Smith was born June 26, 1817 in Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, New York. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. George Albert Smith was born April 4, 1870, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to John Henry and Sarah Farr Smith. His background was ideal--an established portrait photographer, he also had a long-standing interest in show business, running a tourist attraction in his native Brighton featuring a fortune teller. [10], Smith had attended the Lumière programme in Leicester Square in March 1896 and spurred on by the films of Robert Paul, which played in Brighton for that summer season, he and local chemist James Williamson acquired a prototype cine cameras from local engineer Alfred Darling, who had begun to manufacture film equipment after carrying out repairs for Brighton-based film pioneer Esmé Collings. George Albert Smith’s Strengths. President Smith had a noble ancestry, in that his great grandfather was John Smith, brother to Joseph Smith, Sr., who was the first stake president in the Salt Lake Valley and later served as the Patriarch to the Mormon Church. George Albert Smith firmly believed in the power of kindness to soften hearts. I watched his actions as president of the Church and knew then as I do now that Uncle George Albert was a true prophet of God. This family lived in part of the Wadsworth home, a duplex shared with James Wadsworth and his family called the Pump House. Along with his better-known French counterpart Georges Méliès George Albert Smith was one of the first filmmakers to explore fictional and fantastic themes, often using surprisingly sophisticated special effects. George Albert Smith’s service as a General Authority spanned most of the first half of the 20th century. When he was 34 years old, George Albert Smith made a list of resolutions that he called his “personal creed”—11 ideals that he committed to live by: “I would be a friend to the friendless and find joy in ministering to the needs of the poor. Publicity Listings Read more. George Albert Smith inherited a love of the U.S. Constitution from a long line of patriotic forebears. 26 June 1817 1 “Sketch of the Autobiography of George Albert Smith,” LDS Millennial Star ... A-1, p. 100, microfilm 954,177, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; “Sketch of the Autobiography of George Albert Smith,” LDS Millennial Star, 1 July 1865, 27:440–441. Rich with anecdotes and passages from his correspondence and journals, this … In 1902 Smith collaborated with old friend Georges Méliès at the Star Films studio in Montreil, Paris, on a pre-enactment of the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra commissioned by Charles Urban of the Warwick Trading Company after rival company Mutoscope and Biograph acquired the rights to film the actual event. His father Charles Smith was a ticket-writer and artist. George Albert Smith. In the late 1940s he was rediscovered by the British film community, being made a Fellow of the British Film Academy in 1955. Helpful. Was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, His films were first distributed by the Warwick Trading Company, managed by American, Michael Brooke , View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, My Top 1,000 Directors: Honourable Mentions, Early Film Pioneers Who Helped Cinema Along. Since then it has been heavily studied and critiqued by Trevor H. Hall in his study The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney. George Albert Smith (4 January 1864 – 17 May 1959) was an English stage hypnotist, psychic, magic lantern lecturer, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, inventor and a key member of the loose association of early film pioneers dubbed the Brighton School by French film historian Georges Sadoul. Smith was born in Cripplegate, London in 1864. Along with his better-known French counterpart Georges Méliès George Albert Smith was one of the first filmmakers to explore fictional and fantastic themes, often using surprisingly sophisticated special effects. Showing all 4 items. … He gave his love to everyone he met. However Smith also corresponded with special effects pioneer Georges Méliès whose influence can be seen in The X-Rays and The Haunted Castle (both 1897) the later of which, along with The Corsican Brothers, Photographing a Ghost and, perhaps his most accomplished work from this time, Santa Claus (all 1898), include special effects created using a process of double-exposure patented by Smith. Though George Albert Smith's generation knew, revered, and respected his life and teachings, he has been relatively unknown among contemporary Latter-day Saints— until now. Former still photographer George Albert Smith invented his own movie camera in 1896 and was making films the following year. From an early age, he was involved in several church activities. Blessing pronounced upon the head of Apostle John Henry Smith under the hands of Presidents John Taylor, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith. Smith was born in Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, New York, the son of John Smith and … On 29 March 1897, Smith added animated photographs to the end of his twice-daily programme of projected entertainment at the Brighton Aquarium, as an outlet for his burgeoning film production. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Smith was one of nineteen children of Latter Day Saint apostle John Henry Smith. Other articles where George Albert Smith is discussed: history of the motion picture: Edison and the Lumière brothers: …and 1898, two Brighton photographers, George Albert Smith and James Williamson, constructed their own motion-picture cameras and began producing trick films featuring superimpositions (The Corsican Brothers, 1897) and interpolated close-ups (Grandma’s Reading Glass, … He created some of the first glass shots. Director. His mother, Sarah Farr, was the first of John Henry Smith's two wives (who he had simultaneously for many years). And at the retail price..which is too high, the 96 pages are frankly not worth the price. He gave his love to all whom he did not meet.” 1 [12] Hove Museum has a permanent display on Smith and Williamson. In 1899 Smith, with the financial assistance of Urban, constructed a glass house film studio at St. Ann's Well Gardens, ushering in a highly creative period for him as a film maker. George and Joseph Jr. were first cousins so it comes as no surprise he was baptized in 1832 at the age of fifteen. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Against the Odds: The Life of George Albert Smith. Smith's skilful manipulation of the lantern, cutting between lenses (from slide to slide) to show changes in time, perspective and location necessary for story telling, would allow him to develop many of the skills he would later put to use as a pioneering film maker developing the grammar of film editing. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. George Albert Smith June 26, 1817 – September 1, 1875 George Albert Smith is also known as George A Smith in Mormonism to distinguish him from his grandson with the same name who served as the 8thprophet of Mormonism. Comment Report abuse. President J. Reuben Clark Jr., one of his counselors in the First Presidency, said of him: “His real name was Love. George Albert Smith (June 26, 1817 September 1, 1875) (commonly known as George A. Smith to distinguish him from his grandson of the same name) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and served in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and as a member of the church's First Presidency. In 1897 he patented a method to make double exposures. In 1892 Smith acquired the lease to St Ann's Well Garden in Hove. Official Sites. Biography. He was the only son of George and Mary Wadsworth Smith, who also had five daughters. From the Life of George Albert Smith. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Against the Odds: The Life of George Albert Smith at Amazon.com. From the Life of George Albert Smith. George A. Smith was born into a family of Church Presidents and was the nephew of Joseph Smith, Sr, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement and one of the Eight Witnesses of the 'Book of Mormon'. Bill McGee. Both he and his neighbour Williamson would go on to become pioneering film makers in their own right creating numerous historic minute-long films.[1][2]. Against the Odds: The Life of George Albert Smith - Kindle edition by Woodger, Mary Jane. In 1882 he teamed up with Douglas Blackburn in an act at the Brighton Aquarium involving muscle reading, in which the blindfolded performer identifies objects selected by the audience, and second sight, in which the blindfolded performer finds objects hidden by his assistant somewhere in the theatre.[4]. Many of Smith's early films, including The Miller and the Sweep and Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer (both filmed in 1897) were comedies thanks to the influence of his wife, Laura Bayley, who had previously acted in pantomime and comic revue. From the Life of George Albert Smith. Here, in 1894, he staged a public exhibition of a series of dissolving views, by means of a powerful long-range limelight apparatus. That year he shot the single scene The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899) which was then seamlessly edited into Cecil Hepworth's View From an Engine Front - Train Leaving Tunnel (1899) to enliven the staid phantom ride genre and demonstrate the possibilities of creative editing. John Henry Smith and George Albert Smith are the only father and son pair to have been members of the Quorum of the Twelve at the same time, h… Smith proved the new process, which abandoned the three-colour approach of Edward Turner in favour of a two-colour (red-green) process, with early test films such as Tartans of Scottish Clans (1906) and Woman Draped in Patterned Handkerchiefs (1908) before giving a trade demonstration of A Visit to the Seaside (1908) on 1 May 1908, followed by public demonstration from early 1909 as far afield as Paris and New York, for which Smith was awarded a silver medal by the Royal Society of Arts. He became well known for such innovative special effects devices as a gadget that allowed double exposures. He moved with his family to Brighton, where his mother ran a boarding house on Grand Parade, following the death of his father. 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