Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

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Burton Holmes has a star on Hollywood Boulevard, but you could be forgiven for wondering who on Earth he was, as he is largely forgotten today - or was, until his vast collection of photographs and films came back into public view.

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Elias Burton Holmes (1870–1958) was an American traveler, photographer and filmmaker, who coined the term "travelogue".

Travel stories, slide shows, and motion pictures were all in existence before Holmes began his career, as was the profession of travel lecturer; but Holmes was the first person to put all of these elements together into documentary travel lectures.

He was a master of self-promotion - so much so that he comes across as both fake and genuine at the same time.

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Holmes traveled extensively: North and South America, Europe, Russia, India, Ethiopia, Burma, Japan and Korea.

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He was a self-made celebrity, perfectly at home in the company of Hollywood superstars such as Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and the great tennis player Bill Tilden.

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The US Postal Service even issued a stamp in his honor.

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He visited the first modern Olympics in 1896, rode the first trans-Siberian train, and shot what may be the first movies ever made of Japan, in 1899. In the course of his travels, he crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans more than 50 times. As Holmes became more well-known he brought along assistants to shoot film and stills while he made notes for his lectures, and he also employed a business manager. With the rise of Hollywood, Holmes began to make short travel films for Paramount and later Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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