Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 5 (1912): A Visit to New Rochelle

The Moving Picture News sent Margaret I. MacDonald to New Rochelle during the second week of January. In the issue of January 20, 1911, she shared her findings:

I had long promised myself a trip to the Thanhouser plant, from whence so many beautiful and artistic moving picture productions have come - where has originated so much that is clever - so much that has counted in the advancement of the moving picture business as an art.

It was a cold, frosty day on which I hied me Thanhouserward. It was the day before the departure of the Thanhouser Stock Company for more southern climes. A portion of the company were working out of doors that day, in spite of the cold, and the remainder were busy as bees making ready for the morrow's migration. Mr. Bert Adler, the company's energetic publicity man, flitted about here and there and everywhere, evidently in demand at all points where work was in progress. Mr. Thanhouser, busy in his office, but not too busy to give a stranger a hearty handshake and word of welcome, attended to the different calls upon his time with the composure of one who feels a perfect confidence in those in his employ.

The Thanhouser plant is apparently a happy sort of a place. Everybody seemed in good humor; even the automobile accident which happened that day, while I was there (when in the bustle of shipping films and trying to catch the noon train with its cargo, the big Thanhouser touring car collided with another auto at a treacherous turn in the road), did not dim to any noticeable extent the halo of goodnaturedness which is said to hover constantly above the workshop of the Thanhouser firm, although it did almost send Bert Adler back to the hospital.

Entering the Thanhouser plant from the street, you have the stairs to mount before reaching the offices and studio, factory, and all else in connection with the producing end of the Thanhouser business. At the top of the stairs is the reception room and thoroughfare to and from all parts of the plant and studio. Here you are met by a good-natured young lady who operates the switchboard for the firm and also listens to the wants of the wayfarer as well as doing a pile of typewriting. It appeared to me that she was very much occupied with many duties.

From here you are ushered to the private offices of the company, which are located very conveniently on one side of the large studio. The first that you come to is that of Mr. Thanhouser, then Mr. Adler's, then Mr. Nichols' and then Mr. Henderson's. Bordering it, and with the studio as a central point of interest, are to be found all the different departments in connection with it - stage carpenters, scene painters, etc., who are within call of any part of the studio or offices. The dressing rooms are nicely and comfortably located. All the different portions of the factory are splendidly fitted up to insure good work, and it is quite evident, even to the casual observer, that the Thanhouser Company spares neither money nor time in order that the production of the plant be second to none.

Those of the Thanhouser stock company who have taken up their abode in Florida for the winter are Miss Marguerite Snow, Miss Flo LaBadie, Mr. William Russell, Mr. James Cruze, Miss Viola Alberti, Mr. Joseph Graybill, Mr. Lloyd F. Lonergan, and Mr. Calvin Dix, stage manager. The work in the South will be done under the direction of Mr. George O. Nichols. The photographic portion of the work will be entrusted to Mr. A.H. Moses, Jr., who has done so much of the creditable photography shown in the Thanhouser productions. It is now almost a week and a half since this splendid company left New York on the Apache, of the Clyde Line, for Jacksonville, Florida, where they commenced operations at once. The finest and most beautiful situations in Florida will be chosen by the Thanhouser company for the pictures, whose exterior scenes will be taken there.

In New Rochelle a strong company stays to make pictures, under the direction of Lucius Henderson. This company consists of Harry Benham, Mignon Anderson, Inda Palmer, the Thanhouser Kid, Justus D. Barnes, and David H. Thompson. Jack Noble is stage manager, and Carl Gregory, one of the youngest and best cameramen in the business, turns the all-important crank....

Courtesy of the American Museum of the Moving Image/Lawrence Williams Collection. (M-1-X-2) )