The Great Cinematography Mystery: What Happened to Louis Le Prince?

The Unsolved Mystery of Louis Le Prince's Disappearance

One of the greatest mysteries in cinema history did not take place on the big screen; instead, it was the story of the cameras that filmed the first motion pictures. The story has everything you would expect of the considerable screen suspense, intrigue and even possible murder. 

Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince is credited as the Father of Cinematography and the inventor of motion pictures. However, it was not always this way; for years, no one knew Le Prince's name, mainly because the man himself disappeared without a trace. 

Some have argued that he committed suicide, unable to deal with the pressure his invention brought about. Others will state that the incident is far more sinister and that he was murdered by one of his rivals. 

Louis Le Prince

Le Prince was a French artist born in 1841 in Metz, France. His father was a major in the French army. During childhood, his father's friend Louis Daguerre who invented the daguerreotype portrait, taught the young Le Prince photography and chemistry.

This passion followed him into adulthood, where he studied painting and chemistry in Paris and Leipzig. Having finished his university education, he moved to England. In 1869, he married Elizabeth Whitley, a talented artist. 

The couple established the Leeds Technical School of Art, an applied art school. The college became a household name when they started fixing colour photographs to metal and pottery.

It wasn't long before their work became so well respected they were commissioned by Queen Victoria and Prime Minister William Gladstone to paint portraits. 

Le Prince also liked experimenting with technology and looking for new ways to improve art. He became the first to make a working model capturing motion pictures. This invention occurred at his house in Leeds.

One month before he was due to reveal his invention to the world, he disappeared. 

The first motion picture camera

In the 1880s, Le Prince became interested in cinematic technologies. He started by creating the sixteen-lens camera, applying for a US patent and receiving it in 1888—the lens, like all his inventions, was built in his workshop in Leeds.

On 14th October 1888, the first known use of the camera occurred and was known as the Roundhay Garden Scene; it consists of a sequence of his son playing the accordion. 

Both Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers have dominated the headlines for inventing equipment which made moving images possible. However, it has been proven that Le Prince preceded their invention by several years.

The machine that Le Prince designed utilised paper-backed stripping film to make moving pictures. Although relatively primitive by today's standards, ultimately, his machine became film. 

Missing

Having received his patent, Le Prince was preparing to travel to the United States to unveil his invention publicly. Before travelling to America, though, he returned to France to visit his brother in Dijon. 

Having taken a later train to Paris, he missed his friends in the city. He was never seen again. His brother at the Dijon station was the last to see Le Prince alive.

Both the French police and Scotland Yard took on extensive searches. The family also followed their line of enquiries. But, unfortunately, it was all in vain, as he was never found. 

Theories 

With any disappearances without answers, theories have been plenty, but none have been substantiated. The first was that Le Prince was assassinated by Edison or an accomplice as part of a patent war. This was a theory that Elizabeth Whitley believed.

Some would state that he disappeared on the order of his family and died in Chicago in 1898. His family persuaded him to disappear because they discovered he was gay. 

In 1890, a drowned man was pulled out of the Seine, which it was said bore a striking resemblance to Le Prince. However, this was not known until 2003 when a photograph of the man was found in the Paris Police archives. 

People have since speculated that he took his own life after failing to get the moving picture to work and being overwhelmed with considerable debt. Others have claimed that the man was too short to be Le Prince.

Patent war

In 1894, Edison was credited in the US as the inventor of motion pictures. In France, the Lumière Brothers were recognised as the inventors of a Cinématographe device. They went on to be the hosts of the first commercial exhibition of motion-picture films in 1895.

Le Prince was declared legally dead in 1898, the same year his elder son Adolphe was called as a witness in the litigation against Edison. The American Mutoscope Company had taken action. 

The court case was unsuccessful, but Adolphe was found dead two years later in a strange twist. Many years later, Le Prince was finally recognised for his contribution to motion pictures. 

Whether his disappearance was an accident, an assassination or something else, no one will know. Nevertheless, the mystery of Louis Le Prince's disappearance fascinates even today.

Sources

The Mystery of Louis Le Prince, the Father of Cinematography

The Father of Cinematography Who Vanished