Thomas A. Edison

Thomas A. Edison

Born: February 11, 1847
Died: October 18, 1931
in Milan, Ohio, USA
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who has been described as America's greatest inventor. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.

Edison was raised in the American Midwest; early in his career he worked as a telegraph operator, which inspired some of his earliest inventions. In 1876, he established his first laboratory facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many of his early inventions were developed. He later established a botanic laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida in collaboration with businessmen Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, and a laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey that featured the world's first film studio, the Black Maria. He was a prolific inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as patents in other countries. Edison married twice and fathered six children. He died in 1931 of the complications of diabetes.

Movies for Thomas A. Edison...

Title: History 101
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: May 22, 2020
Type: TV
Infographics and archival footage deliver bite-size history lessons on scientific breakthroughs, social movements and world-changing discoveries.
bee
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
Title: Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
Character: Self (voice) (archive footage)
Released: October 25, 2019
Type: Movie
The history of cinematic sound, told by legendary sound designers and visionary filmmakers.
bee
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
Title: The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 24, 2019
Type: Movie
With a magical new invention that promised to revolutionize blood testing, Elizabeth Holmes became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, heralded as the next Steve Jobs. Then, overnight, her 10-billion-dollar company dissolved. The rise and fall of Theranos is a window into the psychology of fraud.
bee
Edison
Title: Edison
Character: Himself (archive footage)
Released: January 20, 2015
Type: Movie
By the time he died in 1931, Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most famous men in the world. The holder of more patents than any other inventor in history, Edison had achieved glory as the genius behind such revolutionary inventions as sound recording, motion pictures, and electric light. Born on the threshold of America's burgeoning industrial empire, Edison's curiosity led him to its cutting edge. With just three months of formal schooling, he took on one seemingly impossible technical challenge after another, and through intuition, persistence, and a unique team approach to innovation, invariably solved it. Driven and intensely competitive, Edison was often neglectful in his private life and could be ruthless in business. Challenged by competition in the industry he'd founded, Edison launched an ugly propaganda campaign against his rivals, and used his credibility as an electrical expert to help ensure that high-voltage electrocution became a form of capital punishment.
bee
The Extraordinary Voyage
Title: The Extraordinary Voyage
Character: Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
Released: December 8, 2011
Type: Movie
An account of the extraordinary life of film pioneer Georges Méliès (1861-1938) and the amazing story of the copy in color of his masterpiece “A Trip to the Moon” (1902), unexpectedly found in Spain and restored thanks to the heroic efforts of a group of true cinema lovers.
bee
Murnau, Borzage and Fox
Title: Murnau, Borzage and Fox
Character: HImself (archival footage) (uncredited)
Released: December 9, 2008
Type: Movie
Documentary focusing on the film careers F.W. Murnau, Frank Borzage and William Fox and their impact on the history of cinema.
bee
Edison: The Invention of the Movies
Title: Edison: The Invention of the Movies
Character: Himself (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 2005
Type: Movie
A history of the Edison Company, the pioneering film production company begun by Thomas A. Edison. Included are more than 140 complete films produced by the company between 1891 and 1918, along with interviews with film historians and archivists, and commentary by Charles Musser, a noted film historian and authority on the films of the Edison Company.
bee
Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists
Title: Star Power: The Creation Of United Artists
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1998
Type: Movie
The careers of D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin are chronicled culminating in the formation of United Artists and 1919.
bee
The Shadow of Hate
Title: The Shadow of Hate
Character: (archive footage)
Released: June 16, 1995
Type: Movie
The film expresses the history of oppression, discrimination, violence and hate in America. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
bee
The Crash of 1929
Title: The Crash of 1929
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: November 19, 1990
Type: Movie
Based on eight years of continued prosperity, presidents and economists alike confidently predicted that America would soon enter a time when there would be no more poverty, no more depressions -- a "New Era" when everyone could be rich. But when reality finally struck, the consequences of such unbound optimism shocked the world.
bee
Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
Title: Before the Nickelodeon: The Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
Character: Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: October 9, 1982
Type: Movie
A documentary overview of the career of silent cinema pioneer Edwin S. Porter.
bee
Title: Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: September 24, 1978
Type: TV
Produced for television by Claude-Jean Philippe, the « Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma », recounts the history of French cinema from its birth to the beginning of the 1960s. With commentary read by Jean Rochefort.
bee
Title: Horizon
Character: Self
Released: February 4, 1964
Type: TV
Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
bee
The Golden Twenties
Title: The Golden Twenties
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: April 8, 1950
Type: Movie
Feature-length compilation of 1920s newsreel footage, with commentary about news, sports, lifestyles, and historical figures.
bee
Okay for Sound
Title: Okay for Sound
Released: September 7, 1946
Type: Movie
This short was released in connection with the 20th anniversary of Warner Brothers' first exhibition of the Vitaphone sound-on-film process on 6 August 1926. The film highlights Thomas A. Edison and Alexander Graham Bell's efforts that contributed to sound movies and acknowledges the work of Lee De Forest. Brief excerpts from the August 1926 exhibition follow. Clips are then shown from a number of Warner Brothers features, four from the 1920s, the remainder from 1946/47.
bee
The Film That Was Lost
Title: The Film That Was Lost
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: October 31, 1942
Type: Movie
In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a look is taken at the problems of film preservation efforts in the 1930s and early 1940s.
bee
A Day with Thomas A. Edison
Title: A Day with Thomas A. Edison
Character: Self
Released: March 8, 1922
Type: Movie
A six-part documentary recording the 74-year-old Edison's collaborations with his staff, conversations with industrial leaders, and supervision of the factory's production line. The majority of the film (parts 3, 4, and 5) chronicles Edison's trip to the incandescent light bulb factory and details its manufacturing process.
bee
Meeting of the Motion Pictures Patents Company
Title: Meeting of the Motion Pictures Patents Company
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1909
Type: Movie
A short film in which the members of the Motion Pictures Patents Company (which had been founded only a year earlier) congratulate Thomas Edison himself on receiving a new patent.
bee
Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory
Title: Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory
Released: May 31, 1897
Type: Movie
“This film is remarkable in several respects. In the first place, it is full life-size. Secondly, it is the only accurate recent portrait of the great inventor. The scene is an actual one, showing Mr. Edison in working dress engaged in an interesting chemical experiment in his great Laboratory. There is sufficient movement to lead the spectator through the several processes of mixing, pouring, testing, etc. as if he were side by side with the principal. The lights and shadows are vivid, and the apparatus and other accessories complete a startling picture that will appeal to every beholder.” (Edison Catalog)