Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 5 (1912): To the Sunshine State

On Tuesday, January 9, 1912, a company of Thanhouser players would head to Tampa, Florida, according to an account in The Billboard. Note Actually, the destination was Jacksonville. Following a send-off at the New York dock by Edwin Thanhouser and Bert Adler, the journey was accomplished on the Apache, a coastwise steamer of the Clyde Line, which made the trip from New York in three days, punctuated by a stop at Charleston, South Carolina. It was a pleasant and quite relaxing alternative to the other main way to get there, by express or regular train, a 30- to 36-hour trip. On board the ship the Thanhouser players hardly relaxed, since were busy filming sequences for scenarios which would be completed in Florida after their arrival. The coming month promised to be busy, with tropical scenery and other possibilities for film making, a pleasant contrast to the leafless trees, gray skies, and winter winds of New Rochelle. In addition, the humidity-laden atmosphere of the South offered relief from the static electricity which ruined many films produced in the dry winter air of the North.

Making the journey were director George O. Nichols; cameraman Alfred H. Moses, Jr., who took with him thousands of feet of Eastman film stock, for such was not readily available in Florida; Calvin Dix, who was to act as stage manager, location-seeker, and general assistant to Nichols; and a contingent of players, including Marguerite Snow, Florence LaBadie, Viola Alberti, James Cruze, Joseph Graybill, William Russell, Lucy Tanguay, Violet Gooding, Helena Whiteley, Frank O'Neill, Edward Norton, Irma Taylor, and Frederick Doering. Keeping a watchful eye on everyone was scenario writer Lloyd F. Lonergan, Edwin Thanhouser's brother-in-law.

Gordon Trent, film columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph, advised his readers: "The company will produce on shipboard some scenes in a picture commenced in New Rochelle, showing winter as you find it in New York State, and ending in Florida, with the balminess of its balmiest."

By Saturday, January 13th, Edwin Thanhouser and several other New Rochelleans had come by train to join the seafarers. The St. Augustine Evening Record Note in a front-page article told of the arrival:

MOVING PICTURE COMPANY IS HERE. Edwin Thanhouser and his well-known moving picture company arrived Saturday and will spend a couple of months in St. Augustine taking pictures with various St. Augustine scenes used as a setting. Today they are enacting a scene in the Zorayda Club. While the company will make their headquarters in this city, they will take trips all over the state, taking pictures. While here they are located at the Granada. The company includes Mrs. Edwin Thanhouser and children, Mr. and Mrs. G.O. Nichols and Master Nichols, Mrs. [Irma] Taylor, Mrs. Graybill, William Russell, Florence LaBadie, Marguerite Snow, and May Bosen Cruze.

The same newspaper would report the next day that while much of the contingent was staying at the Granada Hotel, others found lodging in the Spear Mansion, a large wooden building of the Victorian style, where, by coincidence, two other film personalities were also staying at the time, Henry King and Louise Huff. It is probable that the Spear Mansion was the working headquarters for Thanhouser during its stay, and that props, cameras, and other equipment were stored there. On the guest register of the Spear Mansion one Thanhouserite whimsically signed his name as "Big Bill Russell."

The Spear Mansion, St. Augustine, Florida in 1912. Courtesy of the St. Augustine Historical Society(X-2-2)

In the same edition this item was carried: "The Thanhouser Motion Picture Company, which is wintering in this city, is taking many pictures here with historic structures for a background. The Spanish costumes attract much attention, and crowds of interested spectators quickly gather about the camera when a photo play is in progress."

More news was printed in the January 26th newspaper: "With the Zorayda Club interior for a setting a very pretty Oriental photo play was enacted yesterday by the Tanhauser Note Motion Picture Company [sic]. The architecture, furnishings, and luxury of the Zorayda Club building render it most appropriate for Oriental or Spanish picture romances, and it will be seen in numerous photoplays by the Tanhouser Company."

For the next two months the Thanhouser players produced films in and around St. Augustine. Years later, the children of Edwin Thanhouser would recall that many pictures were taken on the premises of the Ponce de Leon Hotel in that city, including one with a memorable scene staged by having a baby alligator eat hamburger meat. When it was projected on a screen, the film sequence seemed to portray a large alligator chewing up a man. It was so upsetting to the studio employees that they cut it out. Note