[1] In 1898 he was a clerk at Vernon, where he began screening motion pictures and met and married Mary Stuart Huntly,[1] generally referred to as Senora Spencer, who became his chief projectionist and business partner.
He then set his eye on the south Pacific, first showing films in New Zealand, having arrived in 1902 per steamer Moana via Brisbane[3] and Sydney.
In February–March 1906 his Theatrescope showed the latest films at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide and the Town Hall, Port Adelaide, followed by Albany and Perth Town Halls in March (a few nights at each), then Broken Hill in March, then to Queensland August to October: first Cairns, then Rockhampton, Maryborough, Gympie, and finally Brisbane at Her Majesty's Theatre, Brisbane, before returning to the Sydney Lyceum in December.
[18] He then moved into funding dramatic feature films, starting with The Life and Adventures of John Vane, the Notorious Australian Bushranger,[19] released in March 1910.
[21] Its success enabled him to set up a £10,000 studio complex in Rushcutter's Bay, Sydney, where Longford made his next couple of features.
Spencer is credited with establishing productions in Australia with sound and colour, turning Sydney into one of the world's leading movie centres at the time.
Fox Studios Australia bears a commemoration plaque memorializing Spencer's role as a pioneer in the movie world.
Several of his films were released in the US by Sawyers Pictures with new titles, such as The Convict Hero, The Bushranger's Bride, Nell Gwynne, The Bandit Terrors of Australia, and The Queen of the Smugglers.
The stresses of his financial losses in the Great Depression, however, affected his mental stability (in particular, he was troubled by an image of the devil's face visible in the grain of a wooden wall).
Spencer, who had been refused a pistol licence on account of his mental instability,[36] grabbed a rifle and began shooting, hitting Smith in the back and Stoddart in the arm, before fleeing.