back to

Arthur Melbourne-Cooper pioneer film maker

01 November 2011

By EAFA

A true pioneer of early British filmmaking, Arthur Melbourne-Cooper began his life in pictures at his father’s photographic business in the Hertfordshire cathedral city of St Albans. Keen to branch out into moving images, he first joined the firm of fellow pioneer Birt Acres for whom he worked as a camera operator, before establishing his own studios in St Albans.

Between 1896 and 1915, Melbourne-Cooper made approximately 300 films, mostly for his own Alpha Trading Company (1901-1915) and in two joint ventures with semi-retired naval officer Andrew Heron, Kinema Industries and Heron Films. Melbourne-Cooper’s output ranged from actualities and topicals to industrial documentaries and live-action comedy and drama, but he is perhaps best known for his pioneering use of stop-motion animation.

During the First World War, Melbourne-Cooper became a munitions inspector in Bedfordshire, followed by a move with his family to Blackpool, where he managed a department of an advertising agency, making a number of animated advertisements. Following his retirement in 1940, Melbourne-Cooper moved to Cambridgeshire where he died in 1961.

The following films represent a small selection of Arthur Melbourne-Cooper’s broad output. Like much of early cinema, a large percentage of Melbourne-Cooper’s work has been lost to the ravages of time, but the East Anglian Film Archive holds a range of other titles attributed to this Hertfordshire film pioneer.

highlights

  • 1899 Cat no. 2088

    Animated Matches Playing Cricket

    1899, St Albans (Hertfordshire)

    A group of matchstick men play a game of cricket in this stop-motion animation produced to promote Bryant & May brand matches.

    Cat no. 2088

    0:00:53

    Black and White, silent

  • 1899 Cat no. 215258

    Matches Appeal

    1899

    Melbourne-Cooper expands on his animated matches theme for this appeal by Bryant & May for donations to allow the supply of matches to British soldiers serving overseas.

    Cat no. 215258

    0:00:52

    Black and White, silent

  • c. 1900 Cat no. 215250

    Policeman Beaten

    c. 1900

    A comedy of infidelity made for the Alpha Trading Company.

    Cat no. 215250

    0:02:00

    Black and White, silent

  • 1905 Cat no. 215261

    MacNab's Visit to London

    1905

    Arthur Melbourne-Cooper takes an on-screen role as a golf-crazed Scotsman whose obsession causes mayhem in the gentile home of his southern cousins.

    Cat no. 215261

    0:04:44

    Black and White, silent

  • c. 1905 Cat no. 225333

    The Empire's Money Maker

    c. 1905, City of London (Other)

    Melbourne-Cooper takes his camera inside the Royal Mint, providing a unique insight into the manufacture of coinage and producing one of the earliest ‘available-light’ documentaries, shooting indoors without additional artificial lighting.

    Cat no. 225333

    0:05:00

    tinted, silent

  • 1906 Cat no. 7594

    Motor Pirates

    1906, St. Albans (Hertfordshire)

    Two rogues in an armoured car terrorize the quaint country lanes of Hertfordshire, stealing chickens and sparking gunfire, explosions and a chase involving a gang of inept policemen.

    Cat no. 7594

    0:08:01

    Black and White, silent

  • 1907 Cat no. 1893

    A Dream of Toyland

    1907, St Albans (Hertfordshire)

    Blending live action and stop-motion animation, Arthur Melbourne-Cooper’s most renowned film features a boy dreaming about his toys, which burst into life and fill the city with chaos and calamity.

    Cat no. 1893

    0:05:31

    Black and White, silent

  • 1911 Cat no. 215265

    Road Hogs in Toyland

    1911

    Melbourne-Cooper combines two of his key cinematic obsessions, dangerous driving and stop-motion animation, in this return to the chaotic world of Toyland where a gang of men take their racing cars onto open roads.

    Cat no. 215265

    0:05:06

    Black and White, silent

  • 1912 Cat no. 215257

    The Manufacture of Walking Sticks

    1912, London (Other)

    One of a series of documentaries produced for Heron Films in which Melbourne-Cooper visits the Henry Howell & Co. factory in London to observe the manufacture of walking sticks.

    Cat no. 215257

    0:05:55

    Black and White, silent

  • 1912 Cat no. 215269

    The Life of a Racing Pigeon

    1912

    Also produced for Heron Films, this documentary traces the life of racing pigeons from hatchlings to fully trained racers, and was produced with the assistance of The Racing Pigeon magazine.

    Cat no. 215269

    0:07:36

    Black and White, silent