Jamieson Film Company

The Jamieson Film Company, a Texas film production company, was one of the crucial players in the emergence of Dallas as a center for commercial film production in the U.S. Founded by Hugh Jamieson in 1916, the Jamieson Film Company is perhaps most widely remembered for producing the first copies of the Abraham Zapruder film that captured the assassination of JFK. However, the Company’s involvement with the Zapruder film represents just a single episode in over a half-century in the film processing and production business. During its lifespan, the Jamieson Film Company produced industrial films, television programs and advertisements for clients across Texas and the U.S., patented film processing equipment, and became a training ground for many individuals in the Texas film industry.

Hugh Jamieson was born in Kansas in 1889 and attended Baker University in Baldwin, where he studied engineering. Using a $150 loan, Jamieson bought his first motion picture camera, operated using a hand crank. He financed his education by opening a movie theater and upon graduation, got a job at Thomas Edison’s company selling Kinetoscopes in the Missouri area. After a fire at Edison in 1914, Hugh decided to set off to produce his own films.

Before arriving in Dallas, Hugh traveled from town to town making community or itinerant films featuring community landmarks, businesses and, most importantly, local residents—particularly children. From 1914 to 1916, Jamieson filmed several versions of Won from the Flames, processing films in his hotel room and screening them in the local theater. Unfortunately, no copies of the films have been found.

In 1916, Jamieson settled in Dallas and opened his film business at 2212 Live Oak Street. In the business’s early days, Hugh filmed a number of community events and created advertising films that ran in theaters prior to feature screenings. During this time, he also made and patented his first film processing machines and built his own sound equipment.

Jamieson was called upon by major newsreel companies associated with Universal, Pathe, Paramount, and RKO to cover many Dallas events. He produced newsreels documenting the funeral of aviator Wiley Post and the sentencing of George “Machine Gun” Kelly (the first synchronous sound footage filmed in a federal courtroom). Jamieson was also known to have filmed the New London school disaster.

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