Historically important as Robert Harron's first starring feature, "Bobby's Kodak" (February 10, 1908) also features Biograph cameraman G.W. Bitzer. It was directed by Wallace McCutcheon. Mr. Harron started playing "bit" parts at the studio in late 1907 as an after school job, with future film editor James Smith. Collaborator D.W. Griffith had yet to arrive.
"Jim and I were earning five dollars a week," Harron recalled in a February 8, 1920 newspaper interview with Louella Parsons, "At that time, five dollars was considered a big salary for a boy. We were proud of ourselves until we started playing regular parts. And then, we used to hold indignation meetings, and say if the company didn't realize our value, we would leave; a threat which never worried anyone, and which we never carried out." Happily, the boys stayed with Biograph, and met director Griffith the following year; thus, with Mr. Bitzer, the ingredients for movie magic were stirred.
Unhappily, "Bobby's Kodak" is a lost film. Here is Harron's synopsis:
"'Bobby's Kodak' was the title. I was the infant terrible, and I snapped my father kissing the maid, mother flirting with the butler, the nurse maid having an affair with the cop. Later, I showed all the pictures; and, the pandemonium that followed has some of our best slapstick comedies looking lifeless. There was a chase - Edward Dillon played my father, and it was from his irate grasp I had to escape."
******* Bobby's Kodak (2/10/08) Wallace McCutcheon ~ Robert Harron, Edward Dillon
"Jim and I were earning five dollars a week," Harron recalled in a February 8, 1920 newspaper interview with Louella Parsons, "At that time, five dollars was considered a big salary for a boy. We were proud of ourselves until we started playing regular parts. And then, we used to hold indignation meetings, and say if the company didn't realize our value, we would leave; a threat which never worried anyone, and which we never carried out." Happily, the boys stayed with Biograph, and met director Griffith the following year; thus, with Mr. Bitzer, the ingredients for movie magic were stirred.
Unhappily, "Bobby's Kodak" is a lost film. Here is Harron's synopsis:
"'Bobby's Kodak' was the title. I was the infant terrible, and I snapped my father kissing the maid, mother flirting with the butler, the nurse maid having an affair with the cop. Later, I showed all the pictures; and, the pandemonium that followed has some of our best slapstick comedies looking lifeless. There was a chase - Edward Dillon played my father, and it was from his irate grasp I had to escape."
******* Bobby's Kodak (2/10/08) Wallace McCutcheon ~ Robert Harron, Edward Dillon
