Arthur Edeson

Like many movie pioneers, New York-born Arthur Edeson cut his professional teeth as a still photographer. His earliest film assignments were for the Eclair Company in 1911; seven years later, Edeson was one of the founders of the American Society of Cinematographers. When sound came in, Edeson seized the opportunity to experiment with camouflaging the microphones in exterior shots. In Old Arizona(1929) proved to a nervous Hollywood that talking pictures need not be confined to the stuffy surroundings of a sound stage. One year later, Edeson filmed one of the first major wide-screen features, The Big Trail (1930) (Lucien Andriot photographed the simultaneously filmed "flat" screen version). At Warner Bros. from 1936 until his retirement, Edeson was responsible for the cinematography of some of the studio's most memorable films, among them The Maltese Falcon (1941) Sergeant York (1941), and Casablanca (1942). Arthur Edeson was nominated for an Oscar for Casablanca, but he lost to fellow lensman Arthur Miller and The Song of Bernadette. - Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide