Vitagraph Studios

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Vitagraph Studios
Independent (1914–1925)
Warner Bros. (1925)
William T. Rock, Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton, 1916

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, it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films.[1] It was bought by Warner Bros. in 1925.

History

Advertisement for Vitagraph features in The Moving Picture World, 1916
Vitagraph Studios, Hollywood, California
Vitagraph Company, Brooklyn New York, c. 1915
The Life of Moses (1909), directed by J. Stuart Blackton, the first five-reel picture made in America
PLAY Sonny Jim and the Amusement Company Ltd (1915) directed by Tefft Johnson; runtime 00:13:59
PLAY The Good in the Worst of Us (1915) directed by William J. Humphrey; runtime 00:13:05

In 1896,

Brooklyn, New York
.

The company's first claim to fame came from newsreels: Vitagraph cameramen were on the scene to film events from the

stop-motion technique.[2]

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. In 1903 the director

carnivores
" in his films—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 the United States, 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

Silent Era) and such future stars as Helen Hayes, Viola Dana, Dolores Costello, Norma Talmadge, Constance Talmadge, and Moe Howard. Larry Trimble
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, a short silent historical drama starring Maurice Costello as Jean Valjean and William V. Ranous as Javert, 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 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.

In 1911, Vitagraph produced the first aviation film,

Hap Arnold as the stunt flier.[4]

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 also earning the film a place in the history of censorship.

V-L-S-E, Incorporated

In 1915, Chicago distributor

Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, but was foiled by Adolph Zukor.[8] V-L-S-E was dissolved on August 17, 1916,[9][10][11][12] when Vitagraph purchased a controlling interest in Lubin, Selig, and Essanay.[6]

Postwar prosperity

Vitagraph's leading star of the post-World War I period was comedian Larry Semon. 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 in 1923.

With the loss of foreign distributors and the rise of the monopolistic

Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (later MPAA); the owner, Albert E. Smith, explained:

Vitagraph withdraws because it does not believe that justice, to the distributors and to the public and to those independent producers who are not theater owning exhibitors, can be obtained through the labors of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America.[13]

Acquisition by Warner Bros.

On April 20, 1925,[14] Smith finally gave up and sold the company to Warner Bros.[15] for a comfortable profit. The Flatbush studio (renamed Vitaphone) 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.

E.K. Lincoln, Bessie Love, May McAvoy, Victor McLaglen, Adolphe Menjou, Antonio Moreno, Conrad Nagel, Mabel Normand, Lottie Pickford, Billy Quirk, Wallace Reid, May Robson, Wesley Ruggles, George Stevens, Anita Stewart, Constance Talmadge, Natalie Talmadge, Norma Talmadge, William Desmond Taylor, Alice Terry, George Terwilliger, Florence Vidor, Earle Williams, Clara Kimball Young, 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

Los Feliz
district of Los Angeles, a studio subsequently owned by ABC and currently Disney Studios.

Notable films

Main article: List of Vitagraph Studios films

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0-520-08534-5
    .
  2. ^ "First animated film". Guinness World Records. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  3. ISBN 0-520-08534-5
    .
  4. ISBN 0-385-13310-3
    , p. 7.
  5. ISBN 978-0-7864-9462-0
    .
  6. ^
    OCLC 904281741
    .
  7. ^ "Benjamin B. Hampton". IMDb. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  8. ^ "In the Best Film Star Tradition: Claire Adams and Mooramong". www.screeningthepast.com. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  9. ISBN 978-1-135-92554-3
    .
  10. ^ "The Numbers – Movies Released by V-L-S-E". www.the-numbers.com. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  11. ^ "Ziegfeld Picture Palace in Chicago, IL – Cinema Treasures". cinematreasures.org. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  12. ^ "AFI-Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  13. ^ Joplin Globe, p.7, January 30, 1925
  14. ^ "Silent Era : Progressive Silent Film List". www.silentera.com. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  15. ^ "Vitagraph, Film Pioneer, Bought by Warner Bros". Chicago Tribune. April 23, 1925. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
  16. ^ Smith, Albert E. in collaboration with Phil A. Koury, Two Reels And A Crank, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1952.
  17. ^ a b The Encyclopedia Of New York City (Yale University Press, 1995) via : http://forgotten-ny.com/1998/06/vitagraph-corp/
  18. ^ "Beekman St & Nassau St, New York, NY 10038". Google Maps.
  19. ISBN 978-0-7679-1634-9
    .
  20. ^ "1499 Locust Ave". Google Maps.
  21. ^ "The property was bounded north and south by Locust Avenue and Elm Avenue, on the west was East 15th Street and east was the right-of-way of the Brighton Beach rapid transit line". Urbanography.com. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
  22. ^ "Where the Dream Was Made by Irvin Leigh Matus". urbanography.com.
  23. ^ "Midwood's Historic Vitagraph Studios Gets Wrecking Ball". Curbed NY. April 18, 2015. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
  24. ISBN 978-0813547787
  25. ^ "4151 Prospect Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027". Google Maps.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vitagraph Studios.
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