Alf Collins

Alfred 'Alf' Collins (Walworth, 19 June 1866 – 20 December 1951 Clapham) was a British theatre actor who later became a silent film director and actor.[1] His shorts include Rescued by Lifeboat (1906), The Lady Athlete; or, Jiu-Jitsu Downs the Footpads (1907), and The Dancing Girl (1908). Early films were produced with nitrate film and deteriorated in their storage tins, sometimes catching fire, so most of them are lost.

Alf Collins pioneer of cinematograph

There remains approximately 45 films that have been found so far that Collins either acted in or produced, including fourteen rare Edwardian films screened in 2014 at an event called Gaumont Comes Home.[2][3][4] This event was held on the original site of Collins's outdoor stage, of the Gaumont film studios, in Camberwell.[5] The event included the film When Extremes Meet (1905), which is 150 feet long, with Collins dressed in Cockney costume.[6] How Percy Won the Beauty Competition (1909) is a comic chase film set in the fields and nearby streets of his outdoor stage.

Between 1904–1908, Gaumont also produced a number of sound-disc films known as "Chronophones". One of these – It Was A Nice Quiet Morning (1907) – has survived and has now been synchronised with an original recording provided by local film collector Bob Geoghegan. This appears to be the only surviving British talking film made prior to World War I.[7]

References
  1. Don Fairservice Film Editing: History, Theory and Practice 2001 p35 "Alf Collins was an illiterate music hall comic: he styled himself "The wellknown Comedian of His Majesty's and Drury ... as their first producer of London based one-reelers, and between 1903 and 1910 he made a whole series of chase films. Few of Collins's films still exist but the Gaumont Catalogue entries of the period suggest that his approach to film structure and editing was exceptionally inventive. In 1903 he made The Runaway Match, or a Marriage by Motor Car, ..."
  2. "Gaumont Comes Home to Champion Hill by Jasia and William Warren". dulwichsociety.com. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  3. "Gaumont Comes Home". Friends of Dog Kennel Hill Wood. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  4. How Percy Won The Beauty Competition (1909), live screening at Gaumont Comes Home (2014), retrieved 2021-10-28 – via YouTube
  5. "A Franco-British Film Studio at Champion Hill by Tony Fletcher". dulwichsociety.com. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  6. How Percy Won the Beauty Competition (1909) | BFI Britain on Film, retrieved 2021-10-28 – via YouTube
  7. Hutchinson, Pamela (2014-08-09). "Alf Collins and Gaumont: south-east London's cinematic past". Silent London. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.