Harry Marvin(1862-1940)
- Producer
Harry Marvin, a college teacher, had met W. K. L. Dickson in the 1880s,
and in 1894 Dickson, then still working for Thomas Edison and also
involved with the Lathams, proposed to Marvin a flip-card device that
would compete with the Kinetoscope. Elias Koopman, Herman Casler,
Marvin, and Dickson called themselves the KMCD group to develop the
idea, the Mutoscope viewer patent being applied for in November. Soon
Casler had constructed a large-format camera, and the first test in
June 1895, probably shot at the Syracuse engineering workshop of
Casler's employer C.E. Lipe, showed Marvin and Casler in a mock
sparring match. In June 1895 Harry Marvin obtained sufficient finance
to open the Marvin Electric Rock Drill Works in Canastota, New York,
for the manufacture of rock drills based on his patent. Casler was
superintendent, and worked on his motion-picture experiments on the
same site. On 22 September, the group met at Marvin's home in
Canastota, where a group portrait was taken, and it may have been at
that time, due to the drop-off in the peepshow motion picture business,
that it was decided to develop a projector. In December the group
formed the American Mutoscope Company (later American Mutoscope and
Biograph, usually referred to as Biograph), which would become one of
the leading producers and exhibitors in the world, and is still in
existence today being the oldest movie company in America.
In December 1896 Edison successfully appealed against the Patent Office rejection of his (Edison's) camera patent, offering a new set of specifications. Harry Marvin claimed that the new specifications were for an entirely different invention, but this claim was thrown out on a technicality. Later, Marvin suggested that fraud had been involved. Discouraged by low profits and Biograph's comparative success, Edison contemplated selling his motion picture business to Biograph for $500,000. On 12 April 1900, Harry Marvin paid Edison a $2,500 option, but the deal fell through. In July 1901 the Edison company were about to be granted an injunction against Biograph, because of claimed patent infringement, but following a deposition by Marvin that such an injunction would 'bankrupt and utterly ruin our company' a stay was granted. In March 1902 Edison's case was dismissed, and all Edison's key motion-picture patents declared invalid. Marvin stayed with Biograph throughout the Motion Picture Patents Company years, and was the man who as vice-president and general manager of the company decided Biograph actor D. W. Griffith would make a useful director (on the suggestion of his brother Arthur Marvin, a longtime Biograph cameraman). It was the conservative production policies of Marvin and the Biograph board, frustrating Griffith's wishes to make longer films, that eventually sent him elsewhere to greater things.
In December 1896 Edison successfully appealed against the Patent Office rejection of his (Edison's) camera patent, offering a new set of specifications. Harry Marvin claimed that the new specifications were for an entirely different invention, but this claim was thrown out on a technicality. Later, Marvin suggested that fraud had been involved. Discouraged by low profits and Biograph's comparative success, Edison contemplated selling his motion picture business to Biograph for $500,000. On 12 April 1900, Harry Marvin paid Edison a $2,500 option, but the deal fell through. In July 1901 the Edison company were about to be granted an injunction against Biograph, because of claimed patent infringement, but following a deposition by Marvin that such an injunction would 'bankrupt and utterly ruin our company' a stay was granted. In March 1902 Edison's case was dismissed, and all Edison's key motion-picture patents declared invalid. Marvin stayed with Biograph throughout the Motion Picture Patents Company years, and was the man who as vice-president and general manager of the company decided Biograph actor D. W. Griffith would make a useful director (on the suggestion of his brother Arthur Marvin, a longtime Biograph cameraman). It was the conservative production policies of Marvin and the Biograph board, frustrating Griffith's wishes to make longer films, that eventually sent him elsewhere to greater things.
