Dates

• Existence: 15 April 1874 - 28 November 1961

Biography

Arthur Melbourne Cooper was a British photographer and filmmaker best known for his pioneering work in stop-motion animation.

Arthur was born in 1874 to Thomas M. Cooper a professional photographer in St. Albans. He started to learn photography from his father at a young age and by the time he was sixteen, he was working as his assistant in the family business. By the late 1890s, like many others in the sector, Arthur became involved with the new moving picture technologies and started to work as a cameraman filming and developing topical subjects.

By 1906 Arthur had established his own film production company, the Alpha Trading Company and became one of the founding members of the British Kinematograph Manufacturers Association. Two years later he also established the Alpha Production Works in St Albans. Between 1908 and 1909 Arthur opened some of the first permanent cinemas in the country including Alpha Picture House in Hertfordshire and an additional picture house in Letchworth. The picture houses however were not successful and left Arthur in financial difficulties, which forced him to fold his business and work as an employee making puppet animations for Butcher’s Empire Films and managing a cinema in Harrow.

During Wold War One Arthur served as a munitions inspector in Luton. Upon his release from service, he settled in Blackpool where he worked for Animads, a subdivision of Langford's Advertising Agency Ltd, for whom he made animated advertisements until he retired in 1940.

Arthur died in 1961.