If you are looking at the top special effects magician in early cinema, there was no one more brilliant than VItagraph Studio's J. Stuart Blackton. In August 1909, he released one of the most eye-boggling movies to ever come out up to that time, "The Princess Nicotine, or The Smoke Fairy." Photographed by cinematographer Tony Gaudio, who filmed several Bette Davis movies later on as well as "Little Caesar (1931) and "The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Blackton used mirrors to create a miniature fairy instead of a double exposure in front of a black background to astonish the frustrated smoker (Paul Panzer) in the movie. Also introduced in cinema were the giant props to make the fairies' smoking world look realistic as well as several stop motion sequences. So awed by the trick effects when the film was released, the magazine Scientific American devoted an entire article in detailing how each special effect was performed.
Also, one of the first product placements in movies was in "Princess Nicotine" by using the brand Sweet Corporal cigarettes and cigars.
One of the two fairies in her film debut was played by the future popular silent movie star Gladys Hulette, who played in several early talkie movies. Her career, however, flamed out later on, so much so that in 1948 she resorted to being a ticket seller at the Radio City Music Hall in NYC.
