The Selig Polyscope 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 ...
company that was founded in 1896 by
William Selig
William Nicholas Selig (March 14, 1864 – July 15, 1948) was a pioneer of the American motion picture industry. In 1896 he created one of the first film production companies, Selig Polyscope Company of Chicago. Selig produced a string of c ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western films between 1909 and 1935. He appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent films. He w ...
,
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary ''Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55.
One of the most influential film co ...
,
Colleen Moore, and
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked w ...
. Selig Polyscope also established
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
's first permanent movie studio, in the historic
Edendale district of Los Angeles. Ending film production in 1918, the business, based on its film production animals, became an animal and prop supplier to other studios and a
zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...
and amusement park attraction in
East Los Angeles
East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purpo ...
until the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
in the 1930s. In 1947, William Selig and several other early movie producers and directors shared a special
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award – instituted in 1950 for the 23rd Academy Awards (previously called the Special Award, which was first presented at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929) – is given annually by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Moti ...
to acknowledge their role in building the film industry.
History
![General view of Selig Polyscope Company, studio and backlot, 1911](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/General_view_of_Selig_Polyscope_Company%2C_studio_and_backlot%2C_1911.jpeg)
William Selig had worked as a
magician and
minstrel show
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century.
Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spe ...
operator on the west coast in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. Later on, in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, he entered the film business using his own photographic equipment, free from
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
restrictions imposed through companies controlled by
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 ...
. In 1896, with help from Union Metal Works and Andrew Schustek, he shot his first film, ''Tramp and the Dog''. He went on to successfully produce local actualities,
slapstick
Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...
comedies, early
travelogue
Travelogue may refer to:
Genres
* Travel literature, a record of the experiences of an author travelling
* Travel documentary
A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or online series that describes travel in general or ...
s and
industrial film Sponsored film, or ephemeral film, as defined by film archivist Rick Prelinger, is a film made by a particular sponsor for a specific purpose other than as a work of art: the films were designed to serve a specific pragmatic purpose for a limited t ...
s (a major client was
Armour and Company
Armour & Company was an American company and was one of the five leading firms in the meat packing industry. It was founded in Chicago, in 1867, by the Armour brothers led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's mo ...
). In 1908 Selig Polyscope was involved in the production of ''
The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays
''The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays'' was an early attempt to bring L. Frank Baum's Oz books to the motion picture screen. It was a mixture of live actors, hand-tinted magic lantern slides, and film. Baum himself would appear as if he were giving a ...
'', a touring "multimedia" attempt to bring
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the ''Oz'' series, plus 41 other novels (not includ ...
's
Oz books
The Oz books form a book series that begins with ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900) and relates the fictional history of the Land of Oz. Oz was created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen full-length Oz books. All of Baum's b ...
to a wider public (which played to full houses but was nonetheless a financial disaster for Baum). By 1909 Selig had studios making short features in Chicago and the
Edendale district of Los Angeles. The company also distributed stock film footage and titles from other studios. That year,
Roscoe Arbuckle
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked ...
's first movie was a Selig comedy short. The company's early existence was fraught with legal turmoil over disputes with lawyers representing
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 ...
's interests. In 1909 Selig and several other studio heads settled with Edison by creating an alliance with the inventor. Effectively a
cartel
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...
,
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 ...
dominated the industry for a few years until the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
(in 1913 and 1915) ruled the firm was an illegal
monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
. In 1910 Selig Polyscope produced a wholly new filmed version of ''
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz afte ...
''. The company produced the first commercial two-reel film, ''
Damon and Pythias
The story of Damon (; grc-gre, Δάμων, gen. Δάμωνος) and Pythias (;
or
; or Phintias, ) is a legend in Greek historic writings illustrating the Pythagorean ideal of friendship. Pythias is accused of and charged with plotting against ...
'', successfully distributed its pictures in Great Britain and maintained an office in London for several years before World War I. Although Selig Polyscope produced a wide variety of moving pictures, the company was most widely known for its wild animal shorts, historical subjects and early
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
s.
Edendale
Attracted by Southern California's mild, dry climate, varied geography for location shooting and isolation from Edison's legal representatives on the east coast, Selig set up his studio in
Edendale in 1909 with director
Francis Boggs
Francis Winter Boggs (March 1870 – October 27, 1911) was an American stage actor and pioneer silent film director. He was one of the first to direct a film in Hollywood.
Biography
He was born in Santa Rosa, California to George W. Boggs and A ...
, who began the facility in a rented
bungalow and quickly expanded, designing the studio's front entrance after
Mission San Gabriel
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
* Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
.
![Selig Polyscope Company studio ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Selig_Polyscope_Company_studio_ca._1910.jpg)
An early production there was ''
The Count of Monte Cristo
''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (french: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas (''père'') completed in 1844. It is one of the author's more popular works, along with ''The Three Musketeers''. Li ...
''. Edendale soon became Selig Polyscope's headquarters, but in 1911 Boggs was murdered by a Japanese gardener who also wounded Selig. The company produced hundreds of short features at Edendale, including many early westerns featuring
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western films between 1909 and 1935. He appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent films. He w ...
(which were also shot at
Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas is a city in and the county seat of San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Once two separate municipalities (one a city and the other a town), both were named Las Vegas—West Las Vegas ("Old Town") and East Las Vegas ("New Town" ...
). Selig Polyscope made dozens of highly successful short movies involving wild animals in exotic settings, including a popular re-creation of an African
safari hunt by
Teddy Roosevelt. In 1914 Selig made 14 short experimental "
talking pictures
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
" with Scottish actor
Harry Lauder
Sir Henry Lauder (; 4 August 1870 – 26 February 1950)Russell, Dave"Lauder, Sir Henry (1870–1950)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, January 2011, accessed 27 April 2014 was a S ...
.
The "cliffhanger"
In 1913, through a collaborative partnership with the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'', Selig produced ''
The Adventures of Kathlyn
''The Adventures of Kathlyn'' (1913) is an American motion picture serial released on December 29, 1913, by the Selig Polyscope Company. An adventure serial filmed in Chicago, Illinois, its thirteen episodes were directed by Francis J. Grando ...
'', introducing a dramatic
serial plot device which came to be known as the
cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...
. Each chapter's story was simultaneously published in the newspaper. A combination of wild animals, clever dramatic action and
Kathlyn Williams
Kathlyn Williams (born Kathleen Mabel Williams, May 31, 1879 – September 23, 1960) was an American actress, known for her blonde beauty and daring antics, who performed on stage as well as in early silent film. She began her career onstage in ...
' screen presence resulted in significant success. The ''Tribune''’s circulation reportedly increased by 10% and both dance and cocktail were named after Williams, whose likeness was reportedly sold on over 50,000
postcard
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...
s.
Hearst-Selig News Pictorial
Hearst-Selig News Pictorial was established in 1914 by the Selig Polyscope Company and the
Hearst Corporation
Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...
. Hearst-Selig News Pictorial, No. 104 was released in US theaters by the
General Film Company
The General Film Company was a motion picture distribution company in the United States. Between 1909 and 1920, the company distributed almost 12,000 silent era motion pictures.
Formation
The General Film Company was formed by the Motion Picture ...
on December 30, 1915. After this release , the partnership between Hearst and Selig broke up: Selig continued to produce newsreels in collaboration with the
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
while Hearst made use of Vitagraph to produce the
Hearst-Vitagraph News Pictorial series.
V-L-S-E, Incorporated
In 1915, Selig entered into an agreement 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, ...
,
Lubin Manufacturing Company
The Lubin Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture production company that produced silent films from 1896 to 1916. Lubin films were distributed with a Liberty Bell trademark.
History
The Lubin Manufacturing Company was formed in 1 ...
, and
Essanay Studios to form a film distribution partnership 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 ...
.
Selig zoo
![Asian elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo, ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Asian_elephant_at_the_Los_Angeles_Zoo%2C_ca.1920_%28CHS-9746%29.jpg)
By 1913 Selig had gathered a large collection of animals for his films and spent substantial funds acquiring and developing of land in
Lincoln Heights northeast of downtown
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' ...
, where he opened a large public
zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...
.
Circa 1915, the
Selig Zoo held a five-year-old orangutan called Prince Chang.
He supposedly lived in a castle with a southern exposure and its own garden;
his enclosure was said to be electrically heated. He appeared in a one-reel Selig film called ''The Orang-Outang''. Described as "enormous," Chang did not immediately take to the rigors of film production. He reportedly chased costar
George Larkin
George Larkin (November 11, 1887 – March 27, 1946) was an American film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1910 and 1931. He was born and died in New York, New York. He was married to actress Ollie Kirkby.
...
around the studio while brandishing a cane, and wrecked two sets. Eventually, furniture made of
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
bolted to the floor allowed production to continue.
Two of the keepers at the Selig Zoo were brothers Clarence and
Melvin Koontz. A noted historian of American circuses and circus elephants,
Chang Reynolds, worked at the Selig Zoo as a young man.
In 1917 Selig sold the Edendale facility to producer
William Fox and moved his movie studio to the zoo in East Los Angeles. Meanwhile, World War I cut severely into the substantial revenues Selig Polyscope had been garnering 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 ...
and the company shunned profitable movie industry trends, which had shifted towards
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
tic (and more costly) full length
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
s. Selig Polyscope became insolvent and ceased operations in 1918. Mix signed with Fox back at Edendale and went on to even greater success as a
matinée
In the performing arts, film exhibition, and other forms of entertainment, a matinée is a performance or exhibition in the afternoon (or occasionally earlier), as distinguished from the evening
Evening is the period of a day that starts at t ...
cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...
star. Movie studios rented animals and staged many shoots at the Selig zoo (sometimes later claiming they had been filmed in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
). The First
Tarzan
Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
movie (1918) was filmed there. In 1920
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1882 or 1884 or 1885 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industr ...
rented his first studio space for Mayer Pictures at the site. Selig planned to develop it into a major tourist attraction,
amusement park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
and popular resort named Selig Zoo Park with a
Ferris wheel
A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsule ...
,
carousels
A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round ( international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in SA) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular p ...
, mechanical rides, an enormous swimming pool with a sandy beach and a wave making machine, hotel, theatre, cinema, restaurants and thousands of daily visitors (more than 30 years before
Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
). Only a single carousel was built. Selig Polyscope's extensive collection of props and furnishings were auctioned off at the zoo in 1923.
Selig finally sold the zoo following a flood during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Some of the animals were donated to
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...
, forming a substantial addition to
Griffith Park Zoo
Griffith Park Zoo, referred to today as the Old Los Angeles Zoo, was a city-owned zoo in Los Angeles, California that opened in 1912 and closed in 1966 with the opening of the new Los Angeles Zoo. The abandoned site of the Griffith Park Zoo, compl ...
. The property was used as a
jalopy
A decrepit car is a car that is often old and damaged and is in a barely functional state. There are many slang terms used to describe such cars, the more popular including junk car, beater, clunker, hooptie, jalopy, shitbox, junker, and banger ...
racetrack during the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1955 the site was described as "an inactive amusement park."
Throughout its history, names appearing on the zoo gate included:
:Selig Zoo and Studio
:Selig Zoo
:Selig Jungle Zoo
:Luna Park Zoo
:California Zoological Gardens
:Zoopark
:Lincoln Amusement Park
The
carousel
A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...
survived on the site until 1976 when it was destroyed by fire. The former Selig zoo's arched front gate with its lavish animal sculptures was a crumbling landmark in Lincoln Heights for many decades. By 2003 the sculptures were reportedly being restored for installation at the
Los Angeles Zoo
The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens is a zoo founded in 1966 and located in Los Angeles, California. The city of Los Angeles owns the entire zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals. Animal care, grounds maintenance, construction, ed ...
and in 2007 tennis courts were on the site.
Legacy
Academy library
In the late 1940s, Selig made a large donation of business records to the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
Library. The William Selig papers, together with the donation, include Selig's correspondence, scripts, scrapbooks, production files and six feet of photographs that include
production stills from over 500 films that are otherwise lost (only about 225 of the over 3,500 films released by Selig between 1896 and 1938 have survived into the present day). This collection still requires further study.
Lost films
The potential of movies as long term sources of revenue was unknown to early movie industry executives. Films were made quickly, sent into distribution channels and mostly forgotten soon after their first runs. Surviving prints were typically stored haphazardly, if at all.
Nitrate film stock, in common use until the mid-20th Century, was chemically volatile and many prints were lost in fires or decomposed in storage. Some were recycled for their
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
content or simply thrown away to save space. Out of Selig Polyscope's hundreds of films, only a few copies and scattered photographic elements are known to survive.
Partial filmography
![Selig Wamba Child of The Jungle movie poster (1913)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Selig_Wamba_Child_of_The_Jungle_movie_poster_%281913%29.jpg)
*''
The Tramp and the Dog'' (1896)
*''
Soldiers at Play'' (1898)
*''
Something Good – Negro Kiss
''Something Good – Negro Kiss'' is a short silent film from 1898 of a couple kissing and holding hands. It is believed to depict the earliest on-screen kiss involving African Americans and is known for departing from the prevalent and purely ste ...
'' (1898)
*''
Chicago Police Parade'' (1901)
*''
Dewey Parade'' (1901)
*''
Gans-McGovern Fight'' (1901)
*''
Fun at the Glenwood Springs Pool'' (1902)
*''
A Hot Time on a Bathing Beach
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
'' (1903)
*''
Business Rivalry'' (1903)
*''
Chicago Fire Run'' (1903)
*''
Chicago Firecats on Parade'' (1903)
*''
The Girl in Blue'' (1903)
*''
Trip Around The Union Loop'' (1903)
*''
View of State Street'' (1903)
*''
Tracked by Bloodhounds; or, A Lynching at Cripple Creek
''Tracked by Bloodhounds; or, A Lynching at Cripple Creek'' is a 1904 silent crime drama short film directed by Harry Buckwalter.
Plot
The film is set at a gold mining camp in Cripple Creek, Colorado
Cripple Creek is a statutory city that i ...
'' (1904) (survives)
*''
Humpty Dumptry'' (1904)
*''
The Tramp Dog'' (1904)
*''
The Hold-Up of the Leadville Stage'' (1904)
*''
The Grafter'' (1907)
*''
The Count of Monte Cristo
''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (french: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas (''père'') completed in 1844. It is one of the author's more popular works, along with ''The Three Musketeers''. Li ...
'' (1908)
*''
Damon and Pythias
The story of Damon (; grc-gre, Δάμων, gen. Δάμωνος) and Pythias (;
or
; or Phintias, ) is a legend in Greek historic writings illustrating the Pythagorean ideal of friendship. Pythias is accused of and charged with plotting against ...
'' (1908)
*''
The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays
''The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays'' was an early attempt to bring L. Frank Baum's Oz books to the motion picture screen. It was a mixture of live actors, hand-tinted magic lantern slides, and film. Baum himself would appear as if he were giving a ...
'' (1908)
*''
Briton and Boer'' (1909)
*''
Hunting Big Game in Africa'' (1909)
*''
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz afte ...
'' (1910) (survives)
*''
The Sergeant'' (1910) (survives)
*''
The Way of the Eskimo'' (1911)
*''
Lost in the Arctic'' (1911)
*''
Life on the Border'' (1911) (partial section survives)
*''
The Coming of Columbus'' (1911)
*''
Brotherhood of Man
Brotherhood of Man are a British pop group who achieved success in the 1970s. They won the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with "Save Your Kisses for Me".
Created in 1969 by songwriter and record producer Tony Hiller, Brotherhood of Man was initia ...
'' (1912)
*''
Kings of the Forest'' (1912)
*''
War Time Romance'' (1912)
*''
The Adventures of Kathlyn
''The Adventures of Kathlyn'' (1913) is an American motion picture serial released on December 29, 1913, by the Selig Polyscope Company. An adventure serial filmed in Chicago, Illinois, its thirteen episodes were directed by Francis J. Grando ...
'' (1913)
*''
Arabia, the Equine Detective'' (1913)
*''
The Devil and Tom Walker
"The Devil and Tom Walker" is a short story by Washington Irving that first appeared in his 1824 collection '' Tales of a Traveller'', in "The Money-Diggers" part of volume II. The story is very similar to the German legend of Faust.
Stephen Vi ...
'' (1913)
*''
The Sheriff of Yavapai County'' (1913)
*''
Wamba A Child of the Jungle
''Wamba A Child of the Jungle'' is a 1913 silent short 2 reel film directed by Colin Campbell and released by the Selig Polyscope Company.
Cast
*Tom Santschi as Portuguese Pete
* Bessie Eyton as Wamba
* Frank Clark as Dr. Rice
*Eugenie Besserer ...
'' (1913)
*''
The Spoilers'' (1914) (survives)
*''
A Black Sheep'' (1915)
*''
House of a Thousand Candles'' (1915)
*''
The Man from Texas'' (1915)
*''
The Crisis
''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Mi ...
'' (1916)
*''
The Garden of Allah'' (1916)
*''
The City of Purple Dreams'' (1918)
*''
Little Orphant Annie
"Little Orphant Annie" is an 1885 poem written by James Whitcomb Riley and published by the Bowen-Merrill Company. First titled "The Elf Child", the name was changed by Riley to "Little Orphant Allie" at its third printing; however, a typesetti ...
'' (1918)
See also
*
Universal City Zoo
Universal City Zoo was a private animal collection in southern California that provided animals for silent-era Universal Pictures adventure films, circus pictures, and animal comedies, and to "serve as a point of interest" for tourists visiting ...
References
External links
Lincoln Heights page with pictures of recovered statues*
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' (one of Selig Polyscope Company's few surviving films) download at
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
{{Authority control
Entertainment companies established in 1896
Mass media companies established in 1896
Mass media companies disestablished in 1918
Silent film studios
Defunct American film studios
American silent films by studio
Film studios in Southern California
Entertainment companies based in California
Companies based in Los Angeles
Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles
Film production companies of the United States
Film production companies established in the 1890s