George J. Folsey

Pioneer cinematographer George Folsey started out in 1914 as an errand boy with the Lasky Feature Play Company in New York. His introduction to camerawork came, when he was asked by cinematographer H. Lyman Broening to assist with post-production (tracking dissolve and fades for intercutting). By the time he was 21, he had worked his way up the ladder to lighting cameraman. During the 1920's, Folsey established a reputation for fluidity of camera movement and for his use of subtle lighting, rather than the harsher contrasts prevalent in silent pictures up to that time. This proved somewhat more flattering to the stars. Indeed, Alice Brady, leading lady in his first motion picture as fully-fledged cinematographer, His Bridal Night (1919), was so impressed by his work that she wished him to shoot all of her future films. After a sojourn at Associated First National, Folsey joined Paramount under contract to shoot the Rouben Mamoulian melodrama Applause (1929) and followed this with the