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In 1889 George Demenÿ joined fellow Frenchman Étienne-Jules Marey in making films on celluloid and would eventually show them on his Phonoscope of 1892. Demenÿ started a company to sell both his cameras and films but sadly it was an unsuccessful venture and he eventually sold his patent rights to Leon Gaumont who marketed them till the 1920s.

Louis Lumière visited Demenÿ a few months before he and his brother Auguste's historic 'first showing' in December, 1895 and he openly showed them his work. Some feel this openness was Demenÿ's undoing as it possibly gave the Lumière's the final answers they needed to finish 'their' work.

Demenÿ was a scholar and author of some fifteen books. He also had a closed and solitary temperament and was a man more at ease in his study than outside 'in the field'.

Mannoni, Laurent and de Ferrière Vayer, Marc, George Demenÿ : Pioneer of the Cinema "The Book which restores the truth on the invention of the Cinema". Details Demenÿ 's role in cinema history alongside his French contemporaries Marey, Gaumont and The Lumière Brothers.

Source: http://www.univ-lille3.fr/www/CHRN/Demeny.html

also see some wonderful re-animations of George Demenÿ 's work by Charl Lucassen

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