Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 5 (1912): The Motion Picture Industry in Florida

Although Florida was hardly new territory to film makers, this represented the first time that an Independent producer had gone there for a significant length of time. Note

According to film historian Richard Alan Nelson, the first motion pictures known to have been filmed on location in Florida were short documentaries taken by Edison, showing military activities in Tampa incidental to the conduct of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Such topics as unloading United States Cavalry supplies at dockside, transport ships in the harbor, and scenes of military camp life were taken by cameraman William Paley, who later went to Cuba, where armed conflict was taking place. The automobile races at Ormond, Florida, filmed by G.W. ("Billy") Bitzer in 1905, represented another early effort in the state. Over a period of time Florida was a brief stop on the itineraries of several traveling companies, most of whom would later be part of the Patents Company group. None made Florida a base of operations for a significant time.

That changed in the winter of 1908, when Samuel Long, one of the principals of Kalem, Note picked Jacksonville, the largest city in Florida at the time, Note from a map, believing that it would be a good alternative to the Northern cold and knowing that it was much closer than another possibility, California, to the company's main film-processing factory in New York. A large company of Kalemites moved into the Roseland House, a hotel with many recreational facilities, and began to produce two reels per week under the direction of Sidney Olcott, remaining there until April 1909, by which time 18 reels had been produced in the "Florida Series." Included were such titles as A Florida Feud, subtitled Love in the Everglades; The Girl at the Old Mill; The Octoroon, a story of the turpentine forest; and The High Diver. Richard Alan Nelson quotes Kalemite Gene Gauntier as saying: "We had discovered a moving picture paradise. Roseland, during the height of the season, was the liveliest place imaginable. If the Webers, a family of acrobats, were not practicing their act on the lawn before the veranda, the man with the trained goats was putting his animals through their tricks."

As there was no source of film-making supplies in Florida, everything had to be brought from New York. Processing was done by shipping exposed film to New York by train.

Jacksonville, located on the St. Johns River, offered a wide variety of scenic opportunities. The palmetto stands afforded numerous possibilities for jungle scenarios, wild beasts such as alligators and beautifully plumed birds were a novelty, and not far away on the coast was the ancient city of St. Augustine with its Spanish fort. All along the ocean shore were abundant sand dunes, ideal for desert scenes.

In the winter of 1909-1910, Kalem came back to the Roseland House to produce the second group of Florida Series films, an effort which yielded 23 one-reel subjects. At the same time the Lubin company sent its players on the road, and a group under the direction of Arthur D. Hotaling headed for Nassau in the Bahamas, stopping in Jacksonville and St. Augustine on the way. The Lubin people were enthusiastic about the setting and would return. Early in 1910 a small Independent producer from Baltimore, the Motograph Company of America, rented space in Dixieland Park, an amusement center located in South Jacksonville across the St. Johns River from the center of Jacksonville. Facilities were set up in the Dixie Theatre, a building with a stage, dressing rooms, and other facilities, including a projection booth and screen. Elmer Walters and Harry Raver, Note two of Motograph's principals, found the location to be ideal, but their business plans went awry, and by the end of the year Motograph was no longer solvent.

In the autumn of 1910, Dixieland Park briefly furnished the site for a division of the Selig Polyscope Company, a Patents Company firm led by Colonel William N. Selig, a showman and motion picture apparatus builder who entered the industry prior to the turn of the century. The troupe brought with it the much-publicized Selig Zoo, consisting at the time of about 160 trained animals, including horses, lions, elephants, tigers, and camels. Around the same time, Selig had crews elsewhere, notably in Edendale, not far from Hollywood.

In autumn 1910 the Kalem crew returned to Jacksonville for another stint of film making, remaining until early 1911 when director Sidney Olcott departed once again for Ireland. In autumn 1911 an estimated 18 to 20 Kalemites returned to Jacksonville under the direction of Kenean Buell. Later, Sidney Olcott and his traveling Kalemites, earlier called by the trade press the "O'Kalems" for their filming of The Colleen Bawn and other subjects in the Emerald Isle, went to Palestine to become known briefly as the "El Kalems." Their film, From the Manger to the Cross, was directed by Sidney Olcott and released in six reels.

In January 1912, the same month that Thanhouser sent a contingent to Florida, a group of 30 Lubin personnel, again directed by Arthur D. Hotaling, traveled south by train, intending to stop at several Florida cities and then go by ship to Cuba and New Orleans. However, they revised their plans and stayed for a protracted time in Jacksonville, producing numerous films while there. In autumn of the same year Lubin leased the old Jacksonville Yacht Club building and set up a permanent studio for the production of comedies and other subjects. Oliver Hardy, later of Laurel and Hardy fame, was to get his start in 1913 at Lubin's Jacksonville facility. In autumn 1913 Pathé Frères opened a studio in St. Augustine. Numerous itinerant production companies from Edison, Reliance, Vitagraph, and other manufacturers visited Jacksonville during the era.