Siegmund Lubin
Encyclopedia
Siegmund Lubin was a Polish-American motion picture pioneer.

Biography

He was born as Siegmund Lubszynski in Breslau, Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 (now Wrocław, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

) on April 20, 1851, to a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Jewish family. In 1876 he emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where he worked as an ophthalmologist in Philadelphia.

He started by making his own camera and projector combination, which he sold. In 1896 he began distributing films for Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...

. in 1897 he started making films and in 1902 formed the Lubin Manufacturing Company
Lubin Studios
The Lubin Manufacturing Company, was an American motion picture production company that produced silent films from 1902 to 1916. Lubin films were distributed with a Liberty Bell trademark.-History:...

, incorporating
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...

 it in 1909. By 1910 his company had built a film studio, "Lubinville", in Philadelphia.

A fire at its studio in June 1914 destroyed the negatives for his unreleased new films. When World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 broke out in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 in September of that year, Lubin Studios, and other American filmmakers, lost foreign sales. The dissolution of the Motion Picture Patents Company
Motion Picture Patents Company
The Motion Picture Patents Company , founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major American film companies , the leading film distributor and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak...

. After making more than a thousand motion pictures, on September, 1, 1917, the Lubin Film Company went out of business.

He went back to work as an ophthalmologist.

He died on September 11, 1923 at his home in Ventnor, New Jersey. He was buried on September 14, 1923.

Legacy

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Siegmund Lubin has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 at 6166 Hollywood Blvd.

Further reading

Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university founded as a junior college in 1942. It now has several campuses located in New Jersey, Canada, and the United Kingdom.-Description:...

; The King of the Movies: Film Pioneer, Siegmund Lubin (ISBN 0-8386-3728-0) by Joseph P. Eckhardt (1988)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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