Volume III: Biographies

OWENS, Charles

Studio employee (1915-1916)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Charles Owens was head scenic artist with the Thanhouser studio in Jacksonville, Florida in 1916.

Biographical Notes: Hired in 1915, Charles Owens began work at the Jacksonville studio on Monday, January 17, 1916. He was one of a group of technicians who formerly worked with the Kalem studio in Jacksonville and who were at liberty in the autumn of 1915, when William McNulty, also formerly of Kalem, talked with Edwin Thanhouser and negotiated an arrangement whereby the former Kalemites would work for Thanhouser in Jacksonville. The initial group of Thanhouser players arrived from New Rochelle on December 20, 1915, and by January 1916 production was in full swing at the new Jacksonville facility, at which time Owens and the former Kalem employees were at work.

The Florida Metropolis, February 10, 1916, carried this filler: "The only 'reel' mountain in Florida has been built by Charles Owens, of the Thanhouser company, and will be used by Eugene Moore in making one of his pictures. It is some mountain, too. The only thing missing is a flock of mountain goats, but we suppose Willie Burt will take the part of some goats." On May 11, 1916 Owens was married in Jacksonville.

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