WEBVTT

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In 1913, and how did you stay on there for several years?

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About three years.

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About three years.

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Then they closed down, did they not, in about 19...

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Well, they closed down, yes, shortly after that, and moved the whole operation out to

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people being out there, that they could make pictures out there for about a third of what

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they cost here.

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Now, S&A, of course, had the largest indoor studio and the best indoor studio in the country.

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There were about...

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Do you remember what kind of lights there were?

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Were there Cooper, Hewitt?

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There were the long Klieg light, what we call the Klieg light.

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And what about Cooper, Hewitt?

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They looked like fluorescent lights.

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That's right.

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They were Cooper, Hewitt lights.

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And...

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Do you remember who installed those?

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I have...

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No.

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That Alan Dwan, was Alan Dwan there when you were there?

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He was the man who installed those.

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No, not that I can remember.

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All right.

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Did you remember...

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I'll just get these questions out of the way, then I'd like to ask you questions about yourself.

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Do you remember the American Film Manufacturing Company?

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Yes.

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Where were they located?

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Well, they were located out on...

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Were they on Broadway?

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Western Avenue.

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No, they were out on Western Avenue.

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That was Seelig on Western Avenue.

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Oh, that's right.

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I'm thinking of Seelig.

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American was up...

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Wasn't it close to Devon Avenue?

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That's right.

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That's right.

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American was up to Devon, up close to Devon, and Seelig was out on Western Avenue.

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Western Irving Park, wasn't it?

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That's right.

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Can you tell me...

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Do you know any of the actors who were at American by any chance?

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They broke off from S&A in 1910, but aside from Jay Warren Kerrigan, I'm wondering who

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was there.

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No, I don't know any of those previous two S&As.

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Did you ever get out to see the Seelig studio by any chance?

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Yes, yes.

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And what was it like?

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Can you describe it?

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Well, Seelig studio is a very fine indoor studio.

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It was not as large as the S&A.

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It was about half as big as the S&A studio.

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Seelig was a very nice man, as I remembered him.

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He ran a pretty good place out there.

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And had several pictures that were...

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He did not have the stars, though, did he, that S&A did?

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No, George K. Spoor, who was the head of S&A, was very fortunate in being able, and was

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a very good administrator.

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And he saw that the thing that would make pictures in those days profitable was to have

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a star.

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So he signed up every star that he could get a hold of, of course.

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Tell me, Bushman had arrived much earlier than you.

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Oh, yeah.

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Frank Bushman was there at the time I was there.

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And Beverly Bain?

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And Beverly Bain and Frank was quite a guy.

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He had five children by his first wife.

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But the studio, and everybody in the studio, kept that very sub rosa because of his image

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of a hero and so forth, and he was a big star in those days.

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And so George K. instructed everybody that they were not to talk about Frank Bushman's

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previous life or his children or things of that kind because they didn't want him to

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know it, you know.

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Bain had arrived, I've tracked down, as early as 1911.

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Was she there before 1911 that you know of?

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No, no.

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I think Beverly came around 1911 and there was a girl in the mail.

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She came in there around in that time.

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Ruth Stonehouse.

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Ruth Stonehouse came from the North Shore, didn't she?

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That's right.

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Do you remember what suburb she came from?

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It seems to me it was Wilmette.

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That's what I heard.

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And that was Ruth Stonehouse.

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Ruth Stonehouse played pretty much the same roles as Beverly Bain, didn't she?

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That's right.

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They were the leading ladies.

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And the leading men of course were Frank Bushman and a fellow by the name of Bryant Washburn,

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who you've probably heard about.

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Yes.

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And of course Wally Berry was there at that time.

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Can you tell me about Wally?

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Wally came to the studio at what time?

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Do you remember?

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Wally came to the SNA around 1913.

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And who hired him or who had seen him?

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I understand that Spore had seen him in a circus and I don't think that's correct.

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No, George K. Spore saw him in New York in a vaudeville skit.

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That's what I thought.

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And hired him to come out here to play comedies.

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And Wally came on the set, as I remember, somewhere around 1930.

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You were already there though.

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That's right.

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And Henry Waltoll?

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And Henry Waltoll came when?

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Because it had to be after the birth of the man.

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Henry Waltoll came there about 1914 or 15, my recollection.

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And Ben Turpin was there from the very beginning, was he not?

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That's right.

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Was he in an awful skate?

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Do you remember that film or hearing about that film?

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An awful skate in which he skates down Clark Street knocking people over.

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No, I don't remember that one, but I can tell you a very funny one about Ben.

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You might be interested in.

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Ben was a circus clown, an acrobat.

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And he didn't have much money.

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And of course in those days they didn't pay an awful lot of money over there at the studio

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and Ben came over there and he wasn't working steadily.

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They didn't, a lot of those people were not what we called on salary.

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They only were paid $10 a day when they worked.

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Well Ben was one of those and he used to get the extras down in the basement, down in the

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basement of the studio over there where the dressingers were, was a cement floor, just

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a cement floor.

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And Ben used to get a bunch of these guys together and bet them that he could do a flip-flop

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and land on his back naked.

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Well of course all these guys thought he was crazy, he couldn't do anything of that kind,

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he'd break his back.

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So he'd get all these guys together and they'd put up a pool of five or six dollars, you

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know, to see him do this thing.

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He'd take off his clothes, turn a flip-flop, and I've seen him do it a half a dozen times,

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turn a flip-flop on that cement floor and land flat on his back.

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Of course he was a clown, a lot of them didn't know it, you know.

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And he was really a very funny guy and a very nice guy.

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He didn't have much education and he knocked around in New York and up Bowery and practiced

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Third Avenue and so on, but he was funny.

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And of course his looks were the greatest asset that he had, the cross-eyed, you know.

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Gloria Swanson was there in 1914 as an extra.

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That's right.

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Tell me, how did she arrive there?

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Well, Gloria Swanson, to my recollection, came there through a man by the name of Dick

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Baker.

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Now, where Dick Baker got Gloria, I don't recall, but Dick Baker was a director.

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He was called Pop Baker, wasn't he?

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Yeah, that's right.

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And he was married to whom?

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He was married to, well, his wife was not in the business, but her son was in the business.

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Mrs.

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She was not an actress?

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No, but Dick was.

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McGray-Webster had a wife who was an actress.

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That's right.

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Henry or Harry McGray-Webster?

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Harry Webster.

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And he had a wife whose name was?

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Yeah, and I'm trying to think of what her name was.

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We'll get that later, that's okay.

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But now you tell me about Dick Baker hired, or Pop Baker hired Gloria Swanson.

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That's right, that's right.

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And of course I did a lot of work with, that's how I happened to go over there was through

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Pop Baker because Pop Baker lived in the same building that we did.

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Where was that?

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At 1218 Winamac, which is the street, the site of where our guy, where the studio was.

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And I had done some work in high school, one thing or another, and Dick and the families

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were very close, so Dick asked me one day, or asked my mother and father if I could come

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over to the studio, he'd like to use me in a picture.

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So my mother and father agreed, it would be alright, so that was how I went into the thing.

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Very good.

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Now Pop Baker, I was told, he did the Wally Berry, he did a lot of the comedy.

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He did the Wally Berry stuff, he did what they called, there was a series called the

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Sweedy Pictures where Wally played a Swede maid.

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Do you have any knowledge of any of those old films by any chance, whether they exist?

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No, I don't know whether they would even exist, I don't know where they would be.

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He did the Sweedy films and...

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And he did some other things, different types of...

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Were they mostly comedies though?

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Yeah.

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Where had he gotten his training, was it in Vaudeville?

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In Vaudeville.

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Uh huh, and he had, in Vaudeville, and did he bring Francis X Bushman there too?

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I was told that...

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No, Frank Bushman was there before Wally.

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Alright, before Baker too, or had Baker been there before?

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Frank was there before Baker.

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Frank was one of George K. Spore's first big stars.

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I mean he was one of the first ones he hired when he had the studio going good.

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He had been though in stock, Bushman had been in stock, and one of the directors was, Webster

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was one of the first directors.

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Harry Webster was one of the first directors.

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He probably brought Bushman there.

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That's right.

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I would imagine.

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Did GM Anderson, Gilbert Anderson, did he direct anything while you were there?

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Or was he already on the show?

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Anderson and Spore, that's where the name comes from, SNA.

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Anderson wanted to do Westerns.

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He didn't want anything but Westerns.

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He was a typical cowboy, a Bronco Billy.

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So he was in California all the time.

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He'd do his pictures, he'd make his pictures out there, send them to us here, and the studio

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would develop them here and distribute them from this place.

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But this was the Bronco Billy Anderson series of things that he made out there, which were

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all those Western pictures.

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Do you remember Victor Potel?

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Yes.

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He started out here, but then he went out to the West.

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Went out there with GM Anderson.

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Were there many who had left then to join Anderson?

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No, not too many.

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He had his own group out there.

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He had some of those old guys with him that used to be with Mabel Norman's director.

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What the hell was his name?

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You mean Max Sinnet?

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Max Sinnet.

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He had Chester Conklin with him for a while out there.

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Then he had another cowboy, Hoot Gibson.

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Do you remember Hoot Gibson?

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Was Hoot Gibson with him at all?

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Sure.

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Hoot worked with him.

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In those days, Bronco Billy, with the GM Anderson stuff out there, was one of the biggest in

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the whole business.

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At that time, when he was out there, he was the only one practically that was out there

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making pictures in California.

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All the rest of the studios, Vitagraph, Biograph, all those outfits were in New York and New

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Jersey.

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He was the guy who not only sold his partner's board, but it was cheaper to make pictures

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out there.

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Of course, all the rest of the industry heard about it and knew about it and looked into

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it and they found out what the hell.

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They could make a picture for a third as much money as they didn't have to use lights and

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they didn't have to have indoor.

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The weather was good most of the time.

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They didn't have to worry about snow in wintertime.

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Of course, the pictures in those days were a scream because you'd get a scene in a living

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home, for example.

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Of course, they built these sets out outdoors and you'd get a scene in a living room, say,

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and here'd be all the goddamn curtains blown out the windows and everything else.

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But nobody paid any attention to those things in those days.

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Let me ask you, did you ever hear of the Lubin Studios?

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Yes.

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They were in Philadelphia.

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They were in Philadelphia.

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All right, tell me now, what was the most surprising thing when you went over to the

249
00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:33.820
studio for the first time?

250
00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:36.820
When you met up, who did you meet?

251
00:15:36.980 --> 00:15:46.700
Well, when I went over there first, one of the first persons I met was, of course, Gloria

252
00:15:46.700 --> 00:16:01.160
Swanson and a girl by the name of June Walker who later went on to star in musical comedy.

253
00:16:03.140 --> 00:16:09.600
And for a good many years in New York and Broadway, she had done very well.

254
00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:12.960
One of the biggest things she did was Green Grow the Lilacs.

255
00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:17.900
And she and I did a show.

256
00:16:17.940 --> 00:16:23.540
We were going to do a picture over there together, a couple of kids in a picture, where we had

257
00:16:23.540 --> 00:16:24.420
to dance.

258
00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:30.980
And I didn't know too much about dancing in those days.

259
00:16:32.920 --> 00:16:36.880
And we had a fellow over there by the name of Joe Burke who was an old, vaudeville guy.

260
00:16:37.320 --> 00:16:38.200
What did he do?

261
00:16:38.800 --> 00:16:39.300
Was he an actor?

262
00:16:39.300 --> 00:16:41.700
Well, he was an actor and a singer and a dancer.

263
00:16:43.620 --> 00:16:46.840
And so he said, well, I'll teach you both how to dance.

264
00:16:47.100 --> 00:16:53.340
So every day for four or five weeks, we'd have lessons with him in the morning and in

265
00:16:53.340 --> 00:16:53.960
the afternoon.

266
00:16:55.060 --> 00:16:59.700
And June and I, we got so we could do some of the things and we were all right for the

267
00:16:59.700 --> 00:16:59.900
picture.

268
00:17:00.160 --> 00:17:01.680
But they were the first two.

269
00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:04.780
Then, of course, Pop Baker who took me over there.

270
00:17:06.340 --> 00:17:10.940
And then there was a fellow over there who was a leading man who I was very fond of.

271
00:17:11.140 --> 00:17:11.900
Come in.

272
00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:14.340
What's the name of Dick Travers?

273
00:17:15.460 --> 00:17:16.240
Richard Travers.

274
00:17:16.560 --> 00:17:17.200
Do you have anything?

275
00:17:18.100 --> 00:17:20.580
He was a great guy, Dick has.

276
00:17:20.820 --> 00:17:22.640
You were talking about the acting, singing, dancing.

277
00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:23.320
Joe Burke was.

278
00:17:23.700 --> 00:17:23.780
Yeah.

279
00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:24.980
And then Travers comes in.

280
00:17:25.060 --> 00:17:31.720
And Travers came in and we did a picture with him called the Mounties or something.

281
00:17:36.660 --> 00:17:39.880
We went up and shot part of this picture.

282
00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:48.760
And we used to go up to Nile Center, which was then out in the country.

283
00:17:49.760 --> 00:17:53.180
And we drew a lot of outdoor scenes up there.

284
00:17:53.720 --> 00:18:04.720
And then one time we did a picture on the first, on a book by a guy that lived in Lake Forest,

285
00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:06.960
Hobart Chatfield Taylor.

286
00:18:10.780 --> 00:18:19.620
And we had to have castle scenes in this thing and all kinds of fancy stuff.

287
00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:31.760
So he worked it out with Edie Rockfellow McCormick up there who had their estate that she would allow us to come up there

288
00:18:31.760 --> 00:18:34.340
and take this picture on this estate.

289
00:18:34.360 --> 00:18:35.460
So we went up there.

290
00:18:36.360 --> 00:18:37.660
What was that, Lake Forest?

291
00:18:37.820 --> 00:18:38.460
Lake Forest.

292
00:18:38.780 --> 00:18:42.060
And stayed for three or four days and shot this picture up there.

293
00:18:44.020 --> 00:18:45.440
Who was the director on that, do you remember?

294
00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:48.320
The director on that was a fellow by the name of Calvert.

295
00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:51.300
Yes, and when did he come in? Because I have pictures of him.

296
00:18:51.300 --> 00:18:52.260
E.H. Calvert.

297
00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:53.480
Well, you have a picture of him too.

298
00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:54.500
Yeah, I have some pictures.

299
00:18:55.040 --> 00:18:57.020
Where did he come from? Where did Calvert come from?

300
00:18:57.040 --> 00:19:02.080
He came, all of them came from New York. He came from New York.

301
00:19:02.760 --> 00:19:05.320
See, they had heard about SNA.

302
00:19:05.580 --> 00:19:07.160
And they directed for films before.

303
00:19:07.540 --> 00:19:09.120
No, no.

304
00:19:09.260 --> 00:19:10.100
Stock companies?

305
00:19:10.800 --> 00:19:13.840
Stock company. Most of these people were out of stock companies.

306
00:19:14.180 --> 00:19:17.060
All right. And Harry McRae Webster was also out of stock.

307
00:19:17.180 --> 00:19:17.660
That's right.

308
00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:19.080
Is it M-A-C-R-A-E?

309
00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:20.620
That's right.

310
00:19:20.920 --> 00:19:29.420
Webster, okay. And no, I was also told that the armor estate was used. McCormick's, what is the armor estate?

311
00:19:29.420 --> 00:19:34.260
It was used, the armor estate, once or twice for other...

312
00:19:34.260 --> 00:19:36.660
It doesn't look like a castle, but this McCormick place.

313
00:19:37.560 --> 00:19:41.220
McCormick, you know, was on the lake. She had a beautiful place up there.

314
00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:42.680
She used to come out and watch the things.

315
00:19:43.420 --> 00:19:44.980
What was her first name? Edie?

316
00:19:45.140 --> 00:19:47.220
Edie Rockefeller McCormick.

317
00:19:47.380 --> 00:19:49.020
Edie Rockefeller, yeah, that's right.

318
00:19:49.180 --> 00:19:51.840
That's old John Dee's daughter, you know.

319
00:19:53.360 --> 00:19:56.720
And you did that, and it was directed by E.H. Calvert.

320
00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:00.380
Do you remember any of the other directors who directed you and others there?

321
00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:11.260
Well, there was a fellow, there was Travers, and there was a fellow by the name of Totten, who was a very good director.

322
00:20:11.500 --> 00:20:17.420
And I did a picture with him where he took us down to the sea picture.

323
00:20:17.740 --> 00:20:23.580
And we spent five or six weeks down at Watch Hill, Rhode Island, one year.

324
00:20:23.580 --> 00:20:27.520
A lot of interesting stuff.

325
00:20:27.880 --> 00:20:36.200
But he was an old stockman. All these people were from New York, in and around the city of New York.

326
00:20:36.860 --> 00:20:41.640
They'd done stock, they'd been on Broadway, they'd done a little bit of everything.

327
00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:44.100
And Spore was the man who really got in touch with them.

328
00:20:44.140 --> 00:20:44.920
That's right.

329
00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:50.020
So he had a good eye. Totten, any other directors whom you know?

330
00:20:51.300 --> 00:20:53.300
Well, I'm trying to think.

331
00:20:54.440 --> 00:20:59.020
There was Totten, Calvert, Webster, Baker.

332
00:21:01.340 --> 00:21:03.380
And there was another fellow.

333
00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:06.260
Berry directed a few things, did he not, toward the end?

334
00:21:06.340 --> 00:21:09.460
Yeah, yeah. Before he went to California.

335
00:21:09.780 --> 00:21:11.160
He began directing. Did he go to...

336
00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:16.040
And then we had, well, Henry Walto.

337
00:21:16.800 --> 00:21:18.220
Came in at about fifteen, you think.

338
00:21:18.220 --> 00:21:19.160
That's right.

339
00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:28.680
And then right after him, Spore signed the big contract.

340
00:21:28.780 --> 00:21:33.240
In those days, it got terrific publicity all over of Charlie Chaplin.

341
00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:37.140
And Chaplin came in in the winter of 1914.

342
00:21:37.460 --> 00:21:38.400
That's right.

343
00:21:38.820 --> 00:21:39.880
Did you get to meet him?

344
00:21:40.540 --> 00:21:40.820
Yes.

345
00:21:42.300 --> 00:21:46.080
Most of the people I've interviewed were very much down on him because he was so aloof.

346
00:21:46.080 --> 00:21:47.520
But that doesn't mean anything at all.

347
00:21:47.520 --> 00:21:50.120
Oh, no. He wasn't particularly aloof.

348
00:21:52.820 --> 00:21:55.940
Charlie Chaplin was a typical Englishman.

349
00:21:57.180 --> 00:22:00.840
And he was a top money guy by far.

350
00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:09.720
Now, Spore paid him, it was reported, that he got $750 a week.

351
00:22:09.720 --> 00:22:16.880
And my God, in those days, you know, that was just like $50,000 a week today.

352
00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:17.580
Of course it is.

353
00:22:18.980 --> 00:22:23.640
And Henry Walto got big money.

354
00:22:25.120 --> 00:22:28.000
But that went all over like wildfire, you know.

355
00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:34.020
But Charlie was a good guy, and I have a picture of him here.

356
00:22:34.220 --> 00:22:35.720
Did you show him your picture?

357
00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:37.520
Well, he was doing some other...

358
00:22:37.520 --> 00:22:38.600
I just wanted to...

359
00:22:38.600 --> 00:22:42.520
Chaplin, however, though, was...

360
00:22:43.360 --> 00:22:47.900
When he came in, he had not been making very much at Senate Studios.

361
00:22:48.660 --> 00:22:55.040
And when he came in here, Molly Anderson met him at the train, I understand.

362
00:22:55.560 --> 00:22:59.440
But Spore was very unhappy that Bronco Billy signed him up.

363
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:00.660
Is that...

364
00:23:01.300 --> 00:23:02.060
That's correct.

365
00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:02.960
Because he didn't...

366
00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:03.660
He didn't meet the train.

367
00:23:03.940 --> 00:23:04.820
He signed...

368
00:23:04.820 --> 00:23:06.400
Bronco Billy signed him up.

369
00:23:06.780 --> 00:23:07.120
Right.

370
00:23:07.120 --> 00:23:08.460
But Spore didn't know much about it.

371
00:23:08.780 --> 00:23:08.780


372
00:23:08.900 --> 00:23:09.860
And he was very worried.

373
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:10.940
Very much upset.

374
00:23:11.420 --> 00:23:12.700
That Anderson had gone out of his mind.

375
00:23:12.860 --> 00:23:13.360
That's right.

376
00:23:13.520 --> 00:23:16.760
Now Spore later claims that he buys him an overcoat.

377
00:23:16.920 --> 00:23:19.380
I understand that Molly bought him an overcoat, not Spore.

378
00:23:19.580 --> 00:23:20.460
So this is...

379
00:23:20.460 --> 00:23:21.880
Well, that may be it.

380
00:23:22.180 --> 00:23:22.480
Right.

381
00:23:23.020 --> 00:23:25.360
I'm just saying that he didn't have any money until he came here.

382
00:23:25.500 --> 00:23:25.980
No.

383
00:23:26.180 --> 00:23:26.480
No.

384
00:23:26.560 --> 00:23:28.480
He came off the boat practically.

385
00:23:28.660 --> 00:23:28.660


386
00:23:28.660 --> 00:23:33.040
But he had a very wonderful reputation, of course, in England, you see.

387
00:23:33.040 --> 00:23:40.280
And Bronco Billy apparently had heard about it through some of these people in California.

388
00:23:40.600 --> 00:23:45.040
So he was figuring that he'd snare them for George K. Spore here.

389
00:23:46.540 --> 00:23:49.500
Now, do you remember the studios on Argyle?

390
00:23:49.620 --> 00:23:52.260
There was Studio A, or did they call it One?

391
00:23:52.260 --> 00:23:53.500
They called it A, didn't they?

392
00:23:53.660 --> 00:23:54.780
And Studio B.

393
00:23:55.060 --> 00:23:56.880
A was in 1333.

394
00:23:57.780 --> 00:24:01.100
And B was really beginning of 1345.

395
00:24:01.100 --> 00:24:03.260
That was the later and the larger studio.

396
00:24:03.260 --> 00:24:03.540
That's right.

397
00:24:03.600 --> 00:24:04.360
They were double.

398
00:24:04.900 --> 00:24:08.360
In the A portion, that was where the laboratory was, am I correct?

399
00:24:08.360 --> 00:24:09.120
That's right.

400
00:24:09.420 --> 00:24:13.100
Now the laboratory had been on Well Street prior to that, though, had it not?

401
00:24:13.540 --> 00:24:19.160
Well, I didn't know too much about the Well Street operation, but they started in the

402
00:24:19.160 --> 00:24:19.940
picture business.

403
00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:28.280
George K. started in the picture business, primarily developing pictures in movie film,

404
00:24:28.380 --> 00:24:28.940
you see.

405
00:24:28.940 --> 00:24:34.120
And experimenting with all types of movie film and experimenting with cameras.

406
00:24:35.180 --> 00:24:41.940
And we had a fellow who was the head of the camera department by the name of Harry Zeck.

407
00:24:43.160 --> 00:24:44.920
He had been brought in from the East, hadn't he?

408
00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:45.600
That's right.

409
00:24:45.840 --> 00:24:46.920
Harry Zeck brought in.

410
00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:48.520
What's the studio from where he worked for?

411
00:24:49.360 --> 00:24:49.920
Do you remember?

412
00:24:50.040 --> 00:24:53.940
I don't recall what studio Harry worked for, but he developed further.

413
00:24:54.600 --> 00:24:55.800
How do you spell his last name?

414
00:24:55.880 --> 00:24:57.520
Z-E-C-K.

415
00:24:57.520 --> 00:24:59.340
Harry Zeck, uh-huh.

416
00:24:59.500 --> 00:25:07.760
And he developed further the motion picture camera, which later, a lot of the patents

417
00:25:07.760 --> 00:25:14.320
and things were sold to Bell and Howell and developed into the Bell and Howell camera.

418
00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:18.880
There was also Conrad Luperty there.

419
00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:20.140
Do you remember him at all?

420
00:25:20.200 --> 00:25:24.680
Conrad Luperty, Zeck, George Seitz.

421
00:25:24.800 --> 00:25:25.900
You're talking about?

422
00:25:26.540 --> 00:25:27.240
The technical people.

423
00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:28.200
The technical people.

424
00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:30.680
There was a, yeah, what was it?

425
00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:33.660
Conrad Luperty was from Bremen, Germany, if I'm not mistaken.

426
00:25:33.780 --> 00:25:34.560
That's right.

427
00:25:34.780 --> 00:25:36.800
And he had another name.

428
00:25:37.100 --> 00:25:38.120
We called him something else.

429
00:25:38.320 --> 00:25:38.560
Loopy.

430
00:25:39.840 --> 00:25:40.340
Loopy.

431
00:25:40.580 --> 00:25:41.020
Loopy.

432
00:25:41.560 --> 00:25:42.300
That's it.

433
00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:45.200
Then we had a fellow by the name of George Carnell.

434
00:25:45.800 --> 00:25:47.020
I don't know that.

435
00:25:47.120 --> 00:25:48.520
Who was a?

436
00:25:48.620 --> 00:25:48.980
Carnell?

437
00:25:49.100 --> 00:25:49.480
Yeah.

438
00:25:49.660 --> 00:25:51.380
He had charge of distribution.

439
00:25:52.380 --> 00:26:00.120
George was an old, uh, vaudeville man and stage man of all kinds, and he was quite a

440
00:26:00.120 --> 00:26:03.020
guy and a great deal of help to George.

441
00:26:03.020 --> 00:26:04.100
He was a publicity man, too?

442
00:26:04.300 --> 00:26:05.280
He was a publicity man.

443
00:26:05.600 --> 00:26:10.880
Well, the big publicity we had in those days was Louella.

444
00:26:11.980 --> 00:26:16.060
See, Louella came out from the, she worked for, uh...

445
00:26:16.060 --> 00:26:17.420
What paper did she work for?

446
00:26:17.580 --> 00:26:19.080
Well, I'm trying to think.

447
00:26:19.080 --> 00:26:21.080
It was either the American...

448
00:26:23.640 --> 00:26:25.720
She worked for paper first, didn't she?

449
00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:26.200
Yeah.

450
00:26:26.620 --> 00:26:28.560
And then she came to the Clark Street address.

451
00:26:28.580 --> 00:26:34.520
She came out part-time to, uh, do some work for George K. Bush.

452
00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:36.460
Still kept her job downtown.

453
00:26:37.420 --> 00:26:40.080
And she worked at the Clark Street address before the, um...

454
00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:42.940
There was a Clark Street studio, if I'm not mistaken.

455
00:26:42.940 --> 00:26:43.680
That's right.

456
00:26:43.900 --> 00:26:44.860
She worked there.

457
00:26:44.940 --> 00:26:46.920
She did publicity work for that.

458
00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:47.840
At Clark Street.

459
00:26:48.020 --> 00:26:48.640
That's right.

460
00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:53.140
And then the laboratory was really located on Wells Street.

461
00:26:53.160 --> 00:26:54.460
Wells and...

462
00:26:54.460 --> 00:26:55.300
Eustanian Wells, right?

463
00:26:55.300 --> 00:26:55.940
That's right.

464
00:26:56.700 --> 00:27:00.640
And then after that, they moved into the quarters, what, in 19...

465
00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:03.920
Probably 9, wasn't it, over on...

466
00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:04.600
Somewhere around, yeah.

467
00:27:04.600 --> 00:27:06.900
...by 1909 when Studio A was built.

468
00:27:06.900 --> 00:27:10.520
Yeah, because it was pretty new and...

469
00:27:10.520 --> 00:27:10.540
Right.

470
00:27:11.700 --> 00:27:17.440
Um, the, um...

471
00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:18.420
George K. Bush, who was a professor at the time,

472
00:27:18.420 --> 00:27:19.920
came up with a magnoscope.

473
00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:20.620
He wasn't he.

474
00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:23.920
It was a man by the name of, um...

475
00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:24.740
Edwin Hill...

476
00:27:24.740 --> 00:27:27.260
Edward Hill Amet in Waukegan.

477
00:27:27.340 --> 00:27:29.980
And in 1894, they projected...

478
00:27:29.980 --> 00:27:33.880
There was one of the first of the wall projections with the magnoscope,

479
00:27:33.900 --> 00:27:37.060
which was a remake of the Kinetoscope, using calcium light.

480
00:27:38.420 --> 00:27:39.460
And, um...

481
00:27:39.460 --> 00:27:43.640
Out of this came the magnoscope, which was used in vaudeville houses,

482
00:27:43.640 --> 00:27:47.720
and George would buy or make short strips of film,

483
00:27:47.740 --> 00:27:49.620
used as chasers in the vaudeville houses.

484
00:27:49.860 --> 00:27:51.700
And that's where he started and made his money.

485
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:52.200
That's right.

486
00:27:52.220 --> 00:27:55.040
And that's how he then got enough money to start the studio, wasn't it?

487
00:27:55.860 --> 00:27:55.980
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

488
00:27:55.980 --> 00:27:58.860
Now, did Seeley do the same thing pretty much, didn't he?

489
00:27:58.900 --> 00:27:59.320
Because he was...

490
00:27:59.320 --> 00:28:00.680
I think he did, yes.

491
00:28:00.760 --> 00:28:03.000
I never knew too much about Seeley.

492
00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:05.140
He had a little office over on Peck Court.

493
00:28:05.180 --> 00:28:07.760
Now, was Peck Court in a dubious section of the city?

494
00:28:07.760 --> 00:28:09.800
They said it was the red light section of the city.

495
00:28:10.060 --> 00:28:11.600
Peck Court, it no longer exists.

496
00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:13.120
Yeah, I don't recall.

497
00:28:13.120 --> 00:28:16.440
He had a little shop where he sold photographic supplies and so on,

498
00:28:16.500 --> 00:28:17.760
and then strips of film.

499
00:28:17.800 --> 00:28:21.560
And I have a note that George even bought from him some film.

500
00:28:21.720 --> 00:28:23.060
Oh, he might have, I don't know.

501
00:28:24.280 --> 00:28:25.760
So that it probably...

502
00:28:26.520 --> 00:28:28.780
Their careers probably paralleled each other.

503
00:28:29.260 --> 00:28:29.260


504
00:28:29.340 --> 00:28:30.680
And, um...

505
00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:32.060
Now, he had...

506
00:28:32.060 --> 00:28:33.480
Let me just go over there for a minute.

507
00:28:33.600 --> 00:28:35.760
He had, um...

508
00:28:35.760 --> 00:28:39.080
Kathleen Williams. Do you remember Kathleen Williams?

509
00:28:39.100 --> 00:28:39.480
Sure, sure.

510
00:28:39.520 --> 00:28:41.340
She had very good training in the theater, didn't she?

511
00:28:41.340 --> 00:28:44.680
The Pearls of Pauline with Pearl White.

512
00:28:45.520 --> 00:28:48.080
And Kathleen Williams, I'm trying to think of the series.

513
00:28:48.180 --> 00:28:51.680
That was the first of the series, The Adventures of Kathleen.

514
00:28:51.700 --> 00:28:53.580
That was before Pearl White, wasn't it?

515
00:28:53.720 --> 00:28:56.000
The Adventures of Kathleen was before Pearl White.

516
00:28:56.240 --> 00:28:56.780
That's right.

517
00:28:57.080 --> 00:29:00.500
And Pearl White followed The Adventures of Kathleen.

518
00:29:01.140 --> 00:29:03.760
Because that was the start of the series.

519
00:29:03.760 --> 00:29:05.500
Right, the cliffhanging serials, really.

520
00:29:05.660 --> 00:29:09.960
Now, were they made at Sea League Chicago Studio?

521
00:29:11.180 --> 00:29:18.520
My recollection, Bill, is that The Pearls of...

522
00:29:18.520 --> 00:29:23.400
or The Adventures of Kathleen was made here.

523
00:29:23.940 --> 00:29:28.280
But The Pearls of Pauline was made by Vitagraph in New York.

524
00:29:28.680 --> 00:29:29.260
Pathé.

525
00:29:29.520 --> 00:29:30.100
Pathé.

526
00:29:30.300 --> 00:29:32.320
And they were made by George Seitz, who was director.

527
00:29:32.320 --> 00:29:32.680
That's right.

528
00:29:33.660 --> 00:29:37.400
I got a letter from his son, and his grandson is in film,

529
00:29:37.460 --> 00:29:39.120
so they're three generations in film.

530
00:29:39.780 --> 00:29:40.980
I just got a letter from him today.

531
00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:42.800
Would you like something to drink or anything?

532
00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:44.380
Coffee if you have it, but if you don't have it...

533
00:29:44.380 --> 00:29:46.040
I'll make some instant for you. Is that all right?

534
00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:47.620
Do you want cream in it or anything?

535
00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:49.160
Just black. Thank you very much.

536
00:29:49.280 --> 00:29:50.000
You don't fix it?

537
00:29:50.180 --> 00:29:51.120
Coffee is all you want?

538
00:29:51.640 --> 00:29:52.400
You want any hard liquor?

539
00:29:52.460 --> 00:29:53.400
No, no, thank you.