James S. Blackton

From President Emeritus Tom Sito:

James Stuart Blackton certainly had an interesting career. The English born artist became a top newspaper cartoonist, a vaudevillian drag act as Mademoiselle Stuart, the first American animator, founder of the Vitagraph Company, the movie fanzine Motion Picture World.

He even successfully faked a newsreel of the battle of Manila Bay in 1898 using toy boats, sparklers and cigar smoke. No one had ever seen a real naval battle on film before, so no one knew the difference. Its considered the first filmed journalism.

He made fortunes and lost them just as quickly. He was ruined in the Stock Market Crash. On this day, he was struck and killed by a bus on Pico Blvd.