Alfred Clark

Life & Legacy

Alfred Clark (December 19, 1873 – June 16, 1950) was a pioneer of music recording and cinema. As a cameraman and director of productions at Edison's first studio, he was the first to make moving pictures with innovations like continuity, plot, trained actors and special effects. In 1896, he joined Emile Berliner's Gramophone Company and then went to Europe where he became an important manager of companies like His Master's Voice and EMI. He was naturalized as a British citizen in 1928 and became a leading member of the Oriental Ceramic Society in London, establishing a valuable collection including rare pieces which had been made for the emperors of the Tang and Song dynasty.
In 1921 he married Ivy Sanders, who survived him and died in 1973.