William Beckway — Little Close-Ups of the A. S. C. (1922) 🇺🇸

William J. Beckway, A. S. C, was born in England, but you would never know it from his accent which proves that William J. came to his Uncle Sam at a nearly age and is now a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Mr. Beckway became interested in things cinematographic when he was still in rompers, but he didn’t get into the game with a camera until about 1910 when he joined the staff of the Essanay Company at Chicago.

After a brief season there the Balboa company at Long Beach, California, bid for his services and he went there as chief cinematographer, a position he held until the closing of the Balboa studio in the spring of 1918.

During this time Mr. Beckway helped make famous such stars as Jackie Saunders, Ruth Roland, Baby Marie Osborne (Little Mary Sunshine), Lillian Lorraine, Marie Empress, Frank Mayo, Henry B. Walthall, Gloria Joy, Kathleen Clifford, Cullen Landis and many others.

After the suspension of Balboa Mr. Beckway turned his attention to photographic mechanics and designed a small motion camera to be used by amateurs. This camera used a film just one-half the width of the professional camera such as the Pathé, Prevo, Mitchell and others and it was equipped with attachments to develop and project, the entire outfit with tripod weighing no more than the tripod of a large camera. A part of this work was done by Mr. Beckway’s partner at their shop in Chicago, but it has been laid aside temporarily awaiting the development of certain color and stereoscopic appliances.

Mr. Beckway spent nearly all of 1921 in Old Mexico as chief cinematographer with a company operating at Chapala, returning to Long Beach in November, where he is again at work at the old Balboa studio.

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Collection: American Cinematographer, February 1922

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