Industry | Silent films |
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Founded | 1916Jersey City, New Jersey, United States | in
Founder | |
Defunct | March 1920 |
Fate | The company became Louis J. Gasnier Productions from 1920-1940, then Monogram Pictures acquired the studio in 1941. |
Successor |
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Headquarters |
Astra Film Corp was an American film production company that produced silent films. [1] Louis J. Gasnier was the company's president. George B. Seitz co-founded it. It was making films by 1916. It became Louis J. Gasnier Productions after Seitz left. [2]
The studio operated in Jersey City, New Jersey before expanding to Fort Lee, New Jersey. [3]
The Fort Lee studio site at 1 Congress Street was acquired from Pathé in 1916. [4] The company distributed its films with Pathé. Rolin Studio in Los Angeles also worked with Pathé. [5]
The company's Hands Up serial included a storyline featuring the Inca. [6]
The studio produced Pathé's photoplay films including Stranded in Arcady . It was an adaptation of a story by Francis Lynde and starred Irene Castle. It was directed by Frank Hall Crane. [5]
The company also produced The Fatal Ring and The Seven Pearls serials. [5]
Arthur Miller worked for the company since at least 1916 working under director George Fitzmaurice and singing a contract with him personally. [7] Grace Darmond left Selig to work for the company.[ when? ]
George Brackett Seitz was an American playwright, screenwriter, film actor and director. He was known for his screenplays for action serials, such as The Perils of Pauline (1914) and The Exploits of Elaine (1914).
Rolfe Photoplays Inc., originally B. A. Rolfe Photoplays Company, was an American motion picture production company established by musical entertainer B.A. Rolfe. Its productions were primarily filmed on the East Coast, usually in and around Fort Lee, New Jersey, although the company also filmed in California. Its films were distributed through an agreement with Louis B. Mayer's Metro Pictures Corporation.
Louis Joseph Gasnier was a French-American film director, producer, screenwriter and stage actor. A cinema pioneer, Gasnier shepherded the early career of comedian Max Linder, co-directed the enormously successful film serial The Perils of Pauline (1914), and capped his output with the notorious low-budget exploitation film Reefer Madness (1936) which was both a critical and box office failure.
Bound and Gagged is a 1919 American silent film serial produced by George B. Seitz Productions and distributed by Pathé. It was a spoof of the clichéd melodramatic serials of the era.
Frank Whitson was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1915 and 1937. He was born in New York, New York, and died in Los Angeles, California.
Herbert Blaché, born Herbert Reginald Gaston Blaché-Bolton was a British-born American film director, producer and screenwriter, born of a French father. He directed more than 50 films between 1912 and 1929.
The Perils of Pauline is a 1914 American melodrama film serial produced by William Randolph Hearst and released by the Eclectic film company, shown in bi-weekly installments, featuring Pearl White as the title character, an ambitious young heiress with an independent nature and a desire for adventure.
Pearl of the Army is a 1916 American silent film serial directed by Edward José. The Pathé-Astra Film Corp movie was made when many early film studio and film producers in America's first motion picture industry were based in New Jersey's Hudson River towns, particularly Fort Lee. Prints and/or fragments were found in the Dawson Film Find in 1978.
The Black Secret is a 1919 American adventure film serial directed by George B. Seitz. The film was recorded in both Fort Lee, New Jersey, as well as in the nearby Hudson Palisades. Recording took place during a time when many of the early 20th century film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based there.
The World Film Company or World Film Corporation was an American film production and distribution company, organized in 1914 in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Edward Kline Lincoln was an American silent film actor and director. Lincoln appeared in over 65 silent films and was best known for movies like For the Freedom of the World (1917), The Light in the Dark (1922) and The Man of Courage (1922).
Peerless Pictures, originally Peerless Features, was an early film studio in the United States. Jules Brulatour was a co-founder. The Peerless studio was built in 1914 on Linwood Avenue in Fort Lee, New Jersey, when the town was the center of America's first motion picture industry. The company was merged along with a couple of other early studios into World Pictures.
Frederick A. Thomson (1869–1925), sometimes spelled Thompson, was a director of silent films in the United States. He began his directing career in theater.
Jaxon Film Corporation was a comedy film production company during the silent film era. It was located in Jacksonville, Florida and later Providence, Rhode Island.
Gordon Sackville was a film actor. Earlier in his career he appeared on stage. He was part of several Hobart Bosworth productions. He was in The Best Man Wins, one of the first Hollywood films.
Gilbert P. Hamilton was an American film company executive and director. He worked at Essanay as a cinematographer, headed the St. Louis Motion Picture Company, and then launched the Albuquerque Film Manufacturing Company.
James Parks Jones was an actor in many silent films in the United States. His roles included many leading and supporting roles over more than a decade.
Mollie King was an American stage and screen actress.
Jack Pratt, born John Harold Pratt, (1878–1938) was a Canadian film director and actor. He directed several films and acted in dozens more. As a director, his work included screen adaptations of novels.
Chester Barnett was an actor in American silent films and a screenwriter.