Volume III: Biographies

SHALLENBERGER, Dr. William Edgar

Investor, executive (1912-1918)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: W.E. Shallenberger was an investor in and director of the Thanhouser Film Corporation and related entities.

Biographical Notes: Dr. William Edgar Shallenberger was one of three brothers who was involved with the Thanhouser enterprise after the entry of Charles J. Hite in 1912. Born in Lancaster, Ohio on August 2, 1881, William Edgar Shallenberger, usually designated as W.E. Shallenberger in later trade notices, was educated at Valparaiso University, Barnes Medical College, and Illinois Medical College. For ten years after his schooling ended, he was a practicing physician in Chicago. It may have been Edgar, rather than his brother Wilbert, who gave rise to the rumor than Hite consulted his doctor for an ailment, and the physician left behind a check to invest in Hite's growing enterprise. The point is moot, for despite the printing of this story in numerous biographical sketches, Hite denied any such happening. William Edgar Shallenberger and his brother, Wilbert E. Shallenberger, were both doctors, both had the initials W.E., and both were in films with the same companies, and trade publications and other accounts often confused the two.

Attracted by the growing motion picture business, William Edgar Shallenberger began his film involvement by investing in Charles J. Hite's film exchange business in 1908. During the 1909-1911 period he owned three motion picture theatres in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In 1912, he helped to finance Charles J. Hite's acquisition of Thanhouser, and also was a principal and organizer of the American, Mutual, Reliance, and Majestic companies. In 1914, following the death of Charles J. Hite, William Edgar Shallenberger came to New Rochelle to supervise business affairs of the company and also to take charge of the completion of the star-crossed Zudora serial. His brother, Wilbert E. Shallenberger, was also involved in Thanhouser affairs at the time.

In 1915 he became a principal of Arrow, where he served as president, and supervised the release of The Woman's Law, Who's Guilty?, and other Arrow releases. In 1916, William Edgar Shallenberger lived on Decatur Road in New Rochelle. At one time he was an officer, director, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Thanhouser Film Corporation, and treasurer of the Thanhouser Syndicate. He remained with the Thanhouser enterprise until its end in 1918. At the time he was treasurer and a vice president of the firm.

The Motion Picture Studio Directory, 1920 edition, told of his later activities: "Mr. Shallenberger then started the Arrow Film Corporation, which concern produced for some time for Pathé and the states rights market. Connection with the latter field convinced Mr. Shallenberger that here was a real opportunity for his endeavors and the operation of a brokerage office to take care of the states rights buyer. This has been accomplished after a couple of years of hard work. The Arrow is known as an independent film concern. It is at present handling three serials, starring Ruth Stonehouse, Anne Luther, George Larkin, Ann Little, and Jack Hoxie. In addition to their serial progress, it is releasing a big variety of short-reel comedy and dramatic subjects as well as a feature program of large proportions."

For recreation Shallenberger enjoyed fishing and big game hunting.

A 1915 Biographical Sketch: The Moving Picture World, July 3, 1915, printed the following: "W. Edgar Shallenberger, vice-president of the Thanhouser syndicate corporation and stockholder in the Thanhouser, American, Mutual and other motion picture organizations, was born in Lancaster, Ohio about 34 years ago. After graduating from college in St. Louis, Mr. Shallenberger went to Chicago to engage in his profession. A few years later, Charles J. Hite, who was likewise born in Lancaster, arrived in Chicago to engage in the then-new film industry. In cooperation with Mr. Shallenberger, who had been a boyhood friend of Mr. Hite, the latter started the C.J. Hite Film Exchange which later became the H & H Film Exchange (now one of the Mutual's two branches in Chicago). From that time on Edgar Shallenberger became a larger and larger investor in the various branches of the film industry. He soon owned several photoplay theatres in various sections of the Central West. His stock holdings and film exchanges and film manufacturing plants increased fold upon fold.

"When the project of forming the Mutual Film Corporation was broached to Mr. Shallenberger and Mr. Hite, he agreed to further the plan in every way in his power. With his brother he augmented the rapidly growing fortunes of Mr. Hite by contributing toward the purchase of the Thanhouser plant in New Rochelle and planning its affiliation with the Mutual. But all this time the demands of his profession were so heavy on his time that Mr. Shallenberger determined to sit back for a while and rest content with investments, rather than engagement, in the film industry. The terribly tragic death of Mr. Hite at the very hour when doors long hammered at were being opened to his demands, wrought a great change in Mr. Shallenberger's plans. Mr. Hite, shortly before his death, completed arrangements for the manufacture of Zudora, the serial which followed The Million Dollar Mystery, also a Thanhouser product. A number of episodes of Zudora had been completed when the fatal accident to Mr. Hite occurred. [This is not correct; filming of Zudora began on September 8, 1914; Hite died on August 22, 1914.] As would be the case with any man so heavily and energetically engaged in an act of industry, the sudden tragedy left a number of plans unmatured. Only a few intimates knew what Mr. Hite had proposed doing. And they sent a hurry call to Edgar Shallenberger, as one of Mr. Hite's closest friends and advisors, to come East and assume, among other things, the distribution of the new picture.

"The serial was changed abruptly, both in name and plot. [There was no such cause and effect relationship involving Hite; Zudora was changed in late autumn 1914 after more than a half dozen episodes had been screened, and exhibitors complained the plot was unintelligible.] The players who had been such favorites in The Million Dollar Mystery were restored to roles similar to their great successes, and the new serial was called The Twenty Million Dollar Mystery. A whirlwind campaign followed with the result that more than $750,000 worth of bookings were placed to the credit of the Thanhouser Syndicate Corporation. Now, more than nine months after the release of the first episode, the selling campaign undertaken by Edgar Shallenberger is bringing in those results for The Twenty Million Dollar Mystery that, backed by a good picture, mean large profits. [The serial was considered to be a failure; much of this article is typical trade "hype" of the kind often found in The Moving Picture World at the time.]

"Mr. Shallenberger, therefore, while new in person to many in the film industry, is old in experience in it. He has intimate connection with all three ends of the business, the manufacture, distribution and exhibition of photoplays. And he is distinctly a progressive. He is of the mind that the successful motion picture of the future will be written especially for the screen by trained action writers, played by folk trained in the motion picture art, and of a length warranted solely by the dramatic action, not based on mere desire to turn out a four or five or a six-reel photoplay. 'We have on this side the Atlantic,' Mr. Shallenberger said recently to a Moving Picture World representative, 'the greatest writers of action - action as opposed to dialogue or atmosphere or just literary style. The American author is born amid such surroundings of activity, he is so much a part of them that when he does turn to literature as a pursuit he puts into his stories the snap and vim and virility of national daily existence.

"'Too few of these men have been absorbed by the film industry. Too few well trained newspapermen, familiar with the real tragedy and comedy of life, are in the business. We need them in the scenario and even in the actual staging of photoplays. The film dramatization of popular books or plays never intended to be anything but books to be read or plays to be listened to, will not serve the film industry much longer. The moving picture public wants and deserves to have, I think, plays written especially for the screen. If afterward these plays are put into fiction form, well and good. That is merely a by-product. It seems to me that when a film manufacturer takes the average book or play and turns it into a photodrama he is making the original by-product the chief factor, whereas I think he should concern himself with the original material written solely with screen values and screen action in mind.'"

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