Volume III: Biographies

NOWLAND, Eugene

Director (1915-1916)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Eugene Nowland was a director with Thanhouser from the summer of 1915 until early 1916.

Biographical Notes: Eugene Nowland was born in Memphis, Tennessee on April 20, 1879. From an early age he studied the violin, and by the time he reached nine his ability had reached such a level that he was considered to be a child prodigy. At the age of 10 he was a concert soloist with Damrosch's orchestra. In his early teens he appeared in concerts at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, after which he went to Berlin, where he was a student under Zajic, Wirth, and Joachim. In Berlin the Philharmonic Orchestra featured young Nowland as a soloist. He then went to Belgium, where the virtuoso was a student of the legendary Eugene Ysaye. Returning to America, Eugene Nowland toured the country as a violin soloist in 1896 and 1897. During the Spanish-American War of 1898 he laid his violin aside and became involved in Red Cross work in Cuba, after which he went to Belgium, where he resumed his studies of the violin, under Cesar Thompson. In Brussels, he fractured his hand, and although his audiences never noticed any problem, Nowland was convinced that he could no longer achieve the virtuosity of the past.

While in Europe he served for a time as an assistant stage manager to Sarah Bernhardt. He developed a passion for collecting photographic prints, and by 1916 his collection was said to have numbered an incredible 600,000 items, all carefully arranged by subject. A man of great intellectual ability, Nowland had fluent command of seven languages in addition to English. In America in 1909, Nowland was the subject of articles in Musical America and other periodicals, which told of his endeavor to establish a branch of the American Music Society in Baltimore, home of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he had studied at one time. In the spring of that year his production of François Coppée's poetic stage play, The Violin Maker of Cremona, performed under the auspices of the Gamut Club at the Los Angeles Auditorium, was a critical success, as was his traveling presentation of Marston's musical sketch, Traumerei, in which Nowland took the part of Paul Brant, a young American musician.

Motion Pictures: Eugene Nowland had an interest in motion pictures from an early time, and in 1891 he was among those present at Chickering Hall when Thomas A. Edison, in the company of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell and Evart Wendell, exhibited a motion picture device to interested scientists. His screen career began with Edison, for whom he made many films, including McQuade of the Traffic Squad, Vanity Fair (one of his last Edison films; with Minnie Maddern Fiske), and numerous educational subjects. The Edison film of which he was most proud was the 1915 release of According to Their Lights, a two-reel feature for which he furnished the scenario and direction. The Boston Tea Party, another two-reel Edison subject released the same year, was another favorite. He considered it an excellent example of how to interest students in history through the medium of films, by "telling enough, but not too much, and thereby inciting a curiosity to look up the incident for further information," according to an article in The Moving Picture World, June 5, 1915.

In the summer of 1915 Eugene Nowland left Edison and went to the Thanhouser studio in New Rochelle, where he reported for work on Monday morning, August 16th. He remained for about six months and by early 1916 had departed, for The Moving Picture World, April 8, 1916, noted that he was "late of Thanhouser." During his brief tenure with Thanhouser he directed three feature films.

The director's next position was with Metro, for whom he produced Threads of Fate (starring Viola Dana) and other features. In June 1917, the Van Dyke Company announced that it had signed Nowland to produce "art dramas" and stated that he would begin immediately on a film, as yet untitled, starring Jean Sothern, a five-reel picture subsequently released as Miss Deception. "The Van Dyke Company considers it considerable of a triumph to have obtained the services of Mr. Nowland, for he has long been admitted to be one of the foremost directors," a publicity release stated. Directories published 1916-1918 gave his address as care of the Screen Club, New York City. His pastimes included riding and other outdoor sports.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1915: The Valkyrie (11-27-1915)

1916: In the Name of the Law (1-11-1916), The Flight of the Duchess (3-11-1916), A Bird of Prey (3-16-1916)

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