Thomas S. Hermansen (1867 - 1930) was an early filmmaker and film company founder from Denmark.[1] He also developed processes for the making of explosives. He was one of the largest landowners in Aarhus, Denmark and also spent time in the U.S.[2] He was also a photographer.[3]
He came from Låsby, Denmark and was the son of Boelsmand Søren Peder Hermansen and Bodil Marie Thomasen.[2] After a trip to America he returned to Denmark in 1895 and worked as a photographer in Aarhus.[2]
In 1902 returned to America and travelled to California where he met his wife Marie and worked in photography before becoming involved with early Holywood filmmaking.[2] After a brief period as a partially successful gold digger, he turned to enlarging and selling photographs making a good living.[2] In 1904 he started making live pictures, and in 1906 obtained his own cinema.[2] [4] He liked to experiment with the new medium of film trying new ideas such as when in 1904 he mounted a camera on the front of a tram in Aarhus and created a film driving through the city.[5]
He found it more profitable to show films than make them, so in 1910 he formed a film company called Fotorama that showed his own films as well as films rented from abroad.[6] [2] In 1910 he produced The White Slave Trade. Most of his work was as a cinematographer.[4] [6]
In 1915 during World War I he sailed to America and declared that "Germany cannot win, and we pity her..." and stated that Denmark was supplying Germany with all the food they could import.[7]
Aarhus offers smartphone tours of the city including information on Hermansen and his film factory.[8]