Volume III: Biographies

SPECHT, Tillie

Studio employee (1911-1915)

TThe Joining Room "brigade" showing (left to right): Blanche Bugle, Rose Scott, Hattie McCroskery, Elizabeth Walters, Anna Eagan, Tillie Specht, Nora Riley, Nettie Stamp, and Irene Christie. Seated with the dog is

Mrs. Charles Van Houten. A version of this picture appeared in The Moving Picture News of January 20, 1912. Courtesy of the American Museum of the Moving Image/Lawrence Williams Collection. (M-2-X)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Tillie Specht worked in the film laboratory at the Thanhouser studio.

Biographical Notes: Tillie Specht was shown on a set from one of the David Copperfield films (Thanhouser, 1911) as a member of the "joining room brigade," in a photograph published in The Moving Picture News, January 20, 1912. She attended the Thanhouser outing and picnic on September 7, 1912 and came in second (after Ethyle Cooke) in the fat ladies' race. The New Rochelle Pioneer, December 26, 1914, reported that she and Irene Christie had been promoted to become negative editors. New Rochelle city directories note that from 1911 through 1915 she shared her address with George Specht. Tillie (also spelled as Tilly) Specht was listed as a clerk in 1911, was omitted from the directory in 1912, and from 1913 to 1915 was listed as an operator.

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