The Inventor and the Tycoon

A Gilded Age Murder and the Birth of Moving Pictures

By: Edward Ball

Narrated by: John H. Mayer

From the National Book Award-winning author of Slaves in the Family, a riveting true life/true crime narrative of the partnership between the murderer who invented the movies and the robber baron who built the railroads.

One hundred and thirty years ago Eadweard Muybridge invented stop-motion photography, anticipating and making possible motion pictures. He was the first to capture time and play it back for an audience, giving birth to visual media and screen entertainments of all kinds. Yet the artist and inventor Muybridge was also a murderer who killed coolly and meticulously, and his trial is one of the early instances of a media sensation. His patron was railroad tycoon (and former California governor) Leland Stanford, whose particular obsession was whether four hooves of a running horse ever left the ground at once. Stanford hired Muybridge and his camera to answer that question. And between them, the murderer and the railroad mogul launched the age of visual media.

Set in California during its frontier decades, The Tycoon and the Inventor interweaves Muybridge's quest to unlock the secrets of motion through photography, an obsessive murder plot, and the peculiar partnership of an eccentric inventor and a driven entrepreneur. A tale from the great American West, this popular history unspools a story of passion, wealth, and sinister ingenuity.

Enjoyable and full of engaging dial information

Ball weaves together the stories of 2 men who in many ways could not be more dissimilar, but the convergence of their stories produced what we later would know as the cinema. Their stories touch on class, wealth and power and its abuses, racism, engineering and art, and while we are at it, a murder (to me, the least interesting part of the book—but I can see how it’s wound around the rest. I’m a film historian so I have a vested interest here. Not an academic text, can be enjoyed by all. The narrator’s voice was pleasant and clear.

Wonderfully informative story

What made the experience of listening to The Inventor and the Tycoon the most enjoyable?

The reader

What did you like best about this story?

The unbelievable amount of information I did not know.

What about John H. Mayer’s performance did you like?

Just the right tone and inflection

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, I did not

Any additional comments?

Yes. Luckily I had a hard cover copy, which I kept referring to. A lot is lost without seeing the photographs. Also, narrative was choppy.

A Bit Slow

Would you listen to The Inventor and the Tycoon again? Why?

This is one of the few books I've listened to that I wouldn't repeat. In fact, my iPod turned on in my bag and I missed a bit. I didn't go back. I expected the pace to be equivalent to Muybridge's motion studies and Stanford's horses. Unfortunately, for me, the text plodded. The book was interesting though.

Fascinating

If you could sum up The Inventor and the Tycoon in three words, what would they be?

This is one of my favorite history books I have 'read' in the last few years. It has a similar style to "The Professor and the Madman" which I also loved. Definitely great insights into the beginning of movies, the founding of Stanford University, and life in California in the late 1800s. Muybridge was certainly an odd character but so were many from the period (e.g., Edison, Leland Stanford, and the railroad men of the time.
It does jump around in time from chapter to chapter, but I got used to that. Definitely, a worthwhile bit of history.

Fascinating tale of 2 great historical characters

If you like history, you'll enjoy this tale of a great railroad tycoon and a cutting edge photographer who helped invent motion pictures. It is a gripping tale