Enoch J. Rector (October 9, 1863 – January 26, 1957) was an American boxing film promoter and early cinema technician. He was a partner in

Woodville Latham Major Woodville Latham (1837–1911) was an ordnance officer of the Confederacy during the American Civil War and professor of chemistry at West Virginia University. He was significant in the development of early film technology. Woodville Lath ...

Kinetoscope The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that woul ...

Exhibition Company (later the Lambda Company) during the mid-1890s, working with Latham and his sons Otway and Grey, as well as fellow cinema technicians

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (3 August 1860 – 28 September 1935) was a British inventor who devised an early motion picture camera under the employment of Thomas Edison. Early life William Kennedy Dickson was born on 3 August 1860 in ...

and

Eugene Lauste Eugène Augustin Lauste (17 January 1857 in Montmartre, France – 27 June 1935 in Montclair, New Jersey) was a French inventor instrumental in the technological development of the history of cinema. By age 23 he held 53 French patents. He emigra ...

. Cinema historian

Terry Ramsaye Terry Ramsaye (2 November 1885, Tonganoxie, Kansas - 19 August 1954, Norwalk, Connecticut) was a film historian and author of ''A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture hrough 1925' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1926). Biography ...

later claimed that Rector, during his association with Latham, invented the '

Latham loop The Latham Loop is used in film projection and image capture. It isolates the filmstrip from vibration and tension, allowing movies to be continuously shot and projected for extended periods. Invention of the Latham loop is usually credited to fi ...

', a key feature of modern cinema cameras and projectors, in 1895. However, in 1927 Dickson stated unequivocally that Lauste was responsible for this important invention. Using this technique, Rector created the 90-minute documentary film ''

The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight ''The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight'' is an 1897 documentary film directed by Enoch J. Rector depicting the 1897 boxing match between James J. Corbett and Bob Fitzsimmons in Carson City, Nevada on St. Patrick's Day. Originally running for more t ...

'' (1897), filmed in an early

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

process in 63mm film, with an aspect ratio of about 1.75:1.

Biography

He was born near Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1863. He later attended

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

. He married Jesse Fremont Leach (1871-1956), a designer of glass furniture. She was named after her mother's friend at boarding school, Jessie Benton, later wife of Charles Fremont. Jesse had a sister, Anna Russell Leach (1860-1952), a writer for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. He had a daughter, Anne Elizabeth Rector (1899-1970) who was married to Edmund Duffy.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rector, Enoch 1863 births 1957 deaths 19th-century American inventors Film directors from West Virginia People from Parkersburg, West Virginia Missing middle or first names West Virginia University alumni