Silents are Golden: A History of the Iconic Vitagraph Studios

Silence is Golden: A Story of the Legendary Vitagraph Studios

If you’re even remotely interested in silent films, you’re no doubt familiar with Keystone Film Company and Biograph — not to mention Studios Georges Méliès and Edison. But how well do you know Vitagraph Studios?

Prolific in its day, Vitagraph predates Hollywood itself. Not only was it one of the earliest film studios, it also created one of the very first movie stars – and is usually credited with creating the very first animal star as well. It was also held in high esteem by his contemporaries. In honor of the studio’s 21st anniversary in 1918, the film magazine was released photography wrote, “The history of Vitagraph is largely the history of the film industry, for the organization has never lost its place among the top tier of producers.”

It certainly had humble beginnings. Founder James Stuart Blackton, whose family emigrated from England when he was ten, became a reporter and illustrator in New York City. He also appeared in an eclectic variety show with Albert E. Smith that employed magic tricks, ventriloquism, flash sketches, magic lanterns and more. In 1896, Blackton was fortunate enough to be commissioned to interview Thomas Edison about his filmmaking process. During a tour of the famed Black Maria film studio, Blackton had the opportunity to be filmed making a flash sketch of Edison. Intrigued by the whole experience, Blackton bought the finished film, several other films, and a Vitascope (or projector). These proved to be a great complement to the vaudeville act, and it wasn’t long before Blackton and Smith considered: Why not make their own films? And so Vitagraph was born – and in direct competition with the studio that developed the Vitascope, we might add.

Blackton and Smith’s first studio couldn’t have been simpler. They haggled to rent a cheap office in a building at 140 Nassau Street. Its location on the 13th floor was in close proximity to the roof where a small set was being built. As this was a time before sensible studio lighting was invented, access to plenty of natural light was a must. Smith claimed her first film was The burglar on the roof (1897 or 1898) – clearly inspired by its surroundings – shows a burglar stealing objects through the skylight before being beaten by women wielding brooms. Her budget totaled $3.50, and the plot twist was reportedly inspired by the janitor’s wife stumbling onto the set and mistaking the acting for reality.

Vitagraph began producing a range of very short dramatic films and light comedies, and also wasted no time in producing newsreels, including the famous 1898 filming of the Spanish-American War (although some films were “assisted” by staging naval battles in a studio bathtub). A film with the self-explanatory name Tear down the Spanish flag (1898) was published almost the second the war began and caused a great uproar. Vitagraph would also feel reassured having negotiated a film distribution deal with the notoriously litigious Edison company. This would help keep the studio relatively safe from allegations of patent infringement – a real problem in the early years of cinema.

By 1906, Vitagraph had sufficient success and resources to set up a proper studio in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn (they had previously moved to a better location on Nassau Street but had outgrown there). Located at East 14th Street and Locust Avenue, it featured a large glass-roofed studio, offices, shops and storage buildings, and of course the all-important editing room. 1906 was also the year that actress Florence Turner signed with Vitagraph. Back then, actors in movies were uncredited, but audiences became familiar with certain faces and craved to see more of them. In Turner’s case, viewers dubbed her the “Vitagraph Girl” and wanted to know who she was. She is considered one of the earliest movie stars, slightly older than Florence Lawrence (who joined Vitagraph around the same time).

As both the technology and the art of film developed rapidly, Vitagraph recruited hundreds of employees – by 1915 there were about 1200 – and more movie stars. Leading actor Maurice Costello is considered the first matinee idol and has often starred in adaptations of famous books, e.g A fairy tale about two cities (1911). He also caused some consternation in the studio when he declared his intention to work only as an actor and not to help with cleaning, setting up sets, or working in the wardrobe (in those casual early days, it was common for actors to do double duty). Jean the Vitagraph dog, a well-behaved Scotch Collie created by writer Laurence Trimble, is credited as cinema’s first animal star.

Burly comedian John Bunny arrived in the studio in 1910 and became one of the most recognizable faces in American film, especially when he worked with scrawny comedian Flora Finch. The couple was extremely popular, and theaters frequently asked Vitagraph for “more rabbit finches.” Her best-known comedy today is A cure for pokeritis (1912), in which the sated wife Flora decides to fight her husband’s poker addiction by staging a fake police raid. Unfortunately, Bunny’s film career was short-lived and he died of Bright’s disease in 1915. Finch continued to make comedies, although the “Bunnyfinches” were certainly the highlights of her career.

Despite its uniqueness, Vitagraph enjoyed a solid reputation until its business suffered a setback during World War I The battle cry of peace (1915) is considered one of the greatest propaganda films of the war. Other major studios gained ground and foreign distributors began to migrate. After the war, slapstick comedian Larry Semon became Vitagraph’s biggest star, but as the stunts and gags in his comedies became more elaborate — and expensive — the alarmed studio made him its own producer.

In 1925, after almost 30 years in business, a run-down Vitagraph was bought by Warner Brothers. Renamed Vitaphone, it would specialize in a number of early sound shorts. Over the course of the following decades, the Vitagraph name was revived numerous times before finally being retired in the 1960s. And though the once-prolific Midwood studio complex was demolished in 2015, a tall brick chimney bearing the name “VITAGRAPH” still stands, a reminder of the bygone days of 10-minute dramas and bunnyfinches.

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–Lea Stans for Classic Movie Hub

Here you can read all of Lea’s Silents are Golden articles.

Lea Stans is a Minnesota-born and raised actress with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely credits to Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion on her website Silent-ology, she is also a columnist for Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.