The Fox Film Corporation was an American independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attraction Company.
A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound. Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of inter-title cards.
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures became commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. Before sound-on-film technology became viable, soundtracks for films were commonly played live with organs or pianos.
Warner Leroy Baxter was an American film actor from the 1910s to the 1940s. Baxter is known for his role as the Cisco Kid in the 1928 film In Old Arizona, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 2nd Academy Awards. He frequently played womanizing, charismatic Latin bandit types in Westerns, and played the Cisco Kid or a similar character throughout the 1930s, but had a range of other roles throughout his career.
Sue Carol was an American actress and talent agent. Carol's film career lasted from the late 1920s into the 1930s; when it ended, she became a talent agent. The last of her four marriages was to one of her clients, Alan Ladd, from 1942 until his death in 1964.
Mary Brian was an American actress who made the transition from silent films to sound films.
Edwin Carewe was a Native American motion picture director, actor, producer, and screenwriter.
Abie's Irish Rose is a 1928 early sound (part-talkie) film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Nancy Carroll, Jean Hersholt, and J. Farrell MacDonald. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Western Electric sound-on-film system. The film based on the 1922 play Abie's Irish Rose by Anne Nichols. The film was later remade in 1946. In the 1930s, author Nichols revealed that her deal with Paramount brought her $300,000 plus half the film's profits.
Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), registered as FBO Pictures Corp., was an American film studio of the silent era, a midsize producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films. The business began in 1918 as Robertson-Cole, an Anglo-American import-export company. Robertson-Cole began distributing films in the United States that December and opened a Los Angeles production facility in 1920. Late that year, R-C entered into a working relationship with East Coast financier Joseph P. Kennedy. A business reorganization in 1922 led to its assumption of the FBO name, first for all its distribution operations and ultimately for its own productions as well. Through Kennedy, the studio contracted with Western leading man Fred Thomson, who grew by 1925 into one of Hollywood's most popular stars. Thomson was just one of several silent screen cowboys with whom FBO became identified.
Sally Phipps was an American actress.
My Man is a 1928 black and white sound part-talkie American comedy-drama musical film directed by Archie Mayo starring Fanny Brice and featuring Guinn "Big Boy" Williams. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system.
On August 10, 1965, a fire erupted in Vault 7, a storage facility at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio (MGM) backlot in Culver City, California. It was caused by an electrical short that ignited flammable stored nitrate film. The initial explosion reportedly killed at least one person, and the resulting fire destroyed the entire contents of the vault, which included archived prints of silent and early sound films produced by MGM and its predecessors. The only known copies of hundreds of films were destroyed.
Chasing Through Europe is a 1929 sound part-talkie American Pre-Code romance film directed by David Butler and Alfred L. Werker and starring Sue Carol, Nick Stuart and Gustav von Seyffertitz. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Movietone sound-on-film system. The film was produced by the Fox Film Corporation. Most of the film was shot on location in Europe.
Me, Gangster is a 1928 American synchronized sound gangster film directed by Raoul Walsh. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. The film stars June Collyer, Don Terry, Anders Randolf and a young Carole Lombard.
Nick Stuart was an Austro-Hungarian-born American actor and bandleader. His career spanned five decades, during which he appeared in over 50 films, more than half of them features, as well as film shorts, serials, and even one television appearance. He rose to stardom in such films as Girls Gone Wild and Chasing Through Europe, prior to expanding his business interests by creating a talent agency, and a popular upscale club in Hollywood.
Why Leave Home? is a 1929 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Raymond Cannon and written by Robert Spencer Carr and Walter Catlett. The film stars Sue Carol, Nick Stuart, Dixie Lee, Ilka Chase, Walter Catlett, and Gordon De Main. The film was released on August 25, 1929, by Fox Film Corporation. It is a remake of Cradle Snatchers (1927). Why Leave Home? was later remade in 1943 as Let's Face It with Bob Hope.
Captain Swagger is a 1928 American synchronized sound crime drama film directed by Edward H. Griffith and stars Rod La Rocque. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects utilizing the RCA Photophone sound-on-film sound system. The film was released with both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film formats. The film was produced and distributed by the Pathé Exchange company.
Win That Girl is a lost 1928 synchronized sound film comedy directed by David Butler and starring David Rollins and Sue Carol. It was produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.
The Exalted Flapper is a 1929 American sound comedy film directed by James Tinling and written by H. H. Caldwell, Ray Harris and Matt Taylor. The film stars Sue Carol, Barry Norton, Irene Rich, Albert Conti, Sylvia Field and Stuart Erwin. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process The film was released on June 9, 1929, by Fox Film Corporation.
Sea Fury is a 1929 adventure film directed by George Melford and starring Mildred Harris, George Regas and Frank Campeau. It was a transitional sound film, originally shot as a silent with some sound effects added later. It takes place on a ship travelling from Mexico to the United States who crew mutinies against the captain. On board is a young woman, the only survivor of a shipwreck.
