L. C. MacBean: early film director

Recently I found that Ludovic Charles McBean, known as L.C. MacBean in the film world, lived at several local addresses. Unfortunately, we have not been able to find a picture of him.

Although born in Glasgow about 1875, six years old Ludovic McBean was living with his aunt in Lewisham by 1881. Ten years later in the 1891 census he had moved to 33 Maygrove Road in Kilburn, and aged 16 he was working as a clerk for a mining office. When he married Ida Esther Wood in 1905, he was at 113 Iverson Road Kilburn.

Three years later they had moved a short distance to 22 Agamemnon Road in West Hampstead, and he was now working as an electrical engineer for Hampstead Council in Lithos Road, off Finchley Road. They moved yet again to 77 Cricklewood Broadway by 1911. He and Ida had two daughters; a third child had died as an infant. In April 1919 they moved back to West Hampstead and were living at ‘Lyndale’ 124 Broadhurst Gardens (now demolished), where they stayed a few years. They moved out of London and MacBean died in Tonbridge Kent in February 1929.

In 1914 MacBean decided to get into the exciting new world of silent films. At first he worked as scriptwriter, but by 1915 he was co-directing with Fred Paul the prolific actor-director for the producer G.B. Samuelson at his Isleworth Studios near Richmond.

Portrait of Fred Paul

In 1915 MacBean made a series of six short Deadwood Dick films, based on the very popular Western dime novels by Edward Lytton Wheeler. In the films Fred Paul played Englishman Richard Harris who travelled to the Wild West in search of adventure and became Deadwood Dick.

In 1915 MacBean made Infelice, which again starred Fred Paul with two popular leading ladies, Peggy Hyland and Queenie Thomas.

The following year MacBean worked with J.B. Barrie the author of Peter Pan. 1916 was the tercentenary of Shakespeare’s death, and among many celebratory productions, there was to be a Hollywood production of Macbeth, produced by the famous D.W. Griffith and starring the English actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.

At the time, the idea of Hollywood tackling Shakespeare filled many people with hilarity, and Barrie wrote a 30-minute spoof which contrasted Macbeth as it might be produced in Britain with how it would be treated in America.

In the British version, Lady Macbeth wiped a small amount of blood from her hands, in the American she had to wash away gallons of gore. The witches danced around a small cauldron in the British film; in the American the witches became dancing beauties cavorting around a huge cauldron. In the British, Macbeth and Macduff fought in a ditch, while in the American Macbeth falls to his death from a skyscraper. The title cards were similarly affected; a telegram was delivered to Macbeth that read, ‘If Birnam Wood moves, it’s a cinch’. Sadly, no copies of the film remain.

According to IMDB MacBean was a scriptwriter for 20 films, and he directed at least 18 films from 1915 to 1920. In 1922 he wrote a book called Kinematograph Studio Technique.

But like many persons in the early film industry, after success, MacBean was declared bankrupt in March 1922.

I have only found one of MacBean’s silent films on YouTube, Trapped by the London Sharks (1916),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNx6mLF8bmM&feature=emb_title

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History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

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