What do the Kliegl Brothers Have to Do with the Famous Lights... Camera... Action Phase?

But wait, something is missing, isn't there? Doesn't the saying go "Lights. Camera. Action!" Indeed, it does and those three words spoke in that order rank among the 20^th century's most well known contributions of the lexicon of popular culture. Did you know that the lights that are utilized in the production of motion pictures are quite special types of lamps and without their invention the history of not only moviemaking, but Jack Nicholson himself, would be forever altered?

The lights part of the camera and action triumvirate are due to a couple of brothers from Bavaria named Kliegl, Anton and John. As with so many great American invention stories, especially the true ones, by which I mean the stories of invention not involving Thomas Edison's lies, Kliegls first arrived in America by way of immigration before they made history. Makes you wonder what kind of leaps in technology would go down in the history of foreign countries if the xenophobic immigration policies of the GOP continue. Anton and John Kliegl came to America in 1888 as teenagers and, like so many other immigrants settled in New York City, the town so nice they named it after English village and added adjective new to it. Eventually, the brothers Kliegl bought lighting company and named it the Kliegl Brothers Universal Electric Stage Lighting Company. Whew! They had sensed the coming revolution in the burgeoning film industry and began supplying the heady New York City film industry (this was before anyone had ever really even heard of Hollywood) with equipment to light their nickelodeon flicker features.

Things really took off when the Kliegl brothers invented the carbon arc lamp. Originally, this invention was called a Kliegl light but very quickly was shortened to the name it still goes by today: klieg light. The most useful aspect of the klieg light was that it was far more powerful than the lighting that had been used for interior scenes. In fact, in the early days of silent moviemaking, many indoor scenes were shot outdoors. That way the strong lighting of the sun could be used. Of course, there was a downside to the power of the klieg lights: they gave off a powerful glare as well. Actors having to sit around while the lighting was set up had to resort to a method of protecting their vision from the glare.

In a sense, then, the Kliegl brothers can also be said to have invented the image of the sunglasses-wearing movie star.