Charles Pathé

Charles Pathé
Charles Pathé, June 1919
Born	Charles Morand Pathé (1863-12-26)26 December 1863 Chevry-Cossigny, in the Seine-et-Marne département of France.
Died	25 December 1957(1957-12-25) (aged 93) Monaco
Nationality	French
Occupation	Film producer Businessman
Years active	1889–1927
Known for	Filmmaking

Charles Pathé (French: [pate]; 26 December 1863 – 25 December 1957) was an important pioneer of the French film and recording industries. As the founder of Pathé Frères, its roots lie in 1896 Paris, France, when Pathé and his brothers, pioneered the development of the moving image. Pathé adopted the national emblem of France, the cockerel, as the trademark for his company. After the company, now called Compagnie Générale des Éstablissements Pathé Frère Pt'honographes & Cinématographes, invented the cinema newsreel with Pathé-Journal.

The son of a butcher shop owner, Charles Morand Pathé was born at Chevry-Cossigny, in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. His father, Jacques Pathé and mother, Thérèse-Emelie Kech were butchers by trade. butcher, running a delicatessen first in Chevry-Cossigny, and later in Vincennes. Charles had three brothers and two sisters.

Pathé left school at 14 to work as an apprentice butcher, at rue de Charenton, Paris. After military service, in 1889, at 25, he began working as a meat merchant but soon took his savings, and with the help of his brothers and his sister, embarked for Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the aim of setting up in business.

Pathé tried to establish himself in various trades including a laundry service based on industrial washing machines that turned out to be unsuccessful. His life was unsettled and Pathé was forced to change jobs frequently. After a final failure of trying to deal in exotic parrots, when he and his business partner are stricken with yellow fever, Pathé returned to France in poor health.

At age 30, Pathé married lle Foy in Paris, and works as a clerk, drawing a meager salary.

Back in Vincennes, in August 1894, Pathé saw the phonograph invented by Thomas Edison, demonstrated at the town fair. He immediately embraced the sound recording technology, purchasing examples of Edison machines to resell. In 1896, with his brothers Émile, Théophile and Jacques, Pathé founded Société Pathé Frères (Pathé Brothers) in Paris, a company that manufactured and sold phonographs and phonograph cylinders, with Émile at his head.