Chicago, Illinois, the Silent Movie Capital of the World. The Essanay and Selig Companies History.

The Essanay Film Company
During the early era of silent films, Chicago was the movie-making capital of the world.

One-fifth of the silent films produced in America were produced at the Essanay Film Company, an outfit that expanded from a one-room studio at 496 N. Wells Street (renumbered to the 1300 block of North Wells Street) to its final location at Western Avenue and Irving Park Road, Chicago.

The studio was founded in 1907 as the Peerless Film Company. On August 10, 1907, the name was changed to the Essanay Film Company, which reflected the initials of its founders, George K. Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson (S&A).

The success of the studio allowed them to move to 1333-45 W. Argyle Street in 1908, where the 72,000 square foot building remains today. The Chicago studio produced about 200 films.

As the popularity of Essanay's movies increased, Spoor and Anderson undertook the construction of the large Argyle Street studio. 

The complex is comprised of several one- and two-story, common brick buildings housing the various activities necessary for film-making. The street elevations of the four buildings fronting on Argyle Street conform to designs for light manufacturing and warehouse buildings of the period. Each facade is divided into six structural bays articulated by brick piers and is capped by a simple parapet with a stone coping. 

With the exception of the two-story westernmost building, the structures are one story in height. Construction of the first of the buildings was begun in November 1908, and the erection of the other structures occurred intermittently through 1915.

The cast and crew of Chicago's Essanay Film Manufacturing Company in 1912.

The utilitarian character of the building designs is offset by the decorative entrance on the westernmost building. The doorway projects from the building and is formed of glazed white terra cotta. It has a pediment overhead with "ESSANAY" in the tympanum, and on the blocks flanking the entrance are two Indian head profiles. 

The Indian head, which was the Essanay trademark, was designed by Spoor's sister when she was a student at the School of the Art Institute. The trademark was visible in every frame of an Essany film. It was stuck under a chair or some other inconspicuous place. This was a common practice for the studios to help stop print piracy.

Essanay attracted a quality roster of stars including Ben Turpin, Francis Bushman, Wallace Berry, Charlie Chaplin, and Gloria Swanson. Mr. Anderson, himself, was an actor, known as "Bronco Billy." Charlie Chaplin's first and only movie made entirely in Chicago was His New Job. Spoor and Anderson seemed to lack the ability to spot talent. In 1908 a mother brought her young daughter, and out of work Broadway performer, to the studio, but left without a contract. Her name was Mary Pickford (1892-1979).

The stage door and fire escape on the rear of a building on the Essanay Studios.

Essanay made over 2,000 films, with most being produced in their west coast studio located in Niles, California. The 200-foot long studio opened on June 11, 1913. On February 16, 1916, the Essanay Film Company in Niles closed its doors. Changes in the movie industry, the defection of Chaplin as the company's star performer, and disputes between Anderson and his co-founder led to the collapse of the company in 1917.

Filming Sets at the Essanay Studios.

Filming Sets at the Essanay Studios.

Filming Sets at the Essanay Studios.

 

The Selig Polyscope Company
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago General Office and Sales Rooms were located at 45-47-49 E. Randolph Street, Chicago, while the Laboratory and Works were located at 3900 N. Claremont (block bordered by Irving Park Road, Western Avenue, Byron Street, and Claremont Street), Chicago.

Selig Polyscope is noted for establishing Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring Tom Mix, Harold Lloyd, Colleen Moore, and Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. The business gradually became a struggling zoo attraction in East Los Angeles, having ended film production in 1918. 

Described by one film historian as "not a Colonel of the U.S. Army, but a tent-showman colonel." Selig was born in Chicago in 1864 but moved west and founded a minstrel troupe in California. He returned to Chicago in the mid-1890s. Exposure to the Kinetoscope and similar devices apparently broadened Selig's interest in entertainment ventures, and he set up a film supply business on Peck Court. By the end of 1896, Selig was selling not only the Selig Standard Camera and the Selia Polyscope 9 projector but had gone a step further than Spoor by producing his own films.

The careers of two other prominent film executives had their beginnings in Chicago. George Kleine was perhaps the most influential movie executive of his day for his role in attempting to mediate the patent wars that entangled filmmakers at the turn of the century. Kleine's initial contact with the industry had been in the mid-1890s with the founding of the Kleine Optical Company, a movie and equipment supply business. He subsequently organized a large film distribution operation, and, with two other partners, founded the Kalem film studio. In 1906, Carl Laemmle, Sr., left his position with a clothing company in Oshkosh, Wisconsin to come to Chicago where he opened a nickelodeon on Milwaukee Avenue near Ashland. Six years later, he formed Universal Pictures, supposedly in Chicago, though it never operated here, and with Irving Thalberg, he made that company into an industry giant.

One of the last two Selig films was Pioneer Days, based on the Fort Dearborn Massacre. It was filmed on location in Wilmette, Illinois.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

---

A list of many of the movies filmed or made (in all or in part) in Chicago between 1896 and 1919. The companies that produced them are followed in parentheses.

1896
Tramp and the Dog (Selig Polyscope)

1897
Corner Madison and State Streets, Chicago (Edison Mfg)

1898
A Chicago Street (American Muroscope)
Illinois Central Terminal (American Muroscope)
Soldiers at Play (Selig Polyscope)

1900
Lincoln Park (American Muroscope & Biograph)

1901
Chicago Police Parade (Selig Polyscope)
Dewey Parade (Selig Polyscope)
Gans-McGovern Fight (Selig Polyscope)

1903

A Hottime on a Bathing Beach (Selig Polyscope)

Business Rivalry (Selig Polyscope)

Chicago Fire Run (Selig Polyscope)

Chicago Firecats on Parade (Selig Polyscope)

The Girl in Blue (Selig Polyscope)

Trip Around the Union Loop (Selig Polyscope)

View of State Street (Selig Polyscope)

1904
Humpty Dumpty (Selig Polyscope)
The Tramp Dog (Selig Polyscope)

1906
The Tramp and the Dog (Selig Polyscope)

1907
An Awful Skate or The Hobo on Rollers (Essanay)
The Dancing Nig (Essanay)

The Grafter (Selig)

1908
Gotch-Hackenschmidt Wrestling Match (W.W. Wittig)

The Baseball Fan (Essanay)

The Confession (Essanay)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Selig)

1909
Hunting Big Game in Africa (Selig Polyscope)
Ten Nights in a Barroom (Essanay)
The Magic Melody (Essanay)

1910

A Voice from the Fireplace (Essanay)

C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken (Essanay)

Gotch-Zyyszko World's Championship Wrestling Match (Essanay)

Hank and Lack: Lifesavers (Essanay)

Henry's Package (Essanay)

Levi's Dilemma (Essanay)

The Squaw and the Man (American Film Mfg.)

The Wizard of Oz (Selig Polyscope)

World's Championship Series (Essanay) (Cubs vs. Phil Athletics)

1911
The Coming of Columbus (Selig Polyscope)
Winning an Heiress (Essanay)

1912
Brotherhood of Man (Selig Polyscope)

Nebata the Greek Singer (Essanay)
The Starbucks (American Film Mfg.)

1913
Famous Illinois Canyons and Starved Rock (American Film Mfg.)

1914

Chicago Herald Movies (Chicago Herald News)

Golf Champion 'Chick' Evans Links with Sweede (Essanay)

Joliet Prison, Joliet, IL (Industrial Moving Picture, Abo Feature Film)

The Adventures of Kathlyn (Serial from Selig Polyscope)

The Jungle (All Star Feature Co.)

The Pit (Wm. A. Brady Picture Plays, World Film)

1915

A Black Sheep (Selig Polyscope)

Dreamy Dud: A Visit to Uncle Dudley's Farm (Essanay

Dreamy Dud: At the Old Swimmin' Hole (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Cowboy (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Dud Visits the Zoo (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: He Goes Bear Hunting (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: He Sees Charlie Chaplin (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: His New Job (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: In King Koo Koo's Kingdom (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: In Lost in the Jungle (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Resolves Not to Smoke (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Up in the Air (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Visits the Zoo (Essanay)

Graustark (Essanay)

In the Palace of the King (Essanay)

Should a Woman Divorce (Ivan Film Productions)

The Crimson Wing (Essanay)

The End of the Road (American Film Mfg.)

The House of a Thousand Candles (Selig Polyscope)

The Whirl of Life (Cort Film Corp.)

1916

Cousin Jim (Van Dee Producing Co. of Chicago)

Dreamy Dud: Has a Laugh on the Boss (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: In the African War Zone (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Joyriding with Princess Zlim (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Lost at Sea (Essanay)

Power (Essanay)

The Little Girl Next Door (Essanay/State Rights)

The Misleading Lady (Essanay)

The Right to Live (United Photo Plays)

The Sting of Victory (Essanay)

The Truant Soul (Essanay)

Three Pals (American Film Co./Mutual Films)

Two Knights in Vaudeville (Ebony Pictures)

Uncle Sam Awake (Laurence Rubel/Imperial Film Mfg.)

Vernon Howard Bailey's Sketch Book of Chicago (Essanay)

1917

Cracked Ice (Essanay)

Ghosts (Ebony Pictures)

Some Baby (Ebony Pictures)

The Baseball Revue of 1917 (Athletic Feature Films)

The Frozen Warning (Commonwealth Pictures)

The Penny Philanthropist (Wholesome Films)

The Porters (Ebony Pictures)

The Small Town Guy (Essanay/Perfection Pictures)

Wrong All Around (Ebony Pictures)

1918

A Busted Romance (Ebony Pictures)

A Milk Fed Hero (Ebony Pictures)

A Reckless Rover (Ebony Pictures)

And the Children Play (Veritas Photoplay)

Are Working Girls Safe? (Ebony Pictures)

Barnacle Bill (Ebony Pictures)

Billy the Janitor (Ebony Pictures)

Black Sherlock Holmes (Ebony Pictures)

Fixing the Faker (Ebony Pictures)

Good Luck in Old Clothes (Ebony Pictures)

Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (Ebony Pictures)

Movie Marionettes (Essanay/General Film)

Spooks (Ebony Pictures)

Spying the Spy (Ebony Pictures)

The Birth of a Race (Photoplay)

The Bully (Ebony Pictures)

The City of Purple Dreams (Selig Polyscope)

The Comeback of Barnacle Bill (Ebony Pictures)

The Painters (Ebony Pictures)

When You Hit, Hit Hard (Ebony Pictures)

When You're Scared, Run (Ebony Pictures)

1919

Breed of Men (Wm. S. Hart Productions/Artcraft)

The Challenge of Chance (Continental Pictures)

The Homesteader (Micheaux Film Corp.)

Through Hell and Back With the Men of Illinois (U.S. War Dept.)

Where Mary? (Essanay/Syndicate)

The Impact of World War I on the German Residence of Chicago and Illinois.

---

In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

---

World War I (1914–1918) profoundly impacted Chicago both before and after the American war declaration on April 6, 1917. Illinois provided more than 300,000 recruits for the United States military during the war. Several thousand recruits from Chicago and elsewhere were trained at the officers’ training camp at Fort Sheridan and the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, located north of Chicago along Lake Michigan.

Children standing in front of an anti-German sign posted in the Edison Park neighborhood, 1917.

The war inflamed and altered Chicago’s ethnic landscape. The city’s large German and Irish communities tended to sympathize with the Central Powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria, or at least favored American neutrality. Chicago’s Germans, the city’s largest immigrant group, vociferously opposed Washington’s growing sympathy for the Entente powers: Great Britain, France, and Russia. Prominent Chicago German Americans, such as meat-packer Oscar Mayer, city plan commission member Charles Wacker, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra director Frederick Stock, as well as the Germanophile Irish American congressman Fred Britten, were well-placed, and vocal opponents of an American alliance with the Entente.

German Americans, however, failed to keep the United States neutral. German attacks on American shipping and revelations of a German initiative to secure a Mexican alliance in return for a promise of returned territory in the Southwest silenced many opponents to war with Germany. Once the United States entered the war, German Americans, as well as their culture, fell under growing suspicion. German-sounding foods were renamed: sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage,” and frankfurters became “hot dogs.” Chicago institutions were anglicized as well, with the Germania Club becoming the Lincoln Club and the Bismarck Hotel the Hotel Randolph. Frederick Stock took a brief leave of absence from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to apply for naturalization. Zealous to ensure domestic security, private organizations such as the American Protective League monitored Chicago’s Germans and detained draft dodgers in occasional “slacker” drives.

The war also insinuated itself into Chicago politics. Mayor William Thompson plied German and Irish voters by advocating American neutrality and courted Chicago antiwar Progressives such as settlement house worker Jane Addams and University of Chicago professor Charles Merriam. Following the declaration of war, Thompson allowed antiwar groups such as the People’s Council of America for Democracy and Terms of Peace to meet in the city. The mayor drew further attention by spurning the visiting Marshal Joseph Joffre of the Entente forces and by his cold reception of Liberty Bond salesmen at the beginning of the first war loan drive. Thompson’s dubious patriotism was a factor in his 1918 loss to Congressman Medill McCormick in the Illinois Republican primary for the United States Senate. The same election also witnessed future mayor Anton Cermak’s defeat in the race for Cook County Sheriff after he ran on a stoutly anti-German platform in a county dominated by heavily German Chicago.

WWI’s most significant long-term impact on Chicago involved economic adjustments, especially in the labor force. The war shut off immigration and siphoned native-born labor into the war effort. Many Chicago employers turned to women and African Americans, hiring them for jobs previously reserved for white men. These new opportunities, mainly in heavy industry, stimulated the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to Chicago and other northern cities. Some German Americans reacted by overtly defending their loyalty to the United States. Others changed the names of their businesses, and sometimes even their own, to conceal German ties and disappear into mainstream America. Ironically, and contrary to Wilson's opinion about divided loyalties, thousands of German Americans fought to defend America in World War I, led by German American John J. Pershing, whose family had long before changed their name from Pfoerschin.

Billboard sign at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in North Chicago that reads: "Damn the Torpedoes - Go Ahead!" Camp Farragut, 1917. The sign features an American flag and a flag with four stars.

Anti-German sentiment was prevalent across the Midwest, places where Germans had come in great numbers starting in the middle of the 19th century. Similar stories may be found concerning St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and elsewhere. In southwestern Illinois, a particularly popular place for immigrants from German-speaking Europe, the culture created by these immigrants faded fast with the onset of WWI. One example is in Belleville (St. Clair County), all three German-language newspapers folded within months of the outbreak of war in 1914. The public schools stopped teaching German. Plenty of names changed: Brauns became Brown, Muellers became Miller, and so on. One thing, however, that didn't change was the Belleville Turnverein. Renamed the Belleville Turners, this organization continued its cultural and athletic activities into the 1950s.

Fifteen years later, the shadows of a new war brought another surge in immigration. When Germany's Nazi party came to power in 1933, it triggered a significant exodus of artists, scholars, and scientists as Germans and other Europeans fled the coming storm. Most eminent among this group was a pacifist Jewish scientist named Albert Einstein.

Anti-German feelings arose again during World War II, but they were not as powerful as they had been during the First World War. The loyalty of German Americans was not questioned as virulently. Dwight Eisenhower, a descendant of the Pennsylvania Dutch and future president of the United States, commanded U.S. troops in Europe. Two other German Americans, Admiral Chester Nimitz of the United States Navy and General Carl Spaatz of the Army Air Corps, were by Eisenhower's side and played key roles in the struggle against Nazi Germany.

World War II, industrial expansion, and Americanization efforts reinforced the cultural assimilation of many German Americans. After the war, one more surge of German immigrants arrived in the United States as survivors of the conflict sought to escape its grim aftermath. These new arrivals were extremely diverse in their political viewpoints, financial status, and religious beliefs and settled throughout the U.S.

German immigration to the United States continues to this day, though at a slower pace than in the past, carrying on a tradition of cultural enrichment over 400 years old—a tradition that has helped shape much of what we today consider to be quintessentially American.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.