The Kalem Company was an early American
film studio
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the productio ...
founded in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in
1907
Events
January
* January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000.
February
* February 11 – The French warship ''Jean Bart'' sinks off the coast of Morocco ...
. It was one of the first companies to make films abroad and to set up winter production facilities, first in Florida and then in California. Kalem was sold to
Vitagraph Studios
Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, ...
in 1917.
Formation and history
The Kalem Company was founded by
George Kleine
George Kleine (1864June 8, 1931) was an American film producer and cinema pioneer.
Biography
Klein's father, Charles, was a New York optician who sold optical devices and stereopticons. Klein joined the family firm, moving to Chicago in 1893 ...
, Samuel Long, and
Frank J. Marion. The company was named for their initials K, L, and M.
Kalem immediately joined other studios in the
Motion Picture Patents Company
The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC, also known as the Edison Trust), founded in December 1908 and terminated seven years later in 1915 after conflicts within the industry, was a trust of all the major US film companies and local foreign-bra ...
that held a monopoly on production and distribution. Frank Marion had been the sales manager at
Biograph Studios
Biograph Studios was an early film studio and laboratory complex, built in 1912 by the Biograph Company at 807 East 175th Street, in The Bronx, New York City, New York.
History
Early years
The first studio of the Biograph Company, formerl ...
and Samuel Long was the manager of the Biograph production facility at
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 ...
. Needing to raise more capital, the two experienced
filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
s approached
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
businessman George Kleine to come in as a partner. Kleine, already a successful film distributor, was involved only a short time but it was a profitable investment for him as his partners were soon successful enough to buy out his shares at a considerable premium.
The company began operations from a small office in a loft building at 131 West 24th Street in New York City. The partners were able to lure general manager and director
Sidney Olcott
Sidney Olcott (born John Sidney Allcott, September 20, 1872 – December 16, 1949) was a Canadian-born film producer, director, actor and screenwriter.
Biography
Born John Sidney Allcott in Toronto, he became one of the first great direc ...
away from Biograph. Olcoltt eventually became the Kalem Company's president and was rewarded with one share of its stock. Kalem had no indoor studios, so most of its films were shot on location. In February 1907, the company made its first motion picture, titled ''The Sleigh Belle''. While Kalem scored successes in their first year, the rate of production at the once-powerful Biograph stagnated, hampered by the loss of important personnel.
Olcott leadership
Under the direction of Sidney Olcott, Kalem made a number of significant films, including the first adaptation of ''
Ben Hur'' and the following year, ''
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde''. In 1910 Olcott gave actress
Alice Joyce
Alice Joyce Brown ( Joyce; October 1, 1890 – October 9, 1955) was an American actress who appeared in more than 200 films during the 1910s and 1920s. She is known for her roles in the 1923 film '' The Green Goddess'' and its 1930 remake of ...
her first acting job in his production of ''The Deacon's Daughter''.
The one-reel version of ''Ben Hur'' – in which
Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn was used as the location for
the Holy Land – was made without obtaining the rights to the book, the usual procedure in the industry at the time, and Kalem was sued by the estate of the author,
Lew Wallace
Lewis Wallace (April 10, 1827February 15, 1905) was an American lawyer, Union general in the American Civil War, governor of the New Mexico Territory, politician, diplomat, and author from Indiana. Among his novels and biographies, Wallace is ...
. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Kalem in 1911 in ''
Kalem Co. v. Harper Bros.'', they reached a settlement which paid the estate $25,000 – an extremely large amount for the time.
The action helped to establish the necessity of film studios obtaining motion picture rights to the properties they used for their stories.
[ p.12]
In 1910 the company shot a film in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
, making Kalem the first movie studio to travel outside the United States to film
on location. As director, Olcott headed a small team in Ireland: Kalem's leading lady and principal screenwriter,
Gene Gauntier and cameraman,
George Hollister. There, they notably filmed ''
A Lad from Old Ireland
''The Lad from Old Ireland'', also called ''A Lad from Old Ireland'', is a one-reel 1910 American motion picture directed by and starring Sidney Olcott and written by and co-starring Gene Gauntier. It was the first film appearance of prolific ac ...
'' in
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
area plus a scenic film ''
The Irish Honeymoon'' shot in
Blarney Castle,
Glengarriff,
Gap of Dunloe, the
Lakes of Killarney and
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
. After the team went to Germany to film
The Little Spreewald Maiden, a love story in the
Spreewald
The Spree Forest (German: ''Spreewald'', ; Lower Sorbian: ''Błota'', i.e. 'the Swamps') is a large inland delta of the river Spree, and a historical cultural landscape located in the region of (Lower) Lusatia, in the state of Brandenburg, Germ ...
with
Gauntier and
Olcott in the lead characters.
[''Sidney Olcott le premier oeil'', by Michel Derrien, TIR Editions, page 18, c.2013]
Olcott and others from the studio -
Alice Hollister,
Agnes Mapes,
Jack J. Clark,
Robert G. Vignola
Robert G. Vignola (born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola, August 7, 1882 – October 25, 1953) was an Italian- American actor, screenwriter, and film director. A former stage actor, he appeared in many motion pictures produced by Kalem Company and later mo ...
,
J.P. McGowan,
Arthur Donaldson
Arthur William Donaldson (13 December 1901 – 18 January 1993) was a Scottish journalist and Scottish National Party (SNP) politician. He was leader of the Scottish National Party from 1960 to 1969.
Early years
Donaldson was born in Dundee, ...
- returned to Ireland for most of the summer in the next two years. The ''O'Kalems'', as the American entourage were affectionately dubbed, made such Irish films as ''
Rory O'More
Rory O'More, also known as Rory Oge O'More ( ga, Ruairí Óg Ó Mórdha) (died 1578), was the Irish lord of what became Laois.
Family background
Rory O'More was the second son of Ruairí Ó Mórdha, Captain of Leix, and Margaret, daughter of ...
'', ''
The Vagabonds'', ''
You Remember Ellen'', ''
The Colleen Bawn
''The Colleen Bawn, or The Brides of Garryowen'' is a melodramatic play written by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault. It was first performed at Laura Keene's Theatre, New York, on 27 March 1860 with Laura Keene playing Anne Chute and Boucicault ...
'', one of the first American three-reels (40 minutes). 22 films in total for Kalem.
Later on, the outbreak of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
prevented Olcott, who had resigned from Kalem and shot films for himself, from following through with his plans to build a permanent studio in
Beaufort Beaufort may refer to:
People and titles
* Beaufort (surname)
* House of Beaufort, English nobility
* Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England
* Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility
Places Polar regions
* ...
,
County Kerry
County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...
.
Galvanized by the success of Irish films,
Frank J. Marion decides on a more ambitious expedition: send a crew to
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
and
Palestine to shoot films, about thirty or so. Company stayed in
Luxor
Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''.
Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...
, shot melodramas with titles such as ''
An Arabian Tragedy'', ''
Captured by Bedouins'', ''
Tragedy of the Desert'', ''
A Prisoner of the Harem'' and documentaries the pulsing life on the Nile.
But the great ambition of Kalem's expedition is the shooting of the first five-reel film. Titled ''
From the Manger to the Cross'', it told the life story of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
. According to
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...
, it is considered the most important silent film to deal with the life of Christ. In 1998 the film was selected for the
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...
of the United States
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
.
Kalem was also one of the first studios to regularly film year-round by setting up facilities in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
during the winter. The Florida company consisted of Sidney Olcott,
George Hollister, cameraman; Allen Farnham, scenic artist; Arthur Clough, property man;
Gene Gauntier scenarist and leading actress;
Jack J. Clark, leading male actor;
Robert Vignola
Robert G. Vignola (born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola, August 7, 1882 – October 25, 1953) was an Italian-American actor, screenwriter, and film director. A former stage actor, he appeared in many motion pictures produced by Kalem Company and later m ...
, the bad guy;
J.P. McGowan, another leading actor;
Alice Hollister and Ethel Eastcourt.
Expansion
In the fall of 1910, Kalem began organizing other studio locations. In November 1910, William Wright, company treasurer, was sent to the
West Coast to assess the feasibility of a permanent studio for the making of
Western style films. Wright saw the potential and after given the go-ahead from head office he acquired a property in Verdugo Canyon in
Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''.
It may refer to:
Places Australia
*Glendale, New South Wales
** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre
* Glendale, Queensland, ...
and a permanent crew was dispatched from New York City. Headed by director
Kenean Buel, his crew consisted of star actress
Alice Joyce
Alice Joyce Brown ( Joyce; October 1, 1890 – October 9, 1955) was an American actress who appeared in more than 200 films during the 1910s and 1920s. She is known for her roles in the 1923 film '' The Green Goddess'' and its 1930 remake of ...
,
George Melford,
Jane Wolfe,
Frank Lanning
Frank Lanning (August 14, 1872 – June 17, 1945) was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 84 films between 1910 and 1934. He was born in Marion, Iowa and died in Los Angeles, California. Lanning's film debut came in ''The Men ...
, Howard Oswald, Frank Brady, Knute Rahmn,
Francelia Billington and Daisy Smith.
With films from the Western genre much in demand, in 1911, a second California studio was opened in
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...
with actors
Ruth Roland,
Marin Sais
Marin Sais (born Mae Smith; August 2, 1890 – December 31, 1971) was an American actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s. Sais' acting career spanned over four decades and she is possibly best ...
,
Ed Coxen, and
Marshall Neilan
Marshall Ambrose "Mickey" Neilan (April 11, 1891 – October 27, 1958) was an American actor.
Early life
Born in San Bernardino, California, Neilan was known by most as "Mickey." Following the death of his father, the eleven-year-old Mickey ...
taken under contract. The Santa Monica facility eventually would be used to make comedies. Kalem operated in these Southern California locations until October 1913 when they took over the
Essanay Studios
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an early American motion picture studio. The studio was founded in 1907 in Chicago, and later developed an additional film lot in Niles Canyon, California. Its various stars included Francis X. Bushma ...
property at 1425 Fleming Street (now, Hoover Street) in the east
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywoo ...
.
Notable serials
In November 1914, Kalem released the first of 119 episodes of the
serial ''
The Hazards of Helen'', releasing a new segment every Saturday until February 1917. Each segment had a self-contained story, so it was more of a
film series A film series or movie series (also referred to as a film franchise or movie franchise) is a collection of related films in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series.
This article explains what film series are ...
than a serial.
Helen Holmes played the lead character "Helen" and did most of her own stunts in the first 26 episodes until she and director
J. P. McGowan left to set up their own film production company. The two began a relationship while working on the serial that led to marriage. Director
J. Gunnis Davis
James Gunnis Davis (21 December 1873 – 23 March 1937) was a British-born American actor and director who had a career in films in the US.
Early life
He was born as Joseph Gunnis Davis on 21 December 1873 in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, Sun ...
(billed as James Davis) took over and Elsie McLeod substituted in episodes 27–49 until a permanent "Helen" could be found for the remainder in the form of
Helen Gibson
Helen Gibson (born Rose August Wegner; August 27, 1892 – October 10, 1977) was an American film actress, vaudeville performer, radio performer, film producer, trick rider, and rodeo performer; and is considered to be the first American profess ...
.
On the heels of the immediate success of ''The Hazards of Helen'', Kalem Studios simultaneously produced another 16-episode action/adventure series they released in October 1915 called ''The Ventures of Marguerite'' starring
Marguerite Courtot
Marguerite Gabrielle Courtot (August 20, 1897 – May 28, 1986) was an American silent film actress.
Early life
Marguerite Gabrielle Courtot was born in Summit, New Jersey, on August 20, 1897 to Gustave Courtot, who was born in France, and Char ...
.
Final changes
In the fall of 1912, Sidney Olcott resigned to work for independent companies.
Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan (born Joseph Aloysius Dwan; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.
Early life
Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan, was ...
joined Kalem for a short time, as did
Mary Pickford
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...
, who also directed films in 1913. Over the years, Kalem contracted various other directors such as actor-turned-directors
Robert Vignola
Robert G. Vignola (born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola, August 7, 1882 – October 25, 1953) was an Italian-American actor, screenwriter, and film director. A former stage actor, he appeared in many motion pictures produced by Kalem Company and later m ...
and
J. P. McGowan,
George Melford, as well as
James W. Horne, Rube Miller,
William Beaudine
William Washington Beaudine (January 15, 1892 – March 18, 1970) was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres.
Life and car ...
,
Harry F. Millarde
Harry F. Millarde (November 12, 1885 – November 2, 1931) was a pioneer United States, American silent film actor and film director, director.
Biography
Millarde was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and began his acting in film in 1913 with Kalem Stu ...
, and
Robert Ellis. In 1917, after having made close to 1500 motion pictures, the Kalem Company was sold to
Vitagraph Studios
Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, ...
.
Notable figures of Kalem
*
Frank J. Marion
*
Samuel S. Long
*
George Kleine
George Kleine (1864June 8, 1931) was an American film producer and cinema pioneer.
Biography
Klein's father, Charles, was a New York optician who sold optical devices and stereopticons. Klein joined the family firm, moving to Chicago in 1893 ...
*
Sidney Olcott
Sidney Olcott (born John Sidney Allcott, September 20, 1872 – December 16, 1949) was a Canadian-born film producer, director, actor and screenwriter.
Biography
Born John Sidney Allcott in Toronto, he became one of the first great direc ...
*
Robert G. Vignola
Robert G. Vignola (born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola, August 7, 1882 – October 25, 1953) was an Italian- American actor, screenwriter, and film director. A former stage actor, he appeared in many motion pictures produced by Kalem Company and later mo ...
*
Joe Santley
Joe or JOE may refer to:
Arts
Film and television
* ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle
* ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage
* ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971
* ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...
*
Gene Gauntier
*
Jack J. Clark
*
Arthur Donaldson
Arthur William Donaldson (13 December 1901 – 18 January 1993) was a Scottish journalist and Scottish National Party (SNP) politician. He was leader of the Scottish National Party from 1960 to 1969.
Early years
Donaldson was born in Dundee, ...
*
J.P. McGowan
*
George K. Hollister
George K. Hollister (March 7, 1873 – March 28, 1952) was an American pioneer cinematographer.
Biography
Born in New York City, New York, little is known of his background. In 1905 he married a nineteen-year-old girl named Alice Hollister from W ...
*
Alice Hollister
*
George Melford
*
Kenean Buel
*Allen Farnham
*
Alice Joyce
Alice Joyce Brown ( Joyce; October 1, 1890 – October 9, 1955) was an American actress who appeared in more than 200 films during the 1910s and 1920s. She is known for her roles in the 1923 film '' The Green Goddess'' and its 1930 remake of ...
*
Miriam Cooper
Miriam Cooper (born Marian Cooper; November 7, 1891 – April 12, 1976) was a silent film actress who is best known for her work in early film including ''The Birth of a Nation'' and ''Intolerance'' for D. W. Griffith and ''The Honor System'' a ...
*
Carlyle Blackwell
Carlyle Blackwell (January 20, 1884 – June 17, 1955) was an American silent film actor, director and producer.
Early years
Blackwell was born in Troy, Pennsylvania. He studied at Cornell University before J. Stewart Blackton discovered him an ...
*
Marshall Neilan
Marshall Ambrose "Mickey" Neilan (April 11, 1891 – October 27, 1958) was an American actor.
Early life
Born in San Bernardino, California, Neilan was known by most as "Mickey." Following the death of his father, the eleven-year-old Mickey ...
*
Helen Holmes
*
Agnes Mapes
*
Ruth Roland
*
Lloyd Hamilton
Lloyd Vernon Hamilton (August 19, 1891 – January 19, 1935) was an American film comedian, best remembered for his work in the silent era.
Career
Having begun his career as an extra in theatre-productions, Hamilton first appeared on film in ...
*
Marin Sais
Marin Sais (born Mae Smith; August 2, 1890 – December 31, 1971) was an American actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s. Sais' acting career spanned over four decades and she is possibly best ...
References
Notes
Further reading
* Tracy, Tony (2016) ''Outside the System: Gene Gauntier and the Consolidation of Early American Cinema,'' ''Film History'', Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 71–106
* Michel Derrien, ''Aux origines du cinéma irlandais: Sidney Olcott, le premier oeil'', TIR 2013.
Film
passion'' a documentary on ''From the Manger to the Cross'', directed by Philippe Baron, France, 2009, 55 minutes, produced by Vivement lundi !
External links
Kalem Company filming in Ireland* {{in lang, fr}
Sidney Olcott, le premier oeil
American companies established in 1907
American companies disestablished in 1917
Mass media companies established in 1907
Mass media companies disestablished in 1917
Defunct American film studios
Articles containing video clips
Silent film studios
1907 establishments in New York City
1917 disestablishments in California
Film production companies of the United States
1917 mergers and acquisitions