Spencer Tracy is "Edison, the Man" in this 1940 film also starring Gene Lockhart, Felix Bressart, Gene Reynolds and Charles Coburn. The Clarence Brown-directed film begins with Edison as an old man looking back on his life as he's talking to kids from a school newspaper.
Edison had a brilliant mind and invented many things, including conducting something like 2,000 experiments before he found a way to get a light bulb to work. One of his inventions was the "talking machine," and if you go on wikipedia.com, you can actually hear Edison speaking into it. This is my favorite part of the film - I worked on a dictaphone machine back in the '70s that looked like a smaller version of what Edison invents in the movie. The transcriber placed a blue belt with grids in it on a roller, and, as the belt moved, you transcribed. It seems so archaic 30 years later.
The film is fairly inaccurate concerning Edison's private life and other details, but hopefully, it's interesting enough that it will inspire the viewer to read all about this remarkable man, well played by Spencer Tracy. The supporting cast is also excellent.
Highly entertaining and well worth seeing.
Edison had a brilliant mind and invented many things, including conducting something like 2,000 experiments before he found a way to get a light bulb to work. One of his inventions was the "talking machine," and if you go on wikipedia.com, you can actually hear Edison speaking into it. This is my favorite part of the film - I worked on a dictaphone machine back in the '70s that looked like a smaller version of what Edison invents in the movie. The transcriber placed a blue belt with grids in it on a roller, and, as the belt moved, you transcribed. It seems so archaic 30 years later.
The film is fairly inaccurate concerning Edison's private life and other details, but hopefully, it's interesting enough that it will inspire the viewer to read all about this remarkable man, well played by Spencer Tracy. The supporting cast is also excellent.
Highly entertaining and well worth seeing.