glimmers" like Lubin, thereby forcing the
ophthalmic professions into a higher level of delivery.
During his travels, Lubin encountered the legendary
pioneer photographer, Eadweard Muybridge. This chance
meeting ignited his imagination and catapulted him into the
motion picture business. Lubin began a fascination with
photography as well as Thomas Edison's motion picture
developments. His first cinematic effort was a movie of a
horse eating hay. He was an astute student of advertising
and engaged in a style that would now be recognized as
"showbiz hype". He made films that re-enacted
historic boxing matches which opened up a new avenue of
pleasure for sports enthusiasts. He often had the boxers
re-enact their boxing match for film circulation purposes.
Spanish American war scenes were re-enacted in Fairmount
Park in Philadelphia. He made films for students and the
public to better understand medical and biological
information. He built four local studios, created a chain of
theaters and produced more than 3000 films, including
westerns, comedies and melodramas.
Lubin's concept of mass marketing had the most profound
effect on American movies. By spending money to advertise
his films nationwide, he created a demand and changed movies
from a novelty into a business. So, while it is Edison who
is credited with the invention of the movies, it was Lubin
who developed the medium and was responsible for making it
an art form appreciated by the average consumer. With no
guidelines enacted yet, he was able to pirate other
producer's ideas, film and equipment. He remade any other
movie with an appealing title, producing his version of the
"Great Train Robbery", and "Uncle Tom's
Cabin", in which he made a personal appearance. His
films were often sensational in content. The film,
"Unwritten Law" was based on the Thaw-White murder
scandal, while the gripping trial was still in progress. He
appeared in his own version of the Oberammergau Passion
Play. He used "local talent" to make films for
"gentlemen's smokers" from his rooftop studio in
Philadelphia's "tenderloin" district. He soon
began marketing his machines, films and slides in Germany.
Lubin filmed hurricane damage in Galveston and the
Republican national convention in Philadelphia. He tried to
promote home movies by offering "parlor
"projectors. In 1904 he was unsuccessful in his attempt
to market "sound" movies. The following year,
Edison threatened lawsuits against Lubin for infringements
on his patents. They battled for some time but ended the
dispute by combining forces in a company to be known as
Edison's Motion Picture Patents Co. Despite the constant
litigation, Lubin's business grew rapidly. He appeared as a
race track gambler in "The Silver King". He
interviewed the famous D.W. Griffith but refused to hire
him. He also made a series of films to combat anti-Semitism.
In 1913 Lubin made his first feature length films in
Philadelphia. He also established studios in Los Angeles and
Jacksonville, where the famous comedy actor Oliver Hardy was
employed. In 1914 it was reported that Lubin saved Goldwyn,
Lasky and DeMille from disaster by repairing technical
problems during the filming of the historical "Squaw
Man". In 1915 Lubin was honored as a film pioneer at
the San Diego Exposition.
It is felt that Lubin, in his day, was as important a
figure in the history of motion pictures as Thomas Edison or
D.W. Griffith. It is sad that hardly a person recognizes his
name. He was called a scam artist, a showman, and a shaman
by his adversaries. He would have cut a wide swath in
today's ophthalmic picture without compromising any of the
concepts he explored during his rise to success. However, he
sustained many setbacks that followed his huge successes of
1910. He was not as adroit in shifting his concepts to meet
the rising popularity of quality films. In June of 1914 he
suffered a disastrous fire in his main studio that destroyed
the negatives for a number of films yet to be released. When
WW1 broke out in Europe, Lubin and other American filmmakers
lost a large source of income from these foreign sales. He
was unable to pay the Drexel Bank when they called up his
$500,000 loan. On Sept. 1, 1917, the Lubin Film Company
closed its doors forever. Siegmund Lubin lost a personal
fortune but had the foresight to place his original optical
shop in his wife's name. As such, he had a business to fall
back on that provided a living for him until his death in
Ventnor, N.J., in 1923.
It would be difficult to find another optician possessing
the fame, color and impressive history that matches the
story of the eyeglass peddler who rose to become a king of
the cinema, Siegmund Lubin. |
