James Petrie Chalmers

JAMES PETRIE CHALMERS (1866-1912)

Film and Publishing Entrepreneur: Founding Editor of Moving Picture World

James Petrie Chalmers is the son of James Chalmers and his wife, Eliza Firth. At the time of his marriage to Eliza Firth, on 7 December 1865, his father was employed as an agricultural labourer [Registrar General for Scotland, New Register House, Edinburgh, Statutory Register of Marriages for 1865, registration district number 25 (St. Andrews), entry number 6].

James Petrie Chalmers was born on 8 February 1866. Scottish Births He was born at Quoys in St. Andrews parish, Orkney, Scotland [Registrar General for Scotland, New Register House, Edinburgh, Statutory Register of Births for 1866, registration district number 25 (St. Andrews), entry number 10]

Education and Early Career

James Petrie Chalmers is reported to have left school when he was thirteen years of age and to have served a seven year apprenticeship as a printer/compositor with the Orkney Herald. Soon after the completion of his apprenticeship he left Orkney for New York in the United States of America. The 1890 edition of the New York City Business Directory lists him as a printer [Moya McDonald, Islander 2012].

The Moving Picture World

James Petrie Chalmers launched and edited the world's first film magazine: "The Moving Picture World" in New York in 1907. Through his work on the magazine he took the opportunity to campaign for the new technology to become a form of popular entertainment, art and education. Through the legal system he managed to loosen Thomas Edison's tight grip on the industry and indeed without Chalmers the modern cinematic industry may not even exist today.

Death

James Petrie Chalmers died in Ohio on 27 March 1912 Ohio Deaths He is reported to have died in the Miami Hospital there at 06.15 hours on the morning of Wednesday 27 March 1912. [Orkney Heritage Society Newsletter 2010: The Passing of James P. Chalmers by Moya MacDonald] It seems that he was attending a film convention at Dayton in Ohio, when he mistook the door of a liftshaft in a dark corridor for that of the projection room and fell to his death. His funeral was attended by leading figures of the film industry and was filmed by Pathe News. After his death his family continued to run the magazine in his memory. Scottish Places and Famous People