Rare Early Colour Cinema Handbill – Colin Bennett Process – Camborne Picturedrome – c.1913

Original printed handbill for the Picturedrome, Town Hall, Camborne, advertising:

“Natural Colour Photography by the Colin Bennett Process”

and claiming:

“Absolutely the latest scientific discovery and first public exhibition in England.”

The programme included local films in colour, notably:

• Territorials marching to church.
• Territorials entering Treslothan Church.
• The Redruth Pleasure Fair.

This is far more than an ordinary cinema programme. Research identifies the process as that of Colin Noel Bennett, a Penzance-based photographic inventor, cinematographer, author and colour-photography researcher. Contemporary sources record Bennett as:

• Author of The Handbook of Kinematography (1911), an important early technical work on motion-picture photography and projection. 
• Author of“Filter Absorptions for Two-Colour” in 1911. 
• Applicant for patents relating to colour cinematography and colour-cinematography cameras. 
• Resident at 9 Morrab Road, Penzance during the period.
• Later associated with the development of the early colour-film system Cinechrome.

The handbill is therefore an important piece of early cinema and colour-photography history, documenting what was advertised as the first public exhibition in England of Bennett’s experimental natural-colour process.

Particularly fascinating is the inclusion of local West Cornwall subjects shown in colour, with scenes from Treslothan and Redruth. Whether or not the original films survive, the handbill records their exhibition and provides evidence for early colour cinematography in Cornwall.

The Camborne Picturedrome itself was one of Cornwall’s earliest cinema venues, making this a desirable item for collectors of:

• Early cinema.
• Colour photography.
• History of technology.
• Cornish local history.
• Territorial Force military history.
• Fairground and popular entertainment history.

Likely date c.1913, with Monday 26 May 1913 being the strongest candidate based on the opening date given and the known period of Bennett’s colour-cinematography research.

An exceptionally scarce survival from the pioneering era of British colour motion pictures.

Provenance: 

One of c.2,500+ items once from the collection or dealer stock of Winifred A Myers (Autographs) Ltd, St Martins Lane, London, evidenced by the quantity of Myers pre-printed envelopes and paper folders and the general ‘presentation’ of the items, many having Myers identification notes in pencil. 

Winifred Alice Myers (1909 – 1985) served as ABA (Antiquarian Booksellers Assoc) president, 1950-1952. See the ABA website for an extended article on Myers. Myers left her business, in 1985, to Ruth Shepherd, who traded from home until 2004. 

Colin Noel Bennett (1882 – 1978) was a Penzance-based photo engraver, photographer, cinematographic inventor and technical author. Active in the development of early colour photography and motion-picture technology, he published The Handbook of Kinematography (1911), wrote on two-colour photographic processes, and patented apparatus for colour cinematography. Bennett later became associated with the pioneering colour-film system Cinechrome, placing him among the early British experimenters seeking practical natural-colour motion pictures.