WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.340 --> 00:00:07.160 I'll give you a few highlights of some of the things that come to my mind now. 2 00:00:07.920 --> 00:00:14.660 In one instance, it was short and sweet, but it's an incident in itself. 3 00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:21.940 A fellow by the name of Dr. Otto Brinner, Brier, I-D-N-E-R, I met him at the Hamilton 4 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:27.740 Club and he told me that he knew some people called the American Motion Picture Camera 5 00:00:27.740 --> 00:00:30.880 Company and that he wanted to go in business. 6 00:00:31.840 --> 00:00:33.620 So he took me out to his factory. 7 00:00:34.060 --> 00:00:40.420 He manufactured medicine for women and he had a big room in their back and he wanted me 8 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:41.560 to put it in the laboratory. 9 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:48.820 So we went over to American Motion Picture Camera Company or something like that. 10 00:00:48.820 --> 00:00:58.420 They were on Displanes and Jackson on the southeast corner and it was run by then Captain 11 00:00:58.420 --> 00:01:05.460 Benning, he was an army man, and a fellow named Sperry, a very clever mechanic. 12 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:08.960 And they made cameras and printers. 13 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:12.820 To my surprise, they were uncrewed, but they were workable. 14 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:16.800 The camera was a 400-foot metal magazine. 15 00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:19.580 This was all in 1913. 16 00:01:21.780 --> 00:01:25.640 So they set up this equipment. 17 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:31.020 I had built a darkroom and put in some tanks and they gave me a printer and a camera. 18 00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:39.660 Then Brinner got acquainted with Romaine Fielding, F-I-E-L-D-I-N-G, remember him? 19 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:43.720 And he was going to be the star. 20 00:01:44.720 --> 00:01:53.260 This factory was on Campbell Avenue, just north of Kinsey Street. 21 00:01:56.440 --> 00:01:58.780 And everything was going good. 22 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:07.020 I set up the laboratory all right and out come Romaine Fielding and Brinner made me 23 00:02:07.020 --> 00:02:08.720 set up the camera and draw lines. 24 00:02:08.720 --> 00:02:15.140 I set up the camera and draw the lines of the lens and all of that. 25 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:20.460 We put some tables and chairs in and Romaine Fielding came out and we had quite a session. 26 00:02:22.980 --> 00:02:30.940 And while he was out there, the woman across the street told us that when Fielding went 27 00:02:30.940 --> 00:02:32.400 out his car was gone. 28 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:40.040 The woman across the street told us that a big van had backed up and put it in the truck 29 00:02:40.040 --> 00:02:41.080 and drove away. 30 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:46.220 Romaine Fielding admitted that he hadn't paid for the car. 31 00:02:50.040 --> 00:02:54.420 That was the end of Romaine Fielding photo plays. 32 00:02:55.380 --> 00:03:04.060 But Otto Brinner still had the lab and at that time I heard about Ebony looking for 33 00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:07.020 a place to have their film developed. 34 00:03:07.440 --> 00:03:19.520 They were having it done by the Franco-American Pictures Company in Madison and western. 35 00:03:20.480 --> 00:03:25.600 A little place upstairs was run by a guy named Jack Shackleford. 36 00:03:28.380 --> 00:03:30.820 He was sloppy as could be. 37 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:40.560 So I decided I'd take some of this stuff over to Brinner and see what they had, which was 38 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:41.060 terrible. 39 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:43.760 I'll go into that if I ever talk to you about Ebony. 40 00:03:45.440 --> 00:03:51.200 Another item to show that Chicago was on the ball even. 41 00:03:52.140 --> 00:03:55.840 This was a Sears Roebuck. 42 00:03:57.040 --> 00:04:02.920 They reissued the 1902 catalog. 43 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:14.840 It's a souvenir type of antique. 44 00:04:16.640 --> 00:04:23.520 In this 1902 catalog there was a projector advertised built by Roebuck. 45 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:31.200 It told you how you could go in business and buy chairs and so forth. 46 00:04:31.200 --> 00:04:33.820 It would be a good idea if you could get a look at that. 47 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:35.380 My daughter has one. 48 00:04:35.860 --> 00:04:37.580 Ed can get it for you if you wish. 49 00:04:40.660 --> 00:04:45.460 In 1909 I had an experience with a fish market. 50 00:04:46.180 --> 00:04:48.140 They were losing money. 51 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:51.040 They were going out of business and they wanted to put in a movie house. 52 00:04:51.700 --> 00:04:57.920 So they asked me about it and I told them how to do it and gave them a folder on how 53 00:04:57.920 --> 00:04:59.080 to buy this equipment. 54 00:04:59.080 --> 00:05:04.900 They promised I could be the operator at night aside from my S&A job. 55 00:05:05.760 --> 00:05:13.660 So they sold out the fish market and cleaned it all up and put in about 75 chairs and then 56 00:05:13.660 --> 00:05:17.600 all the relatives run the show and I never did get to be the projectionist. 57 00:05:17.960 --> 00:05:20.080 But the show went for a little while anyway. 58 00:05:20.780 --> 00:05:27.960 In those days the theaters, quite a few of them popped up even in our neighborhood. 59 00:05:28.520 --> 00:05:36.920 And they'd get a store front, a store, and clean it out and put in about, well, a couple 60 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:40.980 of hundred chairs and build a booth and that would be it. 61 00:05:41.400 --> 00:05:45.320 The show would be three reels, three, four reels and then out you'd go. 62 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:56.900 In those days there was a law, a Chicago law, that if you had over 300 seats you had to 63 00:05:56.900 --> 00:06:03.480 get a license for an amusement license. 64 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:13.160 So most of the theaters were 288 or 290 seats just to keep under the limit. 65 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:24.660 There was a number of companies, a number of fellows that bought a projector like Robux 66 00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:33.820 or Eastman had a projector for sale and he'd have seats in the tent and he'd use what they 67 00:06:33.820 --> 00:06:38.960 called a lime light for projection. 68 00:06:40.320 --> 00:06:48.780 On the country you couldn't get electricity so they used this carbide tanks to spray onto 69 00:06:48.780 --> 00:06:52.100 this lime and give a terrifically bright light. 70 00:06:52.100 --> 00:06:55.100 Maybe that's where the origin of the lime light came in. 71 00:06:58.900 --> 00:07:05.060 One of the occupational hazards was brought to my attention coming home on the trolley 72 00:07:05.060 --> 00:07:05.940 car one night. 73 00:07:06.260 --> 00:07:13.060 They were always crowded and a fellow next to me began to sniff and asked me what that 74 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:20.440 peculiar odor was and I didn't realize until then that we used entirely nitrate film. 75 00:07:20.440 --> 00:07:22.080 It gave off a terrific odor. 76 00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:27.000 Of course we didn't notice it but from then on I was very conscious of the fact and every 77 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:32.580 time I went any place I had to change clothes immediately but it was really something for 78 00:07:32.580 --> 00:07:35.120 that odor was really awful for everybody. 79 00:07:36.600 --> 00:07:43.940 I mentioned that in 1914 Bob Spore became the studio manager. 80 00:07:44.140 --> 00:07:50.180 He was kind of a tough guy to get along with, kind of a heavy drinker and all and he stayed 81 00:07:50.180 --> 00:07:55.060 with the organization even after they went broke and he was sort of a night watchman. 82 00:07:56.640 --> 00:08:02.660 They tell me he accidentally fell three floors in the big studio one night and was killed 83 00:08:02.660 --> 00:08:03.560 instantly. 84 00:08:04.860 --> 00:08:10.140 Mages on the other hand, he'd come in about the time Chaplin came in and he was a pretty 85 00:08:10.140 --> 00:08:12.180 nice guy and everybody just loved him. 86 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:20.920 He carried on and he stayed with it until the whole thing was finished and he went in 87 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:29.160 business with the Obby brothers and Spore probably paid the rent but that didn't get 88 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:30.500 off very good. 89 00:08:31.520 --> 00:08:42.160 Then came the wide film, the 70 millimeter farce and the Obby's and Spore Mages and the 90 00:08:42.160 --> 00:08:45.640 Obby's were the cameramen on that. 91 00:08:46.040 --> 00:08:55.160 Spore had a theater built for the 1933 pageant of progress on Lakefront and he called it 92 00:08:55.920 --> 00:09:02.000 the Spore Spectacular but it bumped its head and it kindly faded out. 93 00:09:02.840 --> 00:09:04.020 It was wonderful pictures. 94 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:11.020 I don't remember whether I mentioned Luella Parson in connection with S&A. 95 00:09:12.560 --> 00:09:19.240 When I met her, when I saw her, she was only a teenager herself and she got fooling around 96 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:26.800 a miniature out in the lab part that Leperty was working on and he almost threw her out 97 00:09:26.800 --> 00:09:27.620 on her face. 98 00:09:27.620 --> 00:09:33.780 So she was never in the laboratory after that and very seldom in the studio. 99 00:09:33.880 --> 00:09:35.140 She wasn't too well liked. 100 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:39.540 She operated mostly out of the main office down in Clark Street. 101 00:09:40.580 --> 00:09:45.020 I mentioned Billy West in connection with the Emerald Studio on LaSalle Street. 102 00:09:45.560 --> 00:09:46.980 Billy West was that character. 103 00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:48.780 He was quite well known. 104 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:53.320 He more or less imitated Chaplin and did pretty well. 105 00:09:53.320 --> 00:09:58.260 He faded out and went back into Vaudeville but that was that. 106 00:09:59.900 --> 00:10:03.260 We talked of Daisy Films when I was talking to you. 107 00:10:03.280 --> 00:10:04.520 Daisy Films. 108 00:10:04.980 --> 00:10:11.680 That was a couple of actors got together and they were going to make rural comedies, 109 00:10:11.860 --> 00:10:20.420 one real rural comedies and we did make three of them out around Bellwood and that neighborhood. 110 00:10:20.980 --> 00:10:26.680 Bellwood, Illinois is a short distance out of Chicago and at that time it was an absolute wilderness 111 00:10:27.580 --> 00:10:33.080 and there was a creek run through and we had some backwoods farmhouse there. 112 00:10:33.140 --> 00:10:36.860 The farmer and his wife were trying to make a living with a bunch of kids. 113 00:10:37.220 --> 00:10:40.680 So we had complete use of that farmhouse for weeks. 114 00:10:42.220 --> 00:10:47.140 But the thing was short-lived and he couldn't pay his bills and one day he run off with all 115 00:10:47.140 --> 00:10:50.160 my negatives when I wasn't around so that settled there.