Arthur Melbourne-Cooper Dreams of Toyland,1908 Blue Plaque
On 6th October at 10.30 am at the Odyssey Cinema, London Road, St Albans, Jan Harlan
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Harlan), Stanley Kubrick's film producer and brother-in-law, will be the guest of honour at the installation of a Blue Plaque for Arthur Melbourne-Cooper (1874 – 1961).
Arthur Melbourne-Cooper was a photographer and filmmaker, known for his pioneering work in stop-motion animation. Later, he set up a documentary and newsreel company, Kinema Industries, which famously shot the 1913 Derby when the suffragette, Emily Davison, threw herself fatally in front of the King's horse.
He opened Hertfordshire’s first cinema, Alpha Picture House, on London Road. The building was designed by the local architect Percival Blow and included a restaurant, a hairdressing salon and a swimming pool. When this was destroyed by fire, a new cinema was erected on the site and operated under various names until its closure in 1995. After a campaign and public donations, the building was restored and re-opened in 2014 as the Odyssey.
Arthur was born in St Albans on 15 April 1874. His father Thomas was a photographer and Arthur followed in his footsteps, starting work at the age of 16 in his father's shop on London Road (they lived in No. 99). By the late 1890s he was carrying out 'rush work' filming, and later covered important topical subjects, including the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (1902) and the Grand National (1903).
Following his father's death Arthur produced his own films and became one of the founder-members of the British Kinematograph Manufacturers Association. By 1907 he had established his own company, and in the same year filmed the phantom ride London to Killarney from a special observation car attached to the front of a train. Immediately afterward he filmed a comedy, Irish Wives and English Husbands, starring Kate O'Connor, the first fiction film to be made in Ireland. In 1908 he produced an animated
film Dreams of Toyland.
Despite his initial success, financial difficulties ensued when the Alpha Picture House failed an inspection and had to be sold off. With his business wound up, he moved to Manor Park in south-east London. He managed a cinema in Harrow while still making puppet animation pictures – his best known is Cinderella (1912). With the help of a partner's capital, he established Heron Films Ltd, producing comedies and dramas. On the outbreak of WWI Arthur closed his companies and moved to Dunstable, becoming a munitions inspector at Luton. After the war, he went to Blackpool where he managed a film company
called Animads, a sub-division of Langford's Advertising Agency Ltd, making a number of animated advertisements, including one for Cadbury's chocolates.
Arthur retired in 1939 and moved with his wife Kate to Little Shelford near Cambridge. He died on 28 November 1961.
Professor Tim Boatswain, Chair of Blue Plaques St Albans said,
Blue Plaques St Albans is a voluntary body supported by a range of organisations and the general public. This is the 10th Blue Plaque we have installed and we are most grateful to all those who support us through their donations. We are absolutely delighted that Jan Harlan, who helped produce Stanley Kubrick's iconic films and is a member of a family associated with St Albans, will be our guest of honour at the installation of the Blue Plaque. We hope this tribute to Arthur Melbourne-Cooper will mean that his contribution to film-making will be better understood.
For donations to Blue Plaques St Albans please contact:
blueplaquesstalbans@gmail.com