George R. Watson (1892-1977) George received his first camera from his father at age eight, and built a darkroom out of an old shipping crate where his knowledge and passion for photography grew. In his early 20’s, George moved to Oregon where The Grants Pass Courier published his first newspaper photos. There, he scratched out a meager living as a photographer.
One day during the laborious process of photographing county records onto 8x10 glass plates, George got the idea of copying the same pages onto a roll of 35mm movie film, thus reducing 640, 20x26 inch pages of county records onto one roll of film the size of a spool of thread. George patented his idea and the equipment for the American Recording Machine in 1913 – the patent was granted in 1916: no. 1204098. After years of grueling self-promotion, with personal expenses growing and spotty interest in the ground-breaking process, George sold his interest in his creation to his partner.
George Watson moved to Los Angeles and easily found a job as the second staff news photographer on the Los Angeles Times in 1917. There he covered major news stories and personalities of the roaring 1920’s, such as: the Parker – Hickman kidnapping and murder (1927), the first around the world flight (1924) and was credited with the first published news photos taken from the air of Los Angeles in 1919. George’s photo of convicted murder Kid McCoy was the first photo transmitted by wire across the United States in 1925.