Siegmund Lubin was born as Zygmunt Lubszyński, a son of Samuel Lubszyński and Rebeka Lubszyńska, Polish
Jews, in
Breslau,
Kingdom of Prussia (now
Wrocław,
Poland) or in
Poznań,
Kingdom of Prussia on April 20, 1851. His father, a successful
ophthalmologist, moved the family for economic reasons to
Berlin soon after Zygmunt's birth. There young Zygmunt Germanicized the spelling of his first name to
Siegmund. He later graduated from the
Heidelberg University and in 1876 emigrated to the
United States, where he settled in
Philadelphia and worked as an
optometrist. Around 1881, he shortened his surname from the Polish Lubszyński to Lubin. He soon progressed to making his own camera and projector combination, which he sold. In 1896 he began distributing films for
Thomas Edison. In 1897 he started making films and in 1902 formed the
Lubin Manufacturing Company,
incorporating it in 1909. He made the film
Meet Me at the Fountain in 1904. By 1910 his company had built a
film studio, "Lubinville", in Philadelphia, He was buried on September 14, 1923. == Filmography ==