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The Film Era, 1912-1970
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Charles Ray on the Mayflower set in "The Courtship of Myles Standish," 1923 (Eugene L. Hilchey, Century Archives) |
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KCET, located at 4401 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, has a rich history as a producer and distributor of bold and original public television programming.
But did you know that the KCET studio is located on a piece of land that's rich in Hollywood history?
Prior to the purchase of the property in 1970 by KCET's parent company, Community Television of Southern California, the land that now houses the TV station was for many years a movie studio. Some of the studios that made films on this property included Lubin, Essanay, Willis and Inglis, J.D. Hampton, Charles Ray, Ralph Like, Monogram, Allied Artists and ColorVision.
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On the set of Monogram's "Top Sergeant Mulligan," September 1941 (Marc Wanamaker, Bison Archives)
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But even though the best-known movies were made elsewhere, the history of the property at 4401 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood is filled with the same kind of colorful characters, great hopes, hard work, hard luck, grit and determination that made the Hollywood film industry what it is today. And they helped make Los Angeles what it is today. Let's take a look at some of them.A few notable films were made here - such as "Friendly Persuasion," "Hurricane," and the cult classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
However, most of the films made on the property fall squarely into the "B" category. Even if you're not familiar with the films themselves, the titles tell the story - "The Queen of Outer Space," starring Zsa Zsa Gabor. "Sex Kittens Go To College," with Mamie Van Doren. Even Elvis Presley's "Tickle Me" (made when Allied Artists was located here) is not known as one of his greatest efforts. |
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The Silent Era
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| The area that was the first home of major film production in the Los Angeles area was east of Silverlake, known as Edendale, where the Selig and New York Motion Picture Corporation were located in 1909. Other film companies in the area included Biograph at Pico and Georgia Streets in 1910, where legendary director D.W. Griffith rented space. In late 1911 the Nestor Company was located at Gower and Sunset in Hollywood.
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Lubin Film/Lubin Manufacturing
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The cast and crew of "Buffalo Bill" starring Buck Taylor, November 1912 (Marc Wanamaker, Bison Archives) |
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In early 1912, filmmaking began at 1425 Fleming Street (now, Hoover Street) in east Hollywood, on part of what is now the KCET studio lot. Siegmund "Pop" Lubin, a Philadelphia-based manufacturer of cameras, projectors, and printing machines, had produced his first film in 1897 and established a west coast base on this property in January 1912.
"Pop" Lubin has been described by a biographer as "part philanthropist and part con man." Born in 1851, Lubin was a European immigrant who came to the US in 1876. He was a traveling peddler, did some gold prospecting; his reputation as a great storyteller got him a contract offer as a Vaudeville comedian. He finally settled in Philadelphia where he ran an optical shop.
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It was his knowledge of lenses and interest in photography that led Lubin to develop a motion picture projector. He made his own films and built a chain of theatres in which to show them.
Some critics of Lubin say that Lubin was not always "ethical" in his practices. He was known to remake someone else's film, scene for scene and shot for shot. In 1903, Edison's classic "The Great Train Robbery" was released. In 1904, Lubin released "The Bold Bank Robbery" with a very similar story (minus the train). Lubin spent much of his career in the film industry battling copyright infringement lawsuits from Edison. Edison waged a ten-year legal war against many film companies, including Lubin's.
The courtroom battle with Edison ended in 1909 with the formation of the Motion Pictures Patents Company, by Edison and each of the companies he claimed were infringing on his copyrights. The companies agreed to pay Edison a royalty, and Edison agreed to acknowledge the legality of their various patents. The "Trust," as it was called, survived until an anti-trust suit in 1916 brought it to an end.
The west coast branch of Lubin Manufacturing Company located here in 1912 produced "An Alligator Farm" and "An Ostrich and Pigeon Farm." Interestingly, these were educational films. Lubin sold this Hollywood property on Fleming Street in 1913, to the Essanay Film Company. (Lubin moved his operations to East Los Angeles.)
Lubin Film Company operated studios throughout the country. The one in Philadelphia was the most modern, state-of-the-art studio of its day. At its peak Lubin owned a chain of motion picture theatres along the East Coast, manufactured and sold motion picture cameras and projectors, employed more than 2,000 actors, writers, directors and technicians and was turning out more than a film a day. In spite of all this, Lubin suffered what was perhaps the fastest nose-dive and dissolution in the history of motion pictures. The beginning of the end for the Lubin empire came in 1914, when a massive film vault explosion destroyed the master film negatives for all of Lubin's films. Then World War I broke out, drying up the foreign market for films. Lubin was forced to close down in 1917.
By 1917, however, the property that is now KCET had changed hands several more times.
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Essanay
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| In 1913, Lubin sold the property to the Chicago-based Essanay Company, named for the management team of George K. Spoor and Western film icon Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson ("S and A"). Anderson was one of the first Western silent film icons, starring in an astonishing 231 films made between 1903 and 1919. Essanay was known best for its slapstick comedies (what one critic referred to as the "breaking-up-a-houseful-of-furniture-and-chase-through-the-street" type). In addition to its Chicago studios, Essanay owned several properties in the Los Angeles Area. At this particular Hollywood property, Essanay was turning out five one-reel Westerns a week. Essanay's tenure was short here, however; they left in April 1913 after only making 20 of the one-reel Westerns.
(Essanay in 1914 made film history by luring Charlie Chaplin away from Mack Sennett's studios. Chaplin made some of his best films for Essanay…but not at the KCET studios.)
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