Volume III: Biographies

ALEXANDER, William .

Studio employee (1915-1916)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: William Alexander was a carpenter with the Thanhouser studio in Jacksonville, Florida in late 1915 and early 1916.

Biographical Notes: William Alexander 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 the Thanhouser studio 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 the former Kalem employees were at work.

Before going to Kalem, William Alexander was a stage designer for David Belasco, after which employment he was the head carpenter at the Hippodrome, the immense New York City theatre at which many dramatic "spectacles" were staged (and of which Carroll Fleming, to whom refer, was director for several years).

Note: Several people, including the following, were named William Alexander and were in the entertainment business and are not to be confused with the Thanhouser employee:

1. William Alexander died October 1, 1951 at St. Clare's Hospital in New York City. He had been president of the Irish American Film Company and Adventure Films, Inc., at 165 West 46th Street in the same city. Alexander, who had no close survivors, had begin his career as a newspaper man and theatrical agent, but beginning shortly after 1915 had gone into film distribution.

2. William E. Alexander died at his home in Memphis, Tennessee on April 9, 1934. An obituary in Variety, April 9, 1934, noted that he was a pioneer in the amusement industry and "an an early age joined a roller skating and bicycle act and later toured the country with a picture outfit when they were in their infancy."

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