Much has been written about Bitzer having been born in Germany and speaking with a very heavy German accent. In his autobiography, Joseph Henabery , who worked with Bitzer and knew him for more than 20 years, says that although Bitzers family came from Germany, Bitzer himself was born in the US and he had no German accent whatsoever. In Bitzers autobiography, "Billy Bitzer: His Story", he states that he was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1872.
Bitzer started as an electrician/camera operator with the Magic Introduction Company in 1894, which was absorbed by the new American Mutoscope Company , later to become American Mutoscope & Biograph (aka "Biograph"), which is still in existence today.
Brother of J.C. Bitzer , uncle of Louis Bitzer.
Bitzer fell out with Griffith in 1924. Work became harder to come by and he worked on just a handful of films afterwards, retiring in 1933. He had done well financially by investing his lifetime savings ($7000) in the hugely successful The Birth of a Nation , but ended up losing it all. His last job was restoring old movies at the Museum of Modern Art for $20 a week and he died in relative obscurity.
Considered the greatest cinematographer of his time, Bitzer earned up to $850 per week. He was the first to use artificial lighting to illuminate a set. Among his numerous innovations and inventions are travelling shots, backlighting, soft-focus, the running dissolve, the fade-out and the close-up. Since he failed to patent any of these processes, he never derived financial benefit from them.
Photographed William McKinley upon his nomination for the presidency. These images were later exhibited at Hammersteins Olympia Theatre in October 1896.
Became the first cinematographer to cover a war, when he was commissioned by William Randolph Hearst to get footage of the Spanish-American War. Witnessed Teddy Roosevelt & his Rough Riders charging at El Caney.
Was an apprentice silversmith, when he switched career paths and turned to photography.
According to Bitzer in an article published posthumously in "Films in Review" in October 1975, his salary in the 20s with Griffith was the same it had been when they were at Biograph, $250 per week with an additional $100 for managing the lab.
