Pat Tobin

(1891?-1937)

Pat G Tobin was the rostrum cameraman on the Bonzo cartoon series produced by New Era Films during 1924-5. Animator Brian White recalls:

"While Bonzo films were line only, this is where the camera man, Pat Tobin, and myself used to scheme ways of mixing cartoons with live action."

He may be Patrick Gabriel Tobin, the Irish cameraman who worked on The Life of St Patrick (1912) and filmed footage of the Irish War for Independence (1919-21) for Norman Whitten's Irish Events newsreel.

After being arrested in mistake for a french polisher suspected of murder (the developer stains on his hands being mistaken for wood stain) and only avoiding trial through the intervention of the Kine-Cameraman's Society, he moved to London and worked as a newsreel freelance.

In the mid 1930s, to quote the ACT obituary, Pat Tobin "was engaged in colour cinematography, first for Gaspacolor and later for Spicer-Dufay."

He died in Streatham towards the end of 1937, in his late forties.

Filmography (animation)

Links to Other Sites

The Cine-Technician Jan 1938 p178 Obituaries: Pat Tobin obituary in ACT magazine.

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