Essanay

Shush wrote:
> mrbertiewooster DeleteThis @yahoo.com wrote:
>
> > What LA studios did Chaplin use when he was with Essanay? Aside from
> > the location shooting at Crystal Pier, etc., did he work out of any
> > studios other than the Bradbury Mansion?
>
>
> Essanay rented him a facility in Boyle Heights, which he used for
> basically the second half of 1915. I don't know the address offhand,
> though.

I hunted this down once (and I don't have access to the paperwork right
now) but a quick look at Google Earth makes me think it was on Fairview
Avenue on a bluff overlooking what is now the Interstate 10 (Santa
Monica Freeway).
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Work was Chaplin's last Essanay project completed at the Bradbury
mansion. In June 1915, Chaplin and company moved to larger quarters at
the rented Majestic Studios located at 651 Fairview Avenue in Boyle
Heights, where The Bank was filmed. The site was later home to the
Liberty Film Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of the studio
confirm the setting and are available for study. There are photos of
the studio in my new book Silent Traces. www.SilentTraces.net
 >> Stay informed about: Essanay 

John.DeleteThis@SilentEchoes.net wrote:
> Work was Chaplin's last Essanay project completed at the Bradbury
> mansion. In June 1915, Chaplin and company moved to larger quarters at
> the rented Majestic Studios located at 651 Fairview Avenue in Boyle
> Heights, where The Bank was filmed. The site was later home to the
> Liberty Film Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of the studio
> confirm the setting and are available for study. There are photos of
> the studio in my new book Silent Traces. www.SilentTraces.net


I wonder if Edna's nice residential area in POLICE was shot in Boyle
Heights. Was it that kind of neighborhood then?



--Shush--
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Shush wrote:
> John.RemoveThis@SilentEchoes.net wrote:
> > Work was Chaplin's last Essanay project completed at the Bradbury
> > mansion. In June 1915, Chaplin and company moved to larger quarters at
> > the rented Majestic Studios located at 651 Fairview Avenue in Boyle
> > Heights, where The Bank was filmed. The site was later home to the
> > Liberty Film Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of the studio
> > confirm the setting and are available for study. There are photos of
> > the studio in my new book Silent Traces. www.SilentTraces.net
>
>
> I wonder if Edna's nice residential area in POLICE was shot in Boyle
> Heights. Was it that kind of neighborhood then?
>
>
>
> --Shush--


Boyle Heights was the old Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles. It wasn't
until the some time in the Thirties or Forties that the Fairfax Avenue
community was developed, and the Jewish migration from Boyle Heights.
Canter's Deli was originally in Boyle Heights, and that's why one major
street was called Brooklyn Ave. (now Cesar Chavez), because there were
a lot of transplants from Brooklyn.

Another studio in Boyle Heights is the one built by Isadore Bernstein
in 1917, where Stan Laurel's first comedy NUTS IN MAY was made. I don't
know the address, but I found a 1917 article where it mentions that
Bernstein's studio was adjoining the site of the Catholic's orphans
home, which stood on the top of the hill overlooking Hollenbeck Park.

Brent Walker
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On 19 Sep 2006 09:34:04 -0700, John.TakeThisOut@SilentEchoes.net wrote:

>Work was Chaplin's last Essanay project completed at the Bradbury
>mansion. In June 1915, Chaplin and company moved to larger quarters at
>the rented Majestic Studios located at 651 Fairview Avenue in Boyle
>Heights, where The Bank was filmed. The site was later home to the
>Liberty Film Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of the studio
>confirm the setting and are available for study. There are photos of
>the studio in my new book Silent Traces. www.SilentTraces.net

I picked up Silent Traces a couple of weeks ago and it's absolutely a
MUST HAVE.

Fred
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I found it in a used bookstore yesterday (probably someone's review
copy) and have been devouring it since. Everyone in this newsgroup
should have one whether or not you are an Angeleno. .

Rob Farr
www.slapsticon.org


Fred wrote:
> On 19 Sep 2006 09:34:04 -0700, John.DeleteThis@SilentEchoes.net wrote:
>
> >Work was Chaplin's last Essanay project completed at the Bradbury
> >mansion. In June 1915, Chaplin and company moved to larger quarters at
> >the rented Majestic Studios located at 651 Fairview Avenue in Boyle
> >Heights, where The Bank was filmed. The site was later home to the
> >Liberty Film Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of the studio
> >confirm the setting and are available for study. There are photos of
> >the studio in my new book Silent Traces. www.SilentTraces.net
>
> I picked up Silent Traces a couple of weeks ago and it's absolutely a
> MUST HAVE.
>
> Fred
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Amazon is still selling it for $16.47.
(So that was Sunset Blvd.--near Occidental--at the end of THE RINK.
A great book.)

robfarr53.TakeThisOut@yahoo.com wrote:
> I found it in a used bookstore yesterday (probably someone's review
> copy) and have been devouring it since. Everyone in this newsgroup
> should have one whether or not you are an Angeleno. .
>
> Rob Farr
> www.slapsticon.org
>
>
> Fred wrote:
> > On 19 Sep 2006 09:34:04 -0700, John.TakeThisOut@SilentEchoes.net wrote:
> >
> > >Work was Chaplin's last Essanay project completed at the Bradbury
> > >mansion. In June 1915, Chaplin and company moved to larger quarters at
> > >the rented Majestic Studios located at 651 Fairview Avenue in Boyle
> > >Heights, where The Bank was filmed. The site was later home to the
> > >Liberty Film Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of the studio
> > >confirm the setting and are available for study. There are photos of
> > >the studio in my new book Silent Traces. www.SilentTraces.net
> >
> > I picked up Silent Traces a couple of weeks ago and it's absolutely a
> > MUST HAVE.
> >
> > Fred
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So where were Hal Roach's films for Essanay shot in the brief period he
worked there in 1915? Niles? The Bradbury Mansion? Or the old Majestic
Studio in Boyle Heights?
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mrbertiewooster.RemoveThis@yahoo.com wrote:

> So where were Hal Roach's films for Essanay shot in the brief period he
> worked there in 1915? Niles? The Bradbury Mansion? Or the old Majestic
> Studio in Boyle Heights?


David Kiehn tells me, via e-mail, that it was the Bradbury Mansion.

There were quite a few Essanay veterans on Roach's payroll in the
early days: Snub Pollard, Margaret Joslin, T. J. Crizer, etc.
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> > So where were Hal Roach's films for Essanay shot in the brief period he
> > worked there in 1915? Niles? The Bradbury Mansion? Or the old Majestic
> > Studio in Boyle Heights?
>
> David Kiehn tells me, via e-mail, that it was the Bradbury Mansion.

I've just come across the following from Chaplin's autobiography
(pp170-171, Penguin edition):

" ... [Anderson] negotiated the renting of a small studio at Boyle
Heights, which was in the heart of Los Angeles.

"While we were there, two young men who were just beginning in the
business, came and rented studio space, named Hal Roach and Harold
Lloyd."

Which begs the question:

Was Chaplin mistaken?

Or were a proportion of Roach's "Phunphilms" shot at Boyle Heights, as
well as the Bradbury Mansion?

If so, which ones?
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mrbertiewooster RemoveThis @yahoo.com wrote:
> > > So where were Hal Roach's films for Essanay shot in the brief period he
> > > worked there in 1915? Niles? The Bradbury Mansion? Or the old Majestic
> > > Studio in Boyle Heights?
> >
> > David Kiehn tells me, via e-mail, that it was the Bradbury Mansion.
>
> I've just come across the following from Chaplin's autobiography
> (pp170-171, Penguin edition):
>
> " ... [Anderson] negotiated the renting of a small studio at Boyle
> Heights, which was in the heart of Los Angeles.
>
> "While we were there, two young men who were just beginning in the
> business, came and rented studio space, named Hal Roach and Harold
> Lloyd."
>
> Which begs the question:
>
> Was Chaplin mistaken?
>
> Or were a proportion of Roach's "Phunphilms" shot at Boyle Heights, as
> well as the Bradbury Mansion?
>
> If so, which ones?


John's book goes into this. He has that shot--which was also in David
Kiehn's Essanay book--of the panorama of Chaplin studio employees at
the Boyle Heights studio, in front of sets from THE BANK. WORK,
released two films earlier, was shot on Bunker Hill at the Bradbury, so
maybe he was only at the Bradbury briefly and then moved to the Boyle
Heights studio to have more room to himself and bigger space?

Brent Walker
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mrbertiewooster.TakeThisOut@yahoo.com wrote:

> I've just come across the following from Chaplin's autobiography
> (pp170-171, Penguin edition):
>
> " ... [Anderson] negotiated the renting of a small studio at Boyle
> Heights, which was in the heart of Los Angeles.
>
> "While we were there, two young men who were just beginning in the
> business, came and rented studio space, named Hal Roach and Harold
> Lloyd."
>
> Which begs the question:
>
> Was Chaplin mistaken?
>
> Or were a proportion of Roach's "Phunphilms" shot at Boyle Heights, as
> well as the Bradbury Mansion?


I don't believe Roach ever operated out of Boyle Heights, but he was
definitely working out of the Bradbury Mansion. A HISTORY OF THE HAL
ROACH STUDIOS, by Richard Ward, says Roach was working at the Bradbury
from 1917, but he was certainly there earlier than that. It also says
Roach was working out of a facility on Allessandro Street in Edendale
in 1915, which was news to me. Paging Annette Lloyd!!

I think Chaplin misremembered meeting Roach and Lloyd at the Boyle
Heights studio; it must've been at the Bradbury instead. MY
AUTOBIOGRAPHY has a number of little goofs like that in it. Another is
his reference to Syd Chaplin's film A SUBMARINE PILOT, which was
actually titled A SUBMARINE PIRATE. The memory slips a little after 40
or 50 years.

Never mind updating the Robinson book; somebody go do an annotated
edition of the autobiography!



--Shush--
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"Shush" (shushfilmseznospam@yahoo.com) writes:
> mrbertiewooster.RemoveThis@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>> I've just come across the following from Chaplin's autobiography
>> (pp170-171, Penguin edition):
>>
>> " ... [Anderson] negotiated the renting of a small studio at Boyle
>> Heights, which was in the heart of Los Angeles.
>>
>> "While we were there, two young men who were just beginning in the
>> business, came and rented studio space, named Hal Roach and Harold
>> Lloyd."
>>
>> Which begs the question:
>>
>> Was Chaplin mistaken?
>>
>> Or were a proportion of Roach's "Phunphilms" shot at Boyle Heights, as
>> well as the Bradbury Mansion?
>
>
> I don't believe Roach ever operated out of Boyle Heights, but he was
> definitely working out of the Bradbury Mansion. A HISTORY OF THE HAL
> ROACH STUDIOS, by Richard Ward, says Roach was working at the Bradbury
> from 1917, but he was certainly there earlier than that. It also says
> Roach was working out of a facility on Allessandro Street in Edendale
> in 1915, which was news to me. Paging Annette Lloyd!!
>
> I think Chaplin misremembered meeting Roach and Lloyd at the Boyle
> Heights studio; it must've been at the Bradbury instead. MY
> AUTOBIOGRAPHY has a number of little goofs like that in it. Another is
> his reference to Syd Chaplin's film A SUBMARINE PILOT, which was
> actually titled A SUBMARINE PIRATE. The memory slips a little after 40
> or 50 years.
>
> Never mind updating the Robinson book; somebody go do an annotated
> edition of the autobiography!
>
> --Shush--

Now there's a thought. But one would need the cooperation of the estate,
and the project would involve massive research, some of which would
have to be conducted in Europe. That means money as well as several years'
labor.

Connie K.
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