California Motion Picture Corporation was a film company based in San Rafael, California, in Marin County during the silent film era. The company lasted from 1914 until January 1916 when it went bankrupt. It was subsequently renamed and lasted until 1920. It produced at least 15 films. The film company is known for its feature-length films about early California history.[1] Alex E. Beyfuss managed the company.[2][3]
An announcement of the company's incorporation gives a San Francisco main office address at 356 Pine Street and lists the board of directors as: James Woods, manager of the St. Francis Hotel; Baldwin Wood, attorney; Charles Payne, President Payne Real Estate Company; Thomas B. Eastland, President Coast Realty Co.; A. M. Johnson, Attorney; and Robin Y. Hayne, Capitalist as well as officer from a steamship company and Pacific Telephonen and Telegraph. It was billed as the largest film company in the west.[5]
History
Stage actress Michelena married George E. Middleton, a prominent San Francisco automobile dealer, on Sunday, March 3, 1907.[6] The private wedding took place at 232 Divisadero Street, the home of the parents of bridesmaid Margaret McGovern, "a lifelong friend of the bride".[6] The couple spent a few weeks in Los Angeles for their honeymoon.[6]
Middleton was the manager of the local Middleton Motor Car Company and the son of a California timber baron. He introduced Michelena to his society friends and business partners, including the trustees of Charles Crocker's estate who had rebuilt the St. Francis Hotel after the 1906 earthquake and fire.[7] Middleton set up the California Motion Picture Company in San Rafael in 1912 for the purpose of shooting promotional footage of the automobiles he was selling.[7] He determined that his pretty wife could star in movies made by his company. By 1914, Middleton and Michelena were making three major films at the same time.
During the shooting of Salomy Jane, Michelena posed for a publicity still with leading man House Peters.
The first feature completed by CMPC was Salomy Jane, screened initially at the St. Francis Hotel by invitation only. Michelena's role was Bret Harte's Salomy Jane Clay, an energetic daughter of an emigrant miner. She is wooed by four men but prefers a fifth played by British heartthrob House Peters.
The movie saw limited nationwide distribution and was judged a hit by viewers who were impressed by the wild California scenery: giant redwood trees, winding roads hugging rocky bluffs and the Russian River Michelena's dominant portrayal of the title role was also an appeal.[8] Journalist Josephine Clifford McCracken wrote of her in the June 1915 issue of Overland Monthly:
"Daughter of a renowned tenor of San Francisco's pioneer days, herself a prima donna with an assured place on the modern operatic stage, a girl with a wealth of artistic tradition behind her, Miss Michelena's gifts do not stop there. She has rare beauty, vivacity, wit, intellectual attainments and athletic grace."[8]
Michelena and actor Andrew Robson in The Lily of Poverty Flat
One CMPC shooting location was on family property near Boulder Creek, California, where Middleton's father had established a timber holding now known as the Middleton Tract.[9] Other filming locations included undeveloped portions of Sonoma, Santa Cruz and Marin counties. In San Rafael, the studio boasted a large glass-walled and -roofed building that let in light but not wind so that shooting for indoor scenes could take place in full light without the telltale flapping of tablecloths and clothing blown by gusts. Considered expensive at the time, the company used a US$ 1,250 Bell & Howell movie camera, worth about $36,200 in current value.[10] The camera held two reels of film so that two negatives were made of each scene. A second $700 camera provided a third reel of the same scene, from another perspective.[10]
Even though Salomy Jane did not return a profit (likely due to second-string distribution channels), its favorable reception convinced Middleton that his wife could challenge the world's top movie star, Mary Pickford,[7] and almost all CMPC movies had her as their star. Unfortunately, Michelena's ego expanded with the glowing reviews of her skill, and her demands for star treatment brought heavier expenses to productions that continued to lose money. Mignon, The Lily of Poverty Flat, A Phyllis of the Sierras, Salvation Nell and The Rose of the Misty Pool all failed to turn a profit, and a lavish production of Faust which was in production in 1915 was given until the end of the year to be completed. Faust was not done by January 1916, and CMPC president Herbert Payne shut the film company down and filed for bankruptcy. Faust was never released.[7]
Middleton and Michelena bought the bankrupt film company for "a few thousand dollars" in 1917 and renamed it Michelena Studios.[7] Their new company was called Beatriz Michelena Features, and shooting began on their next feature-length film, Just Squaw. Michelena's lead character was a white woman raised by American Indians, a woman who does not realize her racial heritage until after she falls into forbidden love with a white man. The movie played for only a week in San Francisco in 1919, and did not return a profit.
The moviemakers' new distributor, Robertson-Cole, was unable to find the right market for Heart of Juanita and The Flame of Hellgate in 1920. American audiences had grown more sophisticated, yet Michelena Studios was still employing their earlier production techniques.[7] After shooting The Flame of Hellgate, Middleton and Michelena stopped making movies altogether. She returned to her singing performances and he returned to his car sales. They reportedly divorced in the mid-1920s, though Middleton told the 1930 US Census that they were married.[11] The union produced no children.[7]
Allan Dwan was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.
Ruth Roland was an American stage and film actress and film producer.
Frank Powell was a Canadian-born stage and silent film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter who worked predominantly in the United States. He is also credited with "discovering" Theda Bara and casting her in a starring role in the 1915 release A Fool There Was. Her performance in that production, under Powell's direction, quickly earned Bara widespread fame as the film industry's most popular evil seductress or on-screen "vamp".
Bessie Barriscale was an American actress who gained fame on the stage and in silent films.
William Bertram was a Canadian-born actor, director, and producer of films in the United States, working predominantly during the silent era. He performed in 68 motion pictures between 1912 and 1931 and directed 64 films for various studios between 1915 and 1927. Bertram was also an accomplished singer in stage productions.
Clara Beyers was an American silent film stock actress.
William C. Dowlan was an American stage performer and a film actor and director during the silent era. Most of his directorial projects were done in collaboration with his wife, screenwriter Leonora Ainsworth. Between 1915 and 1917 he and Ainsworth did extensive work together for Universal Film Manufacturing Company in Los Angeles and for the American Film Company at its facilities in Santa Barbara.
William Nigh, born Emil Kreuske, was an American film director, writer, and actor. His film work sometimes lists him as either "Will Nigh" or "William Nye".
Film locations in Sonoma County, California are a diverse set of sites throughout this California county, where all or parts of notable motion pictures have been produced. Due to the scenic and varied aspects of Sonoma County, a large number of films have been made within this County. Some of the earliest U.S. filmmaking occurred in Sonoma County such as the 1914 production 1914 Salomy Jane and Bronco Billy Anderson produced in 1915. Many of these films are classics in American cinematography such as the 1947 film The Farmer's Daughter, starring Joseph Cotten and Loretta Young, and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds produced in 1963, which was also partially filmed in adjacent Marin County. Many other more modern classics have used Sonoma County as a filming venue, including the 1990 production of the Flatliners and the 1992 film Basic Instinct. A few of the other representative films produced partially in Sonoma County are:
Ernest C. Joy was an American stage and film actor of the silent era. He appeared in 76 films between 1911 and 1920.
Salomy Jane is a 1914 silent Western-drama film based on Bret Harte's 1898 novella "Salomy Jane's Kiss" and Paul Armstrong's 1907 play based on Harte's story, Salomy Jane.
Beatriz Michelena was a Venezuelan American actress and singer during the silent film era, known at the time for her operatic soprano voice and appearances in musical theatre. She was one of the few Latina stars visible on the silver screen in the United States in the 1910s. She was a leading lady in each film project she was involved in and, after the failure of California Motion Picture Company, co-founded a production company with her husband George E. Middleton, producing four of her movies.
The Centaur Film Company was an American motion picture production company founded in 1907 in Bayonne, New Jersey, by William and David Horsley. It was the first independent motion picture production company in the United States. In 1909 the company added a West Coast production unit, the Nestor Film Company, which established the first permanent film studio in Hollywood, California, in 1911. The company was absorbed by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in 1912.
Zena Virginia Keefe was an American actress in silent film, active in the 1910s and 1920s.
William J. Bowman was an American stage and film actor, writer, and director noted for his work in the early 1900s on silent productions for studios in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and in Los Angeles during the first decade of filmmaking in and around Hollywood. His direction of a series of films with matinee idol Francis X. Bushman in 1915 and his direction of the serials The Invisible Hand in 1920 and The Avenging Arrow in 1921 form only a small part of Bowman's extensive filmography.
Vera Michelena was an American actress, contralto prima donna and dancer who appeared in light opera, musical comedy, vaudeville and silent film. She was perhaps best remembered for her starring roles in the musicals The Princess Chic, Flo Flo and The Waltz Dream, her rendition of the vampire dance in the musical Take It from Me and as a Ziegfeld Follies performer.
Alfred Emory Johnson was an American actor, director, producer, and writer. As a teenager, he started acting in silent films. Early in his career, Carl Laemmle chose Emory to become a Universal Studio leading man. He also became part of one of the early Hollywood celebrity marriages when he wed Ella Hall.
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch is a 1914 American silent comedy drama film directed by Harold Entwistle and starring Beatriz Michelena, Blanche Chapman and House Peters. It is based on the 1904 Broadway play by Anne Crawford Flexner, which itself is taken from the 1901 novel of the same name by Alice Hegan Rice.
George E. Middleton was an American film director and producer. His work includes films for California Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC) and, after its failure, Beatriz Michelena Features. Middleton married stage actress and singer Beatriz Michelena, who starred in his films.
Arthur A. Cadwell was an American cinematographer and race car driver who worked in Hollywood in the 1910s and 1920s.
↑ 1930; Census Place: San Rafael, Marin, California; Roll: 176; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 0020; Image: 981.0; FHL microfilm: 2339911.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
