 Lubin vault custodian Stanley Lowry (foreground) surveying the destruction | |
| Date | June 13, 1914 |
|---|---|
| Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States |
| Coordinates | 39°59′59″N 75°09′44″W / 39.99972°N 75.16222°W |
| Cause | Unverified |
| Outcome | Destruction of motion picture footage and other properties valued in 1914 between $500,000 and $2,000,000 |
| Deaths | 1 (unconfirmed) |
| Non-fatal injuries | 20 |
On the morning of June 13, 1914, a disastrous fire and a series of related explosions occurred in the main film vault of the Lubin Manufacturing Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Several possible causes for the blaze were cited at the time, one being "spontaneous combustion" of highly flammable nitrate film, which was the motion picture industry's standard medium for cameras throughout the silent era and for the first two decades of "talking pictures".[1][2] Millions of feet of film were consumed in the flames, including most of the master negatives and initial prints of Lubin's pre-1914 catalog, several of the company's recently completed theatrical prints ready for release and distribution, a considerable number of films produced by other studios, inventories of raw and stock footage, hundreds of reels documenting historic events that occurred between 1897 and early 1914, as well as other films related to notable political and military figures, innovations in medical science, and professional athletic contests from that period. While this fire was not a decisive factor in Lubin's decline and bankruptcy by September 1916, costs associated with the disaster only added to the corporation's mounting debts, which led to the closure or sale of its remaining operations the following year.[3][4]
- ^ "Lubin's Big Blaze", Variety, June 19, 1914, p. 20. Retrieved September 14, 2021—via the Internet Archive.
- ^ Kahana, Yoram (2016). "Dangerous Beauty: Nitrate Films Return to Hollywood, Thanks to the HFPA", online news article, Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) / Golden Globes, West Hollywood, California, published November 9, 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
- ^ Eckhardt, Joseph P. (1997). The King of the Movies: Film Pioneer Siegmund Lubin. London: The Associated University Presses, pp. 182–183 (hereinafter cited "Eckhardt"). ISBN 0-8386-3728-0—via the Internet Archive.
- ^ "Lubin Negatives Burn", Motography, June 27, 1914, p. 488. Retrieved September 23, 2021—via the Internet Archive.