Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 9 (1916): Return to Florida, Pathé Alliance

The Jacksonville Studio

Thanhouser's Jacksonville Studio in early 1916. Courtesy of the American Museum of the Moving Image/Lawrence Williams Collection (M-6-X)

The year 1916 would prove to be one of great change for the Thanhouser Film Corporation. In January attention was focused on the Jacksonville studio, which had opened for production in late December with commencement of filming of The Oval Diamond. The warm climate and longer daylight hours permitted outdoor filming in Florida's tropical settings in the season when New Rochelle was cold and bleak. During the next several months there were many trade journal and newspaper articles devoted to Thanhouser's Southern activities.

On January 15, 1916 The Moving Picture World informed its readers:

Last week witnessed an exodus at the Thanhouser studios in New Rochelle. The big new home in Jacksonville was pronounced finished and three full companies were shipped off. The directors in charge are George Foster Platt, Eugene Moore and William Howell. These companies include 55 persons, which makes the Thanhouser initial delegation the largest that ever descended on Jacksonville. And more are to go.

Mr. Moore had in his company for media purposes Barbara Gilroy and Harris Gordon, who are to be starred in The Oval Diamond.... Mr. Powell leads the Falstaff comedy Southern company, and Riley Chamberlin will be his chief comedian. Louise Emerald Bates, the blonde beauty, will play the female leads, and Mr. Howell also took with him Walter Hiers, the fat knockabout with the moon face. Boyd Marshall, the popular juvenile, will be seen in comedy straits.

The journey of the Platt contingent is also in the nature of a special trip. Mr. Platt is now working on What Doris Did, a forthcoming Masterpicture featuring Doris Grey, who won national fame by winning a motion picture career in a Boston beauty contest. He finished his scenes in and around New York just in time to be among the first companies to go South, where he will do the major portion of the work. Florence LaBadie, who is sponsor for Doris, will be seen in this picture, as also will a galaxy of stars from other film companies, including Cissy Fitzgerald, Edward Earle, and Hal Forde. It is to be a five-reel production, for which the Florida contingent includes Bert Delaney and Morgan Jones.

A feature of the Thanhouser migration is that the acting force includes a number of experienced supernumaries. Contrary to the general practice of depending on local talent to save expense, Mr. Thanhouser sets a precedent by transporting them down. He has always been careful about super work in pictures and would rather pay transportation and its incidental increase of expense than hazard the use of novices. The Thanhouser players will be housed in the beautiful studio which has been put up at an expense of $30,000. It is a permanent edifice, with one of the largest glass roofs ever constructed. George Grimmer is in charge.

During the next several months there would be a continuing interchange of players between the New Rochelle and Jacksonville studios. Edwin Thanhouser visited the Southern studio on several occasions.