A Thanhouser Company cinematographer, credited on 7 Thanhouser films, 2 of which you can watch free online.
Biography
Blair Smith was the Thanhouser Company’s first cameraman. Hired by Edwin Thanhouser in 1909 from the Edison company, he filmed the new studio’s first several releases, beginning with The Actor’s Children (1910).
A 1910 trade sketch called him a veteran cinematographer and credited him with work on Edison’s The Great Train Robbery (1903), with filming President McKinley’s last speech at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, and with a film “scoop” of the Mt. Pelée disaster in 1902.
A short summary written from the encyclopedia.Read Bowers’ full biography on this page ↓
Filmography
These have no online copy. Each page says what is known about where a print is held.
From the encyclopedia
From Volume III: Biographies of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. 236 words.
Blair Smith was a cameraman with Thanhouser in 1909 and 1910.
J. Blair Smith, formerly with Edison, was hired by Edwin Thanhouser in 1909 and began his work in New Rochelle by filming the new company’s first several releases, beginning with The Actor’s Children (March 15, 1910). In 1910 he lived at 46 Treno Street in New Rochelle, the same as Charles Van Houten’s address at the time.
The Moving Picture News, April 2, 1910, carried this sketch: “Blair Smith, the Thanhouser cameraman, is a veteran cinematographer. He was one of the photographers of The Great Train Robbery [Edison, 1903], known as the first ‘full reel’ motion picture ever produced. But years before that Smith was turning a camera crank. He took those early ‘kissing’ pictures that you will remember if you only think hard enough—an actor and actress pressing lips—how wonderful they seemed then, and how ridiculously simple now! Smith was returning from Canada with his camera in the fall of 1901 when he stumbled into Buffalo and the Pan-American Exposition. Hearing that President McKinley was there and due to deliver an address, Smith got on the job with his camera, and cinematographed Mr. McKinley delivering his last speech. On the morrow came the assassin’s bullet, and Smith’s timely picture proved to be the best selling film ever issued. Smith is also known for his motion picture ‘scoop’ of the Mt. Pelee disaster in 1902.”
Bowers’ own filmography list is left out here: the filmography above lists the same films. Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “SMITH, Blair.” thanhouser.org/research/people/blair-smith/
