Vitagraph Studios
Encyclopedia
American Vitagraph was a United States
movie studio
, founded by J. Stuart Blackton
and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York. By 1907 it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by Warner Bros.
in 1925.
émigré Blackton was moonlighting as a reporter/artist for the New York Evening World when he was sent to interview Thomas Edison
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, was added around the turn of the century. The company's first studio was located on the rooftop of a building on Nassau Street in Manhattan. Operations were later moved to the Flatbush
(or more precisely Midwood
) neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The company's first claim to fame came from newsreels: Vitagraph cameramen were on the scene to film events from the Spanish-American War
of 1898. These shorts were among the first works of motion-picture propaganda
, and a few had that most characteristic fault of propaganda, studio re-enactments being 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).
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 patents 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. It was one of the original ten production companies included in Edison's attempt to corner movie-making, the Motion Picture Patents Company
, in 1909. 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
, and Jean (the "Vitagraph Dog
" and the first animal star of the Silent Era
). In 1903 the director Joseph Delmont
started his career by producing westerns, who later got famous with using "wild carnivores" in his movies — a sensation for that time. Larry Trimble
was a noted director of films for Turner and Jean (he was also the dog's owner). John Bunny
made films for Vitagraph in the 1910s most of them co-starring Flora Finch
, 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
adaptations were the first done of the Bard's works in the U.S. The 1915 feature The Battle Cry of Peace (written and directed by Blackton) was one of the great propaganda films of World War I
. Ironically, after America declared war, the film was modified for re-release because it was seen as not being sufficiently pro-war, thus it also earns a place in the history of censorship
.
World War I spelled the beginning of the end for Vitagraph. With the loss of foreign distributors and the rise of the monopolistic Studio system
, Vitagraph was slowly but surely squeezed out of the business. On January 28, 1925 it left the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (later MPAA), the owner, Albert E. Smith explained:
On April 22, 1925, Smith finally gave up and sold the company to Warner Bros.
for a comfortable profit. The Flatbush studio (renamed Vitaphone
) was later used as an independent unit within Warner Bros, specializing in early sound shorts.
The Vitagraph name was briefly resurrected in the 1960's at the end of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes
cartoons, with the end titles reading "A Warner Bros. Cartoon / A Vitagraph Release". Merrie Melodies
of the same period 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 largely defunct trade names.
"Mr. Pinstripe" music video is about the making of a Vitagraph film.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
movie studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
, founded by J. Stuart Blackton
J. Stuart Blackton
James Stuart Blackton , usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an Anglo-American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation...
and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York. By 1907 it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
in 1925.
History
In 1896, EnglishEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
émigré Blackton was moonlighting as a reporter/artist for the New York Evening World when he was sent to interview Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
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, was added around the turn of the century. The company's first studio was located on the rooftop of a building on Nassau Street in Manhattan. Operations were later moved to the Flatbush
Flatbush, Brooklyn
Flatbush is a community of the Borough of Brooklyn, a part of New York City, consisting of several neighborhoods.The name Flatbush is an Anglicization of the Dutch language Vlacke bos ....
(or more precisely Midwood
Midwood, Brooklyn
Midwood is a neighborhood in the south central part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, New York, USA, roughly halfway between Prospect Park and Coney Island. The neighborhood is within Community District 14...
) neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The company's first claim to fame came from newsreels: Vitagraph cameramen were on the scene to film events from the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
of 1898. These shorts were among the first works of motion-picture propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
, and a few had that most characteristic fault of propaganda, studio re-enactments being passed off as footage of actual events (The Battle of Santiago Bay
Battle of Santiago de Cuba
The Battle of Santiago de Cuba, fought between Spain and the United States on 3 July 1898, was the largest naval engagement of the Spanish-American War and resulted in the destruction of the Spanish Navy's Caribbean Squadron.-Spanish Fleet:...
was filmed in an improvised bathtub, with the "smoke of battle" provided by Mrs. Blackton's cigar).
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 patents 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. It was one of the original ten production companies included in Edison's attempt to corner movie-making, the Motion Picture Patents Company
Motion Picture Patents Company
The Motion Picture Patents Company , founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major American film companies , the leading film distributor and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak...
, in 1909. Major stars included Florence Turner
Florence Turner
Florence Turner was an American actress, who became known as the "Vitagraph Girl" in early silent films.Born in New York City, she was pushed into appearing on the stage at age three by her ambitious mother...
(the "Vitagraph Girl", one of the world's first movie stars), Maurice Costello
Maurice Costello
Maurice Costello was a prominent vaudeville actor of the late 1890s and early 1900s, who later played a principal role in early American films, as both a leading man, supporting player and a director....
(the first of the matinee idols), Harry T. Morey
Harry T. Morey
Harry Temple Morey was an American stage and motion picture actor who appeared in nearly two hundred films during his career....
, and Jean (the "Vitagraph Dog
Vitagraph Dog
Jean, the Vitagraph Dog , a female Border Collie, was a dog actor that performed title roles in early silent films. She was a precursor to other famous dog actors like Lassie and Rin Tin Tin.-Biography and career:...
" and the first animal star of the Silent Era
Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
). In 1903 the director Joseph Delmont
Joseph Delmont
Joseph Delmont, was an Austrian film director of some 200 films, largely shorts, in which he was noted for his innovative use of beasts of prey. He was also a cameraman, actor and screenplay writer...
started his career by producing westerns, who later got famous with using "wild carnivores" in his movies — a sensation for that time. Larry Trimble
Laurence Trimble
Laurence Trimble was an American silent film actor, writer and director. Trimble began his career as an actor in the 1910 silent Saved by the Flag. He made 100 silent films between 1908 and 1926...
was a noted director of films for Turner and Jean (he was also the dog's owner). John Bunny
John Bunny
John Bunny was an American actor and was one of the first comic stars of the motion picture era. Between 1910 and his death in 1915 Bunny was one of the top stars of early silent film, as well as an early example of celebrity...
made films for Vitagraph in the 1910s most of them co-starring Flora Finch
Flora Finch
Flora Finch was an English-born film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company.-Early life and career:...
, and was the most popular film comedian in the world in the years before Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
; 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
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
adaptations were the first done of the Bard's works in the U.S. The 1915 feature The Battle Cry of Peace (written and directed by Blackton) was one of the great propaganda films of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Ironically, after America declared war, the film was modified for re-release because it was seen as not being sufficiently pro-war, thus it also earns a place in the history of censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
.
World War I spelled the beginning of the end for Vitagraph. With the loss of foreign distributors and the rise of the monopolistic Studio system
Studio system
The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the early 1960s. The term studio system refers to the practice of large motion picture studios producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under...
, Vitagraph was slowly but surely squeezed out of the business. On January 28, 1925 it left the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (later MPAA), the owner, Albert E. Smith explained:
On April 22, 1925, Smith finally gave up and sold the company to Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
for a comfortable profit. The Flatbush studio (renamed Vitaphone
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
) was later used as an independent unit within Warner Bros, specializing in early sound shorts.
The Vitagraph name was briefly resurrected in the 1960's at the end of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
cartoons, with the end titles reading "A Warner Bros. Cartoon / A Vitagraph Release". Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
of the same period 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 largely defunct trade names.
Location
Vitagraph's first office was in Lower Manhattan, on the corner of Nassau St. and Beekman St. where they shot their first film, The Burglar On the Roof, on the roof of the building in 1897. They subsequently opened the first modern film studio in the US, built in 1906, at the corner of 14th st and Locust ave. in Brooklyn, New York. They created a second film studio in Santa Monica, California in 1911, and a year later moved to a twenty-nine acre sheep ranch on Prospect st. in HollywoodNotable films
- Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for RansomAdventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for RansomAdventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom was a 1905 American silent film directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios. It was the second film based on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, following the 1900 Mutoscope trick film Sherlock Holmes Baffled, and is usually...
(1905) - San Francisco Earthquake and Fire (1906) (several short films)
- A Curious DreamA Curious DreamA Curious Dream is a 1907 short drama film based on Mark Twain's short story "The Curious Dream". Twain himself provided the following testimonial: "Gentlemen: I authorize the Vitagraph Company of America to make a moving picture from my 'Curious Dream.' I have their picture of John Barter,...
(1907) (possibly the earliest adaptation of one of Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
's works) - Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke FairyPrincess Nicotine; or, The Smoke FairyPrincess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy is a 1909 five minute silent film directed by J. Stuart Blackton.In the film, a smoker falls asleep and is visited by two fairies...
(1909) - Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910)
- The Life of Moses (1910)
- Vanity Fair (1911)
- The Battle Cry of Peace (1915)
- The Juggernaut (1915)
In popular culture
The Big Bad Voodoo DaddyBig Bad Voodoo Daddy
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is a contemporary swing revival band from southern California. Their notable singles include "Go Daddy-O", "You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight ", and "Mr. Pinstripe Suit". The band played the Super Bowl XXXIII half-time show in 1999.The band was originally formed in Ventura,...
"Mr. Pinstripe" music video is about the making of a Vitagraph film.
External links
- Youtube video of Vitagraph Film Company Brooklyn Today and a bit of the last film made there
- Article on Vitagraph by Tim Lussier for Silents are Golden
- "Where the Dream Was Made", an article on Vitagraph and the Flatbush studio by Irvin Leigh MatusIrvin Leigh MatusIrvin Leigh Matus was an independent scholar, autodidact and author. He is best known as an authority on Shakespeare, but also wrote about aspects of Brooklyn's history such as the Vitagraph Studios, and developed a method of modelling baseball statistics...
- Vitagraph Studio in Brooklyn
- "Smokestack of dreams," surviving remnant of Vitagraph at ForgottenNewYork.com