Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 9: 1916 Goodbye to Jacksonville

May 1916 saw the winding up of activities at Thanhouser's Jacksonville studio and the departure of the staff and players northward to New Rochelle, where summer weather beckoned. All were set to return to the Florida city the following autumn, according to publicity notices.

The Florida Metropolis commented on May 16th:

Elaborate plans are under way at the New Rochelle studio of the Thanhouser Company, according to all reports, to take care of three Jacksonville companies which will leave here for the North on June 1. There will be 14 directors and companies at work in the New Rochelle studios during the summer months, and on September 1 eight of these will return to Jacksonville. This will be five additional companies to those already here, who will return in the fall.

To all outward appearances Thanhouser's presence in Jacksonville would be bigger and better the next time around.

The Sunday Metropolis, May 21, 1916, quoted W. Ray Johnston, the Jacksonville studio's financial manager, who expressed satisfaction with the preceding months and viewed the future with optimism: "I can say that our first five months' stay in Jacksonville has been a most profitable one both from a business and personal point of view," he told the interviewer, Tracey Hollingsworth, who at the time wrote a movie gossip column for the same paper. Johnston stated that from December 20 to the present the firm produced 29 different subjects, including 16 one-reel Falstaff pictures; five two-reel regular Thanhouser pictures, nine three-reel Than-O-Play productions, and five five-reel Mutual Masterpictures, for a total of 29 pictures and 60 reels, or 60,000 negative feet.

"In the production of these pictures we have exposed approximately 147,000 feet of negative film, and after cutting the pictures to proper length and making positive prints for United States and Canada we will have made approximately 2,400,000 feet of prints off these negatives, or 6,575 miles for United States and Canada alone. In addition to the above a great number of copies were sold to foreign territories." Note

Johnston stated that considering distribution elsewhere in the globe, by conservative estimate 14,400,000 people should view made-in-Jacksonville films during the next two years. He then told of future plans:

It is Mr. Thanhouser's present plan to have six companies of players in Jacksonville by October 1, to remain during the winter, or double the present force. We have found your climate ideal, your light wonderful, and your people have received us with open arms, allowing us to use their homes, grounds, etc. and assisting us in every way possible, to aid us in our work. This we appreciate very much, and on behalf of the management members of the Thanhouser Company we wish to thank the city executives, Chamber of Commerce, the business interests, and the people of your city and community for their hearty cooperation. The Thanhouser people have a warm place in their hearts for Jacksonville.

Also on May 21st The Sunday Times-Union told of the studio closing and gave a checklist of departing personnel:

The Thanhouser players will leave here Thursday and Friday for the summer studio Note in New Rochelle, New York, according to an announcement made by manager George A. Grimmer yesterday. The local studio will be left in charge of Willis Hammond during the summer. Activities will be resumed here during the late autumn when several companies will be returned. The Thanhouserites will leave in two parties, the first sailing Thursday on the Clyde steamship Mohawk for New York City, from where they will go to New Rochelle by train. The remainder of the party is to leave in a special car over one of the railway lines the following day.

The sailing party will consist of Morgan Jones, wife, Master Bopps Jones; Fred A. Kelsey, wife and boy; Thomas A. Curran; Lord McCaskill; Leo Wirth; William Sullivan; Claude Cooper; George Welsh; Harris Gordon and Mrs. Gordon (Louise Emerald Bates); Inda Palmer; Mabel Warren; Robert Vaughn and Mrs. Vaughn; John Bauman, wife and daughter; John Brokaw and wife; Charles Owens, wife and mother; William Alexander and wife; William Burt; William McNulty; Leo Post; Frank McNish; Frank Jones; Gladys Dore; Albert Flower; James Murray; Myles McCarthy; William Christie; and James Lawton.

Those who intend to go by rail are: Manager Grimmer and wife, financial manager W. Ray Johnston and wife (Violet Hite), Baroness DeWitz (Valkyrien), W. Eugene Moore, George Webber, Arthur Bauer and wife, and Miss Barbara Gilroy.

On May 24th The Florida Metropolis printed this:

"Behold, the beautiful silvery rain drops!" exclaimed Eugene Moore, the Thanhouser director yesterday as he emerged from the shelter of the Hotel Seminole enroute to the studio of the company on Eighth Street. This pretty epitaph of spring, however, was not said in "lighter veins," as certain strong language accompanied it which is unfortunately excluded from our columns. This vociferous outburst on the part of our pious and highly esteemed friend was aimed against the rain in particular, because the Thanhouserites expect to sail Thursday for New Rochelle following the completion of the present picture which is being produced by Mr. Moore, and which will be delayed one day on account of inclement weather. Just think of it, after all this ideal weather we have been enjoying too.

The Sunday Times-Union told of plans for the coming autumn:

The winter producing season at the Thanhouser studio ends today with the departure of players and directors. Assistant director Leo Wirth will have charge of this party. The second and final party will leave tomorrow in a special car over the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad under the direction of manager George A. Grimmer.

"The Thanhouser company is closing its first season in Jacksonville with a great deal of regret at leaving, although the absence is to be only temporary," said assistant director Wirth yesterday while busily engaged in making final arrangements for the departure today. "The Jacksonville people treated the actors and directors so well that we have begun to look upon this city as a second home. We can truthfully say that there is not another place where we have found greater cooperation and help in our work." Mr. Wirth stated further that the Thanhouserites expect to return here sometime in October with seven companies, which will be kept almost twice the number kept here this winter. In all four companies were kept here during the past winter, although only three will depart today and tomorrow, the other having been sent away several weeks ago. As to any additions to the plan here, no announcements have been made.

Carl Louis Gregory in his column in the June 10, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World stated that he had been in Southern Florida for several weeks and had stopped in Jacksonville on his way north.

There are five companies at the present time operating in Jacksonville: Thanhouser, Eagle, Vim, Kalem, and Gaumont. The weather is beginning to be oppressively warm, and all of the companies except Eagle and Kalem are making preparations to go north for the summer. The Thanhouser forces left for the north the 25th of this month [and the 26th].

Lawrence Williams, who has been with the Thanhouser Company for several years, leaves at this writing to go with the Famous Players Company, taking the place of his brother, who died recently in the New Rochelle Hospital. All of the studios operating here have open-air stages with the exception of the Thanhouser Company, which has a glass studio for rainy days in addition to a large open-air studio. The Eagle and Vim studios are the only ones who develop their negatives in Jacksonville, the others sending their stuff north to their respective headquarters for development and printing.

Several months later, on September 16th, The Sunday Times-Union informed its readers of the impending reopening of Thanhouser's Jacksonville studio:

Operations will be resumed at the Thanhouser studio about October 15, when two companies will arrive here for the purpose of starting the making of feature pictures. The announcement comes from the general officer of the company in New Rochelle.... The personnel of the companies has not yet been announced.

The studio opening was postponed, per this article in The Sunday Times-Union, December 3, 1916:

The Florida studio of the Thanhouser Film Company, out on Eighth Street, will be open January 1, according to published statements in a New York paper. It is interesting to Jacksonville people who knew them, and to the Southern assembly of movie artists and manufacturers of films in this city, to know that W. Ray Johnston, who was here with the Thanhouser Company last winter, is now head of the company's new foreign department studio. Mr. Johnston is also the assistant secretary and treasurer of the company. The Thanhouser Company has a handsome and complete studio in this city, and those of the company here last winter were among the most popular of the movie folks in the city. The announcement that the studio will open early this season is welcomed news to their friends in Jacksonville.

The Thanhouser Film Corporation never made another film in Jacksonville.