Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 2 (1909 Into the Film Industry): Barry O'Neil Remembers

In a reminiscence, Note Barry O'Neil told of his association in films with Edwin Thanhouser:

I had just completed the staging of a Lillian Russell play when Edwin Thanhouser arrived in New York. He came to me one day and said, "Barry, I have a proposition to make to you. I am going to enter this moving picture game, and I want you to make my pictures for me." I laughed at him; it seemed out of the question that after all these years of work I should give up everything and enter an entirely new vocation. But Mr. Thanhouser persisted. He declared, "I'll have either you or George Foster Platt Note to make my pictures."

I guess his enthusiasm was contagious, for it took hold of me. Though I had as yet no intention of joining him, I began attending the picture shows, sometimes alone, sometimes with Mr. Thanhouser. I studied the screen and began to think of the possibilities in this new field for a trained man of the stage. I was gradually yielding to the temptation, but my family was strenuously opposed to the move. It was a big step to take, since it meant a loss financially and in prestige. Then Mr. Thanhouser called me on the phone one day and said, "Well, Barry, we have to settle it finally now; are you going to take up this picture proposition?" "I am with you," was my answer, and my lot was definitely cast with pictures.

I'll never forget my first day's work as a picture producer. The only one in the whole company who knew anything about pictures was the cameraman, and he wouldn't volunteer any information. But we stumbled along making pictures the best we could, and from October to January we produced films without ever seeing one of them on the screen. You see in those days no one would dare trust his negative out of his own hands, and we had to await the completion of our own factory. So for four months we turned out the pictures without knowing whether they were good, bad or indifferent. But they passed, and in a year, which was to a great extent a year of study and experiment, we had the selling record for Independent firms.

During those early days I produced Uncle Tom's Cabin in one reel, a Dickens' novel, Note also in a single reel, and many other classic works. They seemed to be good pictures in those days, and they probably were, but I imagine they might be very funny nowadays. I produced the first two-reel picture Note for Mr. Thanhouser, and it took him weeks to get up courage enough to release such a recklessly long picture....