Research Center
Explore the primary sources: the narrative history, the people, and the posters, portraits and stills.
The encyclopedia
Q. David Bowers’ history of the studio
Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History is the backbone of this site. Bowers’ entry for every film and every person appears word for word on every film and profile page, and his history of the studio is here to read, year by year.
From the history · Chapter 2
A Local Reporter Visits
“Next the film goes to the joining room where the various scenes are joined into one string of film covering the whole play in its proper order.”
The New Rochelle Evening Standard, March 14, 1910, quoted by Bowers. Photo: the joining room, circa 1911. Carl Louis Gregory estate, courtesy of Ralph Graham, M.D. (M-5).
Read the sectionPeople
The faces behind the films
Meet the players who made the studio’s pictures, and watch the films that survive. Start with a few of the leading names.
Florence La BadieThe studio’s leading player, from Cinderella to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.17 films to watch →
James CruzePlayer and director, who plays both halves of Jekyll and Hyde.18 films to watch →
Muriel OstricheIngénue lead across the studio’s mid-1910s pictures.2 films to watch →
Helen BadgleyThe “Thanhouser Kidlet”, a child star of the studio.15 films to watch →
Multimedia gallery
Posters, portraits, stills and more
The studio’s own images and printed ephemera, scanned in full: how the films were sold, and how the players and sets looked.
52 postersLithographed sheets from the studio’s own advertising, scanned in full.
24 glass slidesThe coming-attraction slides projected in theatres between the reels.
20 heraldsBrochures and collector stamps handed out at the theatre door.
PortraitsStudio portraits of the players, directors and staff. 222 photographs.
Film stillsFrames and production photographs from the films. 612 images.Archives
Where the surviving films are held
Each archive has a page listing the films in its vault, who restored them and who scored them. Every film page links back to the archive that holds its print.
Original research
New scholarship on the studio
Papers, talks and studies by contemporary film scholars and enthusiasts, hosted here so they can be read, cited and built on.
35 Millimeter no. 33 (in German)ProvenanceLost and Found: The Provenance of Thanhouser FilmsNed Thanhouser, 2018
DomitorNarrativeNarration and Authorship in the Transitional Text: Griffith, Thanhouser, and TypicalityCharlie Keil, 2010
Research paperBlack representationsBeyond Simple Stereotypes: Black Representations in Thanhouser FilmsJohn Baker Brown Jr., 2009
Research paperWomen’s suffrageA Happy Medium: Women’s Suffrage Portrayals in Thanhouser Films, 1910–16Eric Dewberry, 2006
Research paperAdaptationFour Cinema Versions of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeYoung-joon Cho, 2006
Research paper
Working on the studio or its films? Get in touch to have your research included.
Have something to add?
Send a correction, a photograph, or word of a print we have not recorded. A record without a print is how the next print gets found.