Biography

Born in 1848, Henderson was a film pioneer in north-east England at the turn of the 20th century. A strict Methodist, he began working in a colliery before marrying in 1871 and then becoming a magic lantern showman and lecturer. He began exhibiting moving pictures in 1896, a matter of weeks after the Lumière brothers made their first presentations in England. The first films he showed were ones made by himself. Highly successful, he opened a network of several picture palaces across the north-east, including the first cinema in Newcastle in 1908, which he ran with his three sons. He also founded the North of England Film Bureau, which ran fro...Read More