James Stuart Blackton (1875-1945) was born in Sheffield but began his career in New York City as an illustrator, working on stage with magician Albert Smith. Part of their routine was the "lightning sketch", a common vaudeville presentation of artistic ability. In his capacity as a reporter for the New York Evening World newspaper, Blackton was sent to interview Thomas Edison at a demonstration of his Vitascope (1896). He was captivated by the new technology and soon performed and directed a silent short based on a lightning sketch. “The Enchanted Drawing” (1900) was released by the Edison company. Stop-camera tricks add life (anima) to the drawing.While not itself animation, it contains the essence of this new art.
Blackton and Smith formed the American Vitagraph Company to produce their own films. "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces" (1906) is a mixture of live action, drawing, and cut-out animation that is commonly credited as the first animated film. The illustrations were shot from a blackboard, using the technique of stop-motion, where the camera was manually cranked for each frame, at 20 frames per second.
