Born 150 Years Ago Today: Jules Brulatour

April 7 was the birthday of Jules Brulatour (1870-1946), an important, if largely forgotten player in early cinema history.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Brulatour was the grandson of a French wine dealer who’d immigrated to the U.S. Originally in the camera and lens business, the younger Brulatour branched out into new technology becoming, the Lumiere Brothers’ U.S. distributor of raw film stock. After a lengthy head to head battle, he was hired in a similar capacity for East Kodak. Meanwhile, he also produced films. He made newsreels with his own company Peerless Pictures, and worked with the French Studio Eclair. From here he joined Carl Laemmle in his struggle against the monopolistic MPPC, and became one of the founders of Universal.

Brulatour was also known in his time for his scandalous love life. He divorced his wife in 1915 marrying Titanic survivor and Eclair star Dorothy Gibson two years later. The union lasted but two years. Then in 1923, he married actress Hope Hampton. Both wives abandoned movie careers in order to pursue opera careers, which many take to be the real inspiration for Susan Alexander in Citizen Kane (being much more similar in detail to the story of Marion Davies, who had nothing to do with opera and was both polished and sophisticated).

In 1939 Brulatour was shot and wounded by an “intruder” — very likely Hampton. Still the pair remained married until his death, and were fixtures of New York’s social set for many years.

For more on silent film please see Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.