2

Les origines (1853-1895)

Né en Grande-Bretagne en 1853, William T. Rock est recensé à Birmingham en 1861. Il émigre aux États-Unis où il arrive le 26 novembre 1866. il semble avoir commencé une carrière dans une compagnie de cirque :

After attending the public schools he came to America when still a young man, and depending entirely upon his own resourcefulness in gaining a livelihood soon became connected with a circus company, which gave him his first experience as a showman.

---

The Moving Picture World, 12 août 1916, p. 1078.

Par la suite, en 1886, il va monter la société Ball Electric Illuminating Company en collaboration avec Edward Purvis et Michael Crane :

In 1886 Mr. Rock, in connection with Edward Purvis and Michael Crane, formed the Ball Electric Illuminating Company, which was granted a franchise to erect a plant in New York City. The generating station was on 38th street, just west of Broadway. Mr. Rock was president of the company. Owing to the imperfections of the arc light at that time, and to other circumstances, the company did not prosper, and was sold in 1897 to Ex-Judge William Kelly of the East River Electric Light Company.

---

The Moving Picture World, 12 août 1916, p. 1078.

C'est en 1894 qu'il demande sa naturalisation.

Le Vitascope (1896-1897)

Ses activités au sein de la Ball Electric Illuminating Company vont le conduire à se rapprocher de Thomas A. Edison :

It was through this experience with electricity that Mr. Rock was able to make his subsequent success in the motion picture business in which he engaged in 1896, at which time he bought the rights on the Vitascope machine for Louisiana from Raff & Gammon.

---

The Moving Picture World, 12 août 1916, p. 1078.

Selon ses propres déclarations, William T. Rock a commencé dans le monde du cinématographe en 1896, date à laquelle il rachète, en effet, l'exploitation du vitascope pour la Louisiane à Raff & Gammon :

"My start in the picture business was made in 1896; it was this way; Raff & Gammon, then doing business at 45 West 28th street, New York, had the state rights for the Edison Vitascope machine. I was handling arc lamps at the time and had been called in by them to do some electrical work. They asked me to take some of their Vitascope territory, but the best they had to offer was Louisiana as all the rest had been sold. I took that state for $2,500. The Vitascope, by the way, was the Armat machine which had been perfected by Edison and was then showing at Koster & Bial's old place on West 23d street."

---

Moving Picture World, 15 juillet 1916, p. 379. 

Il part alors pour la Louisiane où il va commencer à exploiter son vitascope avec des vues animées à succès. Il a pour collaborateur l'opérateur William A. Reed :

"I took my machine and started for New Orleans. We had the "May Irwin Kiss," and a lot of scenic stuff; the McKinley picture. Bill Reid [sic] was my operator. I made a contract with the West End Park for four weeks and we packed them in, renewing my contract and continuing to play the West End for several seasons."

---

Moving Picture World, 15 juillet 1916, p. 379.

William Reed, connu plus tard sous le pseudonyme de "Vitagraph Bill", a également laissé un témoignage de ces débuts en Louisiane :

I went to New Orleans with Messrs. Wainwright and Rock, and we opened at the West End a summer resort seven miles from New Orleans. We opened June 28th, 1896, to over 8,000 people, and the next Sunday to over 12,000 people. We were putting on five 40-foot pictures, and they held the audience spellbound.

---

REED, 1911: 6-7.

Quelques jours plus tard, William T. Rock et son associé Walter Wainwright ouvrent, à la Nouvelle-Orléans, un magasin sur Canal Street :

July 18, 1896, Wainwright and Rock (Walter Wainwright was my partner) took a storeroom in New Orleans at 623 Canal street. We fitted it up as a showroom with chairs and a projection booth. We ran this show from July to October. We also showed pictures in Jake Greenwald's theater. Our profits on the summer's business were about $2,000 for each of us. We were the only state right owners out of about forty who made good with the Vitascope; all the others went broke on the deal. I attributed our success to the fact that I knew something about electricity and Bill Reid [sic] knew how to handle film.

---

Moving Picture World, 15 juillet 1916, p. 379.

Information corroborée, dans ses souvenirs, par William A. Reed qui va également évoquer l'inauguration de ce salon cinématographique :

Mr. Wm. T. Rock can be credited with being the very first to open a 10-cent moving picture show. It was called "Vitascope Hall," 23 Canal street. Doors open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. ; seating 450 persons.
We opened this place Sunday, July 28th, 1896. I say we; well, by this I mean I was the operator with an assistant by name of Edward Fowler, who worked the back end of the machine, as we still used the spool bank.
Our first performance consisted of fire pictures, "not reels" but 40-foot pictures, as follows :
1. Brooklyn Bicycle Parade— Edison.
2. The Duel — by Lumiere. [sic]
3. The Kiss, May Irwin and John C.Rice — by Edison.
4. White Wings' Parade — by Edison.
5. Trilby Dance, by the Sisters Leigh — Edison.
The people simply flocked to the place. We had many special performances by select society people of New Orleans who wished to see the pictures, and engagements were made and the time set for them to come.

---

REED, 1911: 6-7.

Si la présence de vues Edison dans ce programme est tout à fait compréhensible, l'évocation d'une vue Lumière portant le titre Le Duel est une erreur car la société française ne dispose d'aucun titre similaire à une époque où, par ailleurs, elle ne diffuse sa production que dans ses propres appareils cinématographiques. Par ailleurs, la présentation de la vue The Kiss :

New Orleans, July 28, 1896, Editor Daily Item:-
I see it is suggested to exhibit the Edison Vitascope now at West End, at Audubon Park. This would undoubtedly prove a popular move for the traction company.
But permit me to suggest that the too suggestive kissing scene be dropped. This may capture the fancy of the lascivious, but it is actually repulsive to the clean of mind. I am sure that the young ladies who resort to the park, and all careful parents, must prefer not to have this scene produced any more.
"F."

---

cité dans RAMSAY, 1926: 270-271.

Moving Picture World, 15 juillet 1916, p. 379. 

À l'automne 1896, William T. Rock et William A. Reed partent en tournée non seulement en Louisiane, mais également au Mississippi et en Alabama. Quelques mois plus tard, les deux hommes sont de retour à la Nouvelle-Orléans où ils donnent de nouvelles représentations :

Mr. William T. Rock, who introduced the vitascope to New Orleans and still successfully operates it at West End, said on his return from New York yesterday that he witnessed the first exhibition of the veriscope at the Academy of Music in the metropolis Saturday night. There was an immense house, Mr. Rock said, spotted here and there with such wellknown "mugs" as Corbett and others, and great interest was taken in the outcome of the pictures. Despite every effort at taking a charitable view of the situation there was no escapting the fact that the pictures were in the main unsatisfactory, dim and blurry. Mr. Rock thinks that unless the veriscope people make some arrangement with the Edison folks or the vitascope it will not be a success. Mr. Rock declares that the veriscope pictures make it appear that Corbett had the better of the fighting. Mr. Rock brought with him a supply of the latest vitascope pictures.

---

The Times-Democrat, New Orleans, mercredi 26 mai 1897, p. 6.

C'est à l'automne suivant, d'après William T. Rock, qu'il est de retour à New York :

"When we got ready to leave New Orleans in the fall of 1897 I had about 600 subjects. Of these I traded 300 to some people in Texas for a lot of diamonds. Returning to New York we played everything all the way up.

---

Moving Picture World, 15 juillet 1916, p. 379.

Il va poursuivre ses activités cinématographiques pendant quelque temps avant de se rapprocher de James Blackton et Albert Smith :

In New York I had my film in a room back of my billiard and pool room on 125th street. One evening a young fellow wearing a long coat and a high hat came to see me. That was my first introduction to Jimmie Blackton. He wanted to trade some films with me. He and Albert Smith were showing in halls and clubs at the time.

---

Moving Picture World, 15 juillet 1916, p. 379.

La Vitagraph Company of America (1897-1906)

The American Vitagraph Company

For a long time after the forming of this partnership the three Vitagraphers were the leading exhibiting firm of the country. They supplied pictures to a number of vaudeville theaters as well as playing special engagements at clubs and Lyceums. The company continued in the exhibiting business until the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Company, and the General having some seventy-five houses on its list for service at the time that branch of the business discontinued and the company went in for straight manufacturing.

"Pop" Rock is one of the very few of the early motion picture men who has profited by his good fortune. He has always been a careful investor and as fast as he took down his profits he put them into good securities or real estate until today he is able to reckon his accumulations away up in the millions of dollars.

recensement 1905 (New York. Brooklyn)

Et après... (-1916)

recensement 1910 (Ocean Avenue): New York. 

Sources

RAMSAY Terry, A Million and one Nights, vol. 1., New York, Simon and Schuster, 1926.

REED W. A., "Cinematography-Ancient History", Moving Picture News, vol. IV, nº 22, 3 juin 1911, p. 6-7.

"Husband divorced her by Agreement", Brooklyn Eagle, mercredi 28 janvier 1914, p. 16.

"Rock, Smith and Blackton Were Pioneer Exhibitors", The Moving Picture World, vol. 29, nº 3, 15 juillet 1916, p. 379.

"Death of William T. Rock, Pioneer Picture Man", The Moving Picture World, 12 août 1916, p. 1078.

3

4