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The Lubin Manufacturing Company was an American
motion picture
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
production company that produced
silent films
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...
from 1896 to 1916. Lubin films were distributed with a
Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell, previously called the State House Bell or Old State House Bell, is an iconic symbol of American independence, located in Philadelphia. Originally placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House (now renamed Independence ...
trademark.
History
The Lubin Manufacturing Company was formed in 1902 and
incorporated in 1909 in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
by
Siegmund Lubin
Siegmund Lubin (born Zygmunt Lubszyński, April 20, 1851 – September 11, 1923) was an American motion picture pioneer who founded the Lubin Manufacturing Company (1902–1917) of Philadelphia.
Biography
Siegmund Lubin was born as Zygmunt L ...
. The company was the offspring of Lubin's film equipment and film distribution and production business, which began in 1896.
Siegmund Lubin, a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish immigrant from
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, was originally an optical and
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
expert in Philadelphia but became intrigued with
Thomas Edison's motion picture camera and saw the potential in selling similar equipment as well as in making films. Known as "Pop" Lubin, he constructed his own combined camera/projector he called a "Cineograph" and his lower price and marketing know-how brought reasonable success. In 1897 Lubin began making films for commercial release including ''
Meet Me at the Fountain
''Meet Me at the Fountain'' is a 1904 American silent short comedy film written, produced, and directed by Siegmund Lubin. Actors in the movie included Gilbert Sarony, a well-known cross-dressing performer. The film was inspired by Wallace Mc ...
'' in 1904. Certain his business could prosper, the following year he rented low-cost space on the roof of a building in Philadelphia's business district. He exhibited his new equipment at the 1899 National Export Exposition in Philadelphia and the 1901
Pan-American Exposition
The Pan-American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York, United States, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. The fair occupied of land on the western edge of what is now Delaware Park, extending from Delaware Avenue to Elmwood A ...
in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
.
The insatiable appetite of the American public for motion picture entertainment saw Lubin's film company undergo enormous growth. Aided by
French-born writer and poet
Hugh Antoine d'Arcy, who served as the studio's publicity manager, in 1910 Siegmund Lubin built a state of the art studio on the corner of Indiana Avenue and Twentieth Street in Philadelphia that became known as "Lubinville." At the time, it was one of the most modern studios in the world, complete with a huge artificially lit stage, editing rooms, laboratories, and workshops. The facility allowed several film productions to be undertaken simultaneously. The Lubin Manufacturing Company expanded production beyond Philadelphia, with facilities at 750 Riverside Avenue in
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, and then in
Coronado, California
Coronado (Spanish for "Crowned") is a resort city located in San Diego County, California, United States, across the San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego. It was founded in the 1880s and incorporated in 1890. Its population was 24,697 at th ...
. In 1912, Lubin purchased a estate in
Betzwood
Betzwood is the name of an area of West Norriton Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The area once housed the Lubin Studios
The Lubin Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture production company that produced silent fil ...
, in what was then rural countryside in the northwest outskirts of Philadelphia and converted the property into a studio and film lot. That same year, director and actor
Romaine Fielding
Romaine Fielding (born William Grant Blandin; May 22, 1867 – December 15, 1927) was an American actor, screenwriter, and silent film director known for his dramatic westerns. He was also known as Royal A. Blandin.
Early life and stage career
...
traveled out to
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott ( ) is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2020 Census, the city's population was 45,827. The city is the county seat of Yavapai County.
In 1864, Prescott was designated as the capital of the Arizona T ...
with cast and crew and set up offices at 712 Western Avenue and an outdoor stage for shooting interiors behind Mercy Hospital (now the site of
Prescott College
Prescott College is a private college in Prescott, Arizona.
History
In 1965, the Ford Foundation brought together a group of educators from around the United States. Prescott College was the result of this gathering.
The college was originall ...
). He filmed approximately a dozen movies there before moving to
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
, where he directed another 60 or so silent short films.
William Duncan and
Selig Polyscope Company took over the Prescott facility.
Some of the pioneer actors who worked for Lubin included
Romaine Fielding
Romaine Fielding (born William Grant Blandin; May 22, 1867 – December 15, 1927) was an American actor, screenwriter, and silent film director known for his dramatic westerns. He was also known as Royal A. Blandin.
Early life and stage career
...
,
Ed Genung
Ed Genung was an American actor of the silent era notable for being the first actor to play David Copperfield on film - in ''David Copperfield'' (1911) and one of the earliest to play Ferdinand on film - in '' The Tempest'' (1911).
Born as Edwa ...
,
Harry Myers
Harry C. Myers (September 5, 1882 – December 25, 1938) was an American film actor and director, sometimes credited as Henry Myers. He performed in many short comedy films with his wife Rosemary Theby. Myers appeared in 330 films between 1908 ...
,
Florence Hackett
Florence Hackett (née Florence Hart) (January 1882 – August 21, 1954) was an American film actress in the silent era. She was allegedly married to veteran film star Arthur V. Johnson, reputedly D.W. Griffith's favorite actor. Previously sh ...
,
Alan Hale,
Arthur V. Johnson,
Lottie Briscoe
Lottie Briscoe (April 19, 1883 – March 21, 1950) was an American stage and silent screen actress. She began in theatre at the age of four and as an adult was among the first to find success after making the transition from the legitimate stage ...
,
Florence Lawrence,
Ethel Clayton
Ethel Clayton (November 8, 1882 – June 6, 1966) was an American actress of the silent film era.
Early years
Born in Champaign, Illinois, Clayton attended St. Elizabeth's school in Chicago.
Career
Clayton debuted on stage as a professional ...
,
Gladys Brockwell
Gladys Brockwell (née Lindeman; September 26, 1894 – July 2, 1929) was an American actress whose career began during the silent film era.
Early life and career
Brockwell was born Gladys Lindeman in Brooklyn, New York, on September 26, 1894. ...
,
Edwin Carewe
Edwin Carewe (March 3, 1883 – January 22, 1940) was an American motion picture director, actor, producer, and screenwriter. His birth name was Jay John Fox; he was born in Gainesville, Texas.
Career
After brief studies at the Universities of ...
,
Ormi Hawley
Ormetta Grace Hawley (February 21, 1889, Holyoke, Massachusetts—June 3, 1942, Rome, New York) was an American actress.
Hawley attended the New England Conservatory of Music. She began her acting career in live theatre with a stock theater ...
,
Rosemary Theby
Rosemary Theresa Theby (born Rose Masing, April 8, 1892 – November 10, 1973) was an American film actress. She appeared in some 250 films between 1911 and 1940.
Early life and career
The daughter of George and Katherine Masing, Theby ...
,
Betty Brice
Rosetta Dewart Brice (August 4, 1888 – February 15, 1935), known professionally as Betty Brice, was an American actress in many silent films.
Early life
Rosetta Dewart Brice was born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Edward Lincoln ...
,
Alice Mann and
Pearl White
Pearl Fay White (March 4, 1889 – August 4, 1938) was an American stage and film actress. She began her career on the stage at the age of six, and later moved on to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials.
Dubbed the "Queen of ...
. Lubin films also marked the first film appearance of
Oliver Hardy, who started working at Lubin's Jacksonville, Florida studio in 1913. Hardy's first onscreen appearance was in the 1914 movie, ''
Outwitting Dad
''Outwitting Dad'' is a lost 1914 American comedy film that featured Oliver Hardy's first onscreen appearance. The master negatives and original print for this short were destroyed in a vault fire at the Lubin Manufacturing Company in Philadel ...
'' where he was billed as O. N. Hardy. In many of his later films at Lubin, he was billed as “Babe Hardy.” He was most often cast as “the heavy” or the villain and had roles in comedy shorts, appearing in some 50
short
Short may refer to:
Places
* Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon
* Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place
People
* Short (surname)
* List of people known as ...
one-
reel
A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the ends ...
er films at Lubin by 1915.
Decline
The company's downfall came even faster than its meteoric rise. Lubin was not as adroit as its competitors in shifting to quality feature-length films. Also,
a disastrous fire at its main studio in June 1914 damaged nearby buildings and destroyed the negatives for a number of unreleased new films, which severely hurt the business. When
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
broke out in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
in September of that year, Lubin Studios, and other American filmmakers', lost a large source of income from these foreign sales.
For years the Lubin Manufacturing Company, like most of the other major film studios, had a running legal battle with
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...
that saw repeated
lawsuit
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
s brought against Lubin for patent infringement. Eventually, Lubin gave up the costly fight with Edison and became part of 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-bran ...
, a monopoly on production and distribution set up by Edison.
In 1915, the Lubin company entered into an agreement to form a film distribution partnership, with
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, ...
,
Selig Polyscope Company, and
Essanay Studios, known as
V-L-S-E, Incorporated
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 ...
.
However, the decline of the Lubin operations continued and the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
rulings against the monopoly of 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-bran ...
spelled the end of Lubin's business. After making more than a thousand motion pictures the corporation was forced into
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
and on September 1, 1916, the Lubin Manufacturing Company closed its doors for good.
Filmography
*''
How Brown Saw the Baseball Game'' (1907)
*''
Hemlock Hoax, the Detective
''Hemlock Hoax, the Detective'' is an American short comedy film produced and distributed in 1910 by the Lubin Manufacturing Company. The silent film features a detective named Hemlock Hoax who tries to solve a murder, which unbeknownst to him is ...
'' (1910)
*''
Her Humble Ministry'' (1911)
*''
When the Earth Trembled
''When the Earth Trembled'' (1913) is an American silent disaster film starring Ethel Clayton and Harry Myers. The film, a short feature, may be the first fiction film to depict the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
'' Motion Picture Story Magazine' ...
'' (1913)
*''
Outwitting Dad
''Outwitting Dad'' is a lost 1914 American comedy film that featured Oliver Hardy's first onscreen appearance. The master negatives and original print for this short were destroyed in a vault fire at the Lubin Manufacturing Company in Philadel ...
'' (1914)
See also
*
Jack Pratt
Jack Pratt, born John Harold Pratt, (1878–1938) was a Canadian film director and actor. He directed several films and acted in dozens more. As a director, his work included screen adaptations of novels.
Known as Smiling Jack, he married ac ...
*
Romaine Fielding
Romaine Fielding (born William Grant Blandin; May 22, 1867 – December 15, 1927) was an American actor, screenwriter, and silent film director known for his dramatic westerns. He was also known as Royal A. Blandin.
Early life and stage career
...
*
Florence Lawrence
*
Bradley King
References
External links
* http://cinemathequefroncaise.com/Chapter4-1/CHAPTER_04_COMMERCE_AND_SPECTATORSHIP.html
Siegmund Lubin THE KING OF THE MOVIES - Film Pioneerby Joseph Eckhardt
Betzwood Film Archiveby Joseph Eckhardt, A new site
An Illustrated Chronology
History Detectives
''History Detectives'' is a documentary television series on PBS. It features investigations made by members of a small team of researchers to identify and/or authenticate items which may have historical significance or connections to important h ...
-
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
Lubin Film Archive- The Silent Film Channel
{{Authority control
1896 establishments in Pennsylvania