Movie Still Showing Spencer Tracy in "Edison the Man," 1940

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Artifact Overview

The 1940 MGM film Edison, the Man starred Spencer Tracy, but Edison's Menlo Park laboratory played a supporting role. The 1870s laboratory -- where Edison made many of his famous discoveries -- had been moved to Henry Ford's Greenfield Village in the late 1920s. With documentation provided by Greenfield Village staff, MGM built an impressive full-sized movie set of the laboratory in California.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Photographic print

Date Made

1940

Subject Date

1940

Creator Notes

Probably photographed by Clarence Sinclair Bull, working for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Location

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

40.443.2

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Gelatin silver process

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 8.188 in
Width: 10.163 in

Inscriptions

Printed on back: LONG HOURS FOR AN INVENTOR..Thomas Edison (Spencer Tracy) / works on in his laboratory by night, long after he has sent / his men home to bed. In this scene for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's / "Edison, the Man," he is studying electricity from a static / machine by which Leyden jars are charged. This is during the / time when the inventor is first trying to solve the problem / of the electric lamp. (Note: The laboratory shown here is / duplicated to the minutest detail from the actual Menlo Park / laboratory Edison had).
Movie Still Showing Spencer Tracy in "Edison the Man," 1940