![Vitagraph founders](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Vitagraph_founders.jpg)
Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
motion picture 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 ...
. It was founded by
J. Stuart Blackton and
Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
in 1925.
History
In 1896,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
émigré Blackton was moonlighting as a reporter/artist for the
New York ''Evening World'' when he was sent to interview
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 inventi ...
about his new film projector. The inventor talked the entrepreneurial reporter into buying a set of films and a projector. A year later, Blackton and business partner Smith founded the American Vitagraph Company in direct competition with Edison. A third partner, distributor William "Pop" Rock, joined in 1899. The company's first studio was located on the rooftop of a building on Nassau Street in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. Operations were later moved to the
Midwood
Midwood is a neighborhood in the south-central part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded on the north by the Bay Ridge Branch tracks just above Avenue I and by the Brooklyn College campus of the City University of New York, a ...
neighborhood of
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
.
The company's first claim to fame came from newsreels: Vitagraph cameramen were on the scene to film events from the
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (cloc ...
of 1898. These shorts were among the first works of motion-picture
propaganda, and a few had studio re-enactments that were passed off as footage of actual events (''The
Battle of Santiago Bay'' was filmed in an improvised bathtub, with the "smoke of battle" provided by Mrs. Blackton's cigar). In 1897, Vitagraph produced ''
The Humpty Dumpty Circus
''The Humpty Dumpty Circus'' is a lost short stop-motion film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith, the Anglo-American founders of Vitagraph Studios. There are no known surviving copies.
Albert E. Smith claimed in his 1952 book ''T ...
'', which was the first film to use the
stop-motion technique.
Vitagraph was not the only company seeking to make money from Edison's motion picture inventions, and Edison's lawyers were very busy in the 1890s and 1900s filing
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 ...
s and suing competitors for patent infringement. Blackton did his best to avoid lawsuits by buying a special license from Edison in 1907 and by agreeing to sell many of his most popular films to Edison for distribution.
The American Vitagraph Company made many contributions to the history of movie-making. In 1903 the director
Joseph Delmont started his career by producing westerns; he later became famous by using "wild carnivores" in his movies—a sensation for that time.
In 1909 it was one of the original ten production companies included in Edison's attempt to corner movie-making in America, the
Motion Picture Patents Company. Due to its extensive European distribution interests, Vitagraph also participated in the
Paris Film Congress in February 1909. This was a failed attempt by European producers to form a cartel similar to the MPPC.
Stars
Major stars included
Florence Turner (the Vitagraph Girl, one of the world's first movie stars),
Maurice Costello (the first of the matinee idols),
Harry T. Morey
Harry Temple Morey (August 21, 1873 – January 24, 1936) was an American stage and motion picture actor who appeared in nearly 200 films during his career.
Biography
Born in Charlotte, Michigan, Morey had two brothers. Their mother was Addie C. ...
,
Jean
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean (surname)
Fictional characters
* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
* Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations
* Jea ...
(the Vitagraph Dog and the first animal star of the
Silent Era) and such future stars as
Helen Hayes,
Viola Dana
Viola Dana (born Virginia Flugrath; June 26, 1897 – July 3, 1987) was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent films. She appeared in over 100 films, but was unable to make the transition to sound films.
Early lif ...
,
Dolores Costello
Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903Costello's obituary in ''The New York Times'' says that she was born on September 17, 1905. – March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. ...
,
Norma Talmadge
Norma Marie Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most pop ...
,
Constance Talmadge
Constance Alice Talmadge (April 19, 1898 – November 23, 1973) was an American silent film star. She was the sister of actresses Norma and Natalie Talmadge.
Early life
Talmadge was born on April 19, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York, to poor p ...
, and
Moe Howard
Moses Harry Horwitz (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975), known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He is best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television ...
.
Larry Trimble
Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names.
Larry may refer to the following:
People Arts and entertainment
* Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer
*Larry Boone ...
was a noted director of films for Turner and Jean (he was also the dog's owner).
The first film adaptation of the novel ''
Les Misérables
''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century.
In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its origin ...
'', a short silent historical drama starring
Maurice Costello as
Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean () is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel ''Les Misérables''. The story depicts the character's struggle to lead a normal life and redeem himself after serving a 19-year-long prison sentence for stealing bread to feed his ...
and
William V. Ranous
William V. Ranous (March 12, 1857 – April 1, 1915) was an American silent film actor and director and Shakespearean stage actor.
Biography
William V. Ranous was born in New York State on March 12, 1857. He married writer and translator ...
as
Javert
Javert (), no first name given in the source novel, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel ''Les Misérables.'' He was presumably born in 1780 and died on June 7, 1832. First a prison guard, and then a polic ...
, is distributed by the Vitagraph Company of America. The film consists of four reels, each released over the course of three months beginning on 4 September to 27 November 1909.
John Bunny
John Bunny (September 21, 1863 – April 26, 1915) was an American actor. Bunny began his career as a stage actor, but transitioned to a film career after joining Vitagraph Studios around 1910. At Vitagraph, Bunny made over 150 short films – ma ...
made films for Vitagraph in the 1910s, most of them co-starring
Flora Finch
Flora Finch (17 June 1867 – 4 January 1940) was an English-born vaudevillian, stage and film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company. The vast majority of her films from the sil ...
, and was the most popular film comedian in the world in the years before
Chaplin. His death in 1915 was observed worldwide.
In 1910, a number of movie houses showed the five parts of the Vitagraph serial ''The Life of Moses'' consecutively (a total length of almost 90 minutes), making it one of many to claim the title of "the first feature film." A long series of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
adaptations were the first done of the Bard's works in the U.S.
In 1911, Vitagraph produced the first aviation film, ''
The Military Air-Scout'', directed by
William J. Humphrey, with future
General of the Air Force
General of the Air Force (GAF) is a five-star general officer rank and is the highest possible rank in the United States Air Force. General of the Air Force ranks immediately above a general and is equivalent to General of the Army in the Unit ...
Hap Arnold
Henry Harley Arnold (June 25, 1886 – January 15, 1950) was an American general officer holding the ranks of General of the Army and later, General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps (1938–1941), ...
as the stunt flier.
The 1915 feature ''
The Battle Cry of Peace
''The Battle Cry of Peace'' is a 1915 American silent War film directed by Wilfrid North and J. Stuart Blackton, one of the founders of Vitagraph Company of America who also wrote the scenario. The film is based on the book ''Defenseless Ameri ...
'' (written and directed by Blackton) was one of the great propaganda films of
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 ...
. Ironically, after America declared war, the film was modified for re-release because it was seen as not being sufficiently pro-war, thus also earning the film a place in the history of
censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
.
V-L-S-E, Incorporated
In 1915, Chicago distributor
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 ...
orchestrated a four-way film distribution partnership,
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 ...
, for the ''Vitagraph'',
Lubin
Lubin (; german: Lüben, szl, Lubin) is a city in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in south-western Poland. It is the administrative seat of Lubin County, and also of the rural district called Gmina Lubin, although it is not part of the territory o ...
,
Selig,
L-KO Kompany
The L-KO Kompany, or L-KO Komedies, was an American motion picture company founded by Henry Lehrman that produced silent one-, two- and very occasionally three-reel comedy shorts between 1914 and 1919. The initials L-KO stand for "Lehrman KnockOu ...
, and
Essanay companies. Albert Smith served as president.
In 1916, Benjamin Hampton had proposed a merger of the distribution companies Paramount Pictures and V-L-S-E with
Famous Players Film Company
The Famous Players Film Company was a film company founded in 1912 by Adolph Zukor in partnership with the Frohman brothers, powerful New York City theatre impresario.
History
Discussions to form the company were held at The Lambs, a famous th ...
and
Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company
Jesse Louis Lasky (September 13, 1880 – January 13, 1958) was an American pioneer motion picture producer who was a key founder of what was to become Paramount Pictures, and father of screenwriter Jesse L. Lasky Jr.
Early life
Born in to ...
, but was foiled by
Adolph Zukor. ''V-L-S-E'' was dissolved on August 17, 1916, when Vitagraph purchased a controlling interest in Lubin, Selig, and Essanay.
Postwar prosperity
Vitagraph's leading star of the post-World War I period was comedian
Larry Semon
Lawrence Semon (February 9, 1889 – October 8, 1928) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter during the silent film era. In his day, Semon was considered a major movie comedian, but he is now remembered mainly for working ...
. He had joined the studio in 1916 as a writer and director, but soon became a star in a steady stream of comedy shorts. A former cartoonist, Semon favored large-scale slapstick. His films were so profitable that Vitagraph gave Semon a free hand in making them, but Semon became so extravagant in staging the films that the expenses nearly broke the company. Semon's relationship with Vitagraph became strained when the company insisted that Semon finance the films himself, and he left for
Educational Pictures
Educational Pictures, also known as Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. or Educational Films Corporation of America, was an American film production and film distribution company founded in 1916 by Earle (E. W.) Hammons (1882–1962). Educational pr ...
in 1923.
With the loss of foreign distributors and the rise of the monopolistic
studio system
A studio system is a method of filmmaking wherein the production and distribution of films is dominated by a small number of large movie studios. It is most often used in reference to Hollywood motion picture studios during the Golden Age of Hol ...
, Vitagraph was slowly but surely being squeezed out of the business. On January 28, 1925, it left the
Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...
(later MPAA); the owner,
Albert E. Smith, explained:
Acquisition by Warner Bros.
On April 20, 1925, Smith finally gave up and sold the company to
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
for a comfortable profit. The Flatbush studio (renamed
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...
) was later used as an independent unit within Warner Bros., specializing in early sound shorts. Vitaphone closed the Flatbush plant in 1940.
Vitagraph brand name
The Vitagraph name was briefly resurrected on two occasions. In 1932-33 producer
Leon Schlesinger made six westerns starring
John Wayne and released them through the Warner Bros. exchanges. The studio chose to market these very-low-budget features under the less prestigious Vitagraph banner. In 1960 Vitagraph returned to theater screens (starting with 1960's
Looney Tunes cartoon ''
Hopalong Casualty''), with the end titles reading "A Warner Bros. Cartoon / A Vitagraph Release".
Merrie Melodies of the same period (starting with that same year's ''
From Hare to Heir'') had the same end title, with the last line being "A Vitaphone Release." This may have been done to protect the studio's ownership of the two dormant trade names. Both the Vitagraph and Vitaphone names were retired in 1969.
Publication
Founder Albert E. Smith, in collaboration with coauthor Phil A. Koury, wrote an autobiography, ''Two Reels and a Crank'', in 1952. It includes a very detailed history of Vitagraph and a lengthy list of people who had been in the Vitagraph Family which included
Billy Anderson,
Florence Lawrence,
Florence Turner,
Florence Auer
Florence Auer (March 3, 1880 – May 14, 1962) was an American theater and motion picture actress whose career spanned more than five decades.
Life and career
Born in Albany, New York, Auer began her career on East Coast stages at the turn ...
,
Richard Barthelmess
Richard Semler Barthelmess (May 9, 1895 – August 17, 1963) was an American film actor, principally of the Hollywood silent era. He starred opposite Lillian Gish in D. W. Griffith's ''Broken Blossoms'' (1919) and ''Way Down East'' (1920) and w ...
,
John Bunny
John Bunny (September 21, 1863 – April 26, 1915) was an American actor. Bunny began his career as a stage actor, but transitioned to a film career after joining Vitagraph Studios around 1910. At Vitagraph, Bunny made over 150 short films – ma ...
,
Francis X. Bushman,
Dolores Costello
Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903Costello's obituary in ''The New York Times'' says that she was born on September 17, 1905. – March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. ...
,
Maurice Costello,
Sidney Drew
Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew were an American comedy team on stage and screen. The team initially consisted of Sidney Drew (August 28, 1863 – April 9, 1919) and his first wife Gladys Rankin (October 8, 1870 – January 9, 1914). After Gladys died in 19 ...
,
Dustin Farnum
Dustin Lancy Farnum (May 27, 1874 – July 3, 1929) was an American singer, dancer, and actor on the stage and in silent films. Although he played a wide variety of roles, he tended toward westerns and became one of the biggest stars of the genr ...
,
Flora Finch
Flora Finch (17 June 1867 – 4 January 1940) was an English-born vaudevillian, stage and film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company. The vast majority of her films from the sil ...
,
Hoot Gibson
Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (August 6, 1892 – August 23, 1962) was an American rodeo champion, film actor, film director, and producer. While acting and stunt work began as a sideline to Gibson's focus on rodeo, he successfully transitioned ...
,
Corinne Griffith
Corinne Griffith (née Griffin; November 21, 1894 – July 13, 1979) was an American film actress, producer, author and businesswoman. Dubbed "The Orchid Lady of the Screen," she was widely regarded as one of the most beautiful actresses of the ...
,
Alan Hale,
Oliver Hardy,
Mildred Harris
Mildred Harris (April 18, 1901 – July 20, 1944) was an American stage, film, and vaudeville actress during the early part of the 20th century. Harris began her career in the film industry as a child actress when she was 10 years old. She was a ...
,
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry; May 2, 1885February 1, 1966) was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, her readership was 35 million. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committ ...
,
Rex Ingram,
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 ...
,
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film '' Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established ...
,
J. Warren Kerrigan,
Rod La Rocque,
E.K. Lincoln,
Bessie Love
Bessie Love (born Juanita Horton; September 10, 1898April 26, 1986) was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned e ...
,
May McAvoy
May Irene McAvoy (September 8, 1899 – April 26, 1984) was an American actress who worked mainly during the silent-film era. Some of her major roles are Laura Pennington in '' The Enchanted Cottage'', Esther in '' Ben-Hur'', and Mary Dale ...
,
Victor McLaglen
Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was a British boxer-turned-Hollywood actor.Obituary ''Variety'', 11 November 1959, page 79. He was known as a character actor, particularly in Westerns, and made sev ...
,
Adolphe Menjou
Adolphe Jean Menjou (February 18, 1890 – October 29, 1963) was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin's ''A Woman of Paris'', where he played the lead role; Stanley K ...
,
Antonio Moreno
Antonio Garrido Monteagudo (September 26, 1887 – February 15, 1967), better known as Antonio Moreno or Tony Moreno, was a Spanish-born American actor and film director of the silent film era and through the 1950s.
Early life and silent fil ...
,
Conrad Nagel
John Conrad Nagel (March 16, 1897 – February 24, 1970) was an American film, stage, television and radio actor. He was considered a famous matinée idol and leading man of the 1920s and 1930s. He was given an Academy Honorary Award in 1940 and ...
,
Mabel Normand,
Lottie Pickford
Charlotte Smith (June 9, 1893 – December 9, 1936), known professionally as Lottie Pickford, was a Canadian-American silent film actress and socialite. She was the younger sister of fellow actress Mary Pickford and elder sister of actor Jack ...
,
Billy Quirk
Billy Quirk (born William Andrew Quirk; March 27, 1873April 20, 1926) was an American stage and silent-film actor. He performed in more than 180 films between 1909 and 1924. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, he died in Los Angeles, California. G ...
,
Wallace Reid,
May Robson
Mary Jeanette Robison (19 April 1858 – 20 October 1942), known professionally as May Robson, was an Australian-born American-based actress whose career spanned 58 years, starting in 1883 when she was 25. A major stage actress of the late 19t ...
,
Wesley Ruggles
Wesley Ruggles (June 11, 1889 – January 8, 1972) was an American film director.
Life and work
He was born in Los Angeles, California, younger brother of actor Charlie Ruggles. He began his career in 1915 as an actor, appearing in a do ...
,
George Stevens
George Cooper Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Obituary '' Variety'', March 12, 1975, page 79. Films he produced were nominated for the Academy Award for ...
,
Anita Stewart
Anita Stewart (born Anna Marie Stewart; February 7, 1895 – May 4, 1961) was an American actress and film producer of the early silent film era.
Early years
Anita Stewart was born in Brooklyn, New York as Anna Marie Stewart on February 7, 18 ...
,
Constance Talmadge
Constance Alice Talmadge (April 19, 1898 – November 23, 1973) was an American silent film star. She was the sister of actresses Norma and Natalie Talmadge.
Early life
Talmadge was born on April 19, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York, to poor p ...
,
Natalie Talmadge
Natalie Talmadge (April 29, 1896 – June 19, 1969) was an American silent film actress who was the wife of Buster Keaton, and sister of the movie stars Norma and Constance Talmadge. She retired from acting in 1923.
Early life and career
Ta ...
,
Norma Talmadge
Norma Marie Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most pop ...
,
William Desmond Taylor
William Desmond Taylor (born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner, 26 April 1872 – 1 February 1922) was an Anglo-Irish-American film director and actor. A popular figure in the growing Hollywood motion picture colony of the 1910s and early 1920s, ...
,
Alice Terry
Alice Frances Taaffe (July 24, 1899 – December 22, 1987), known professionally as Alice Terry, was an American film actress and director. She began her career during the silent film era, appearing in thirty-nine films between 1916 and 1 ...
,
George Terwilliger,
Florence Vidor
Florence Vidor (née Cobb, later Arto; July 23, 1895 – November 3, 1977) was an American silent film actress.
Early life
Vidor was born in Houston on July 23, 1895, to John and Ida Cobb. Her parents had married in Houston on March 3, 1894, bu ...
,
Earle Williams
Earle Williams (born Earle Raphael Williams; February 28, 1880 – April 25, 1927) was an American stage actor and film star in the silent era."EARLE WILLIAMS EXPIRES: Bronchial Pneumonia Ends Brilliant Career of Pioneer Filmland Favorite", ''L ...
,
Clara Kimball Young
Clara Kimball Young (born Edith Matilda Clara Kimball;
September 6, 1890 – October 15, 1960) was an American film actress who was popular in the early silent film era.
Early life
Edith Matilda Clara Kimball was born in Chicago on Septembe ...
, and hundreds of other people are listed. In the text of the book he also refers to hiring a 17-year-old
Rudolph Valentino into the set-decorating department, but within a week he was being used by directors as an extra in foreign parts, mainly as a Russian Cossack.
Locations
Vitagraph's first office, opened in 1898, was in Lower
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, at 140 Nassau Street,
[The Encyclopedia Of New York City (Yale University Press, 1995) via : http://forgotten-ny.com/1998/06/vitagraph-corp/] on the corner of Nassau St. and Beekman St., where they shot their first film, ''The Burglar on the Roof'', in 1897. In 1890, the company moved to 110-16 Nassau Street in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
.
They subsequently opened a glass-enclosed studio, the first modern film studio in the U.S., built in 1906, on property bounded by Locust Avenue, East 15th Street, Elm Avenue, and right-of-way of the BMT Brighton Line of the New York City Subway. Transportation of equipment and costumes from the Nassau Street interior stages was by subway to the adjacent
Avenue M (BMT Brighton Line) Subway rapid transit station in the
Midwood
Midwood is a neighborhood in the south-central part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded on the north by the Bay Ridge Branch tracks just above Avenue I and by the Brooklyn College campus of the City University of New York, a ...
section of Brooklyn. They created a second film studio in Santa Monica, California, in 1911, and a year later moved to a 29-acre sheep ranch at 4151 Prospect Ave
in the
Los Feliz
LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation
* Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers
* Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...
district of Los Angeles, a studio subsequently owned by ABC and currently Disney Studios.
Notable films
See also
*
JC Studios
*
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Am ...
References
Further reading
*
*
* Olsson, J. (2008)
Los Angeles before Hollywood : Journalism and American film culture, 1905–1915 (Mediehistoriskt arkiv; Vol. 10). Kungliga biblioteket.
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Vitagraph Film Company Brooklyn Today and a bit of the last film made there, ''A Tale of Two Cities'' (1911)on YouTube
''A Short History of Vitagraph''Film by Tony Susnick on YouTube
by Tim Lussier for Silents are Golden
Vitagraph Flatbush studio by
Irvin Leigh Matus
Irvin Leigh Matus (July 25, 1941 – January 5, 2011) was an independent scholar, autodidact, and author. He is best known as an authority on Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, po ...
Vitagraph Studio in Brooklyn"Smokestack of dreams," surviving remnant of Vitagraphat ForgottenNewYork.com
Vitagraph Company of America scripts, 1912-1917 held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...
{{Authority control
Articles containing video clips
1897 establishments in New York City