| Gladiola | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | John H. Collins |
| Written by | Mary Rider |
| Starring | Viola Dana Charles Sutton Pat O'Malley Robert Conness |
| Cinematography | Ned Van Buren |
| Distributed by | Edison |
Release date |
|
Running time | 3000 ft (approx.) |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | Silent English intertitles |
Gladiola is a three-reel American silent drama produced by the Edison Company. The script, by Mary Rider, was written specifically as a vehicle for Viola Dana. [1]
Gladiola was Edison Company production number 7985. [2] The production was shot largely at the Edison Company's studio at Decatur Avenue and Oliver Place in the Bronx, [3] with additional "exterior scenes taken in the gladiolus fields of Berlin, N.Y." [4] [5] Gladioli are used as a visual leitmotif throughout the film. [6]
The production was able to locate a two-day-old baby, identified as "Master Warren Scott Moore," to play the title character's newborn baby in one scene. In publicity for the film, Edison hyped Moore's status as the youngest actor on the screen. Publicity noted that "Master Moore" shared his scene with Harry Linson, thought to be one of the oldest working actors on the screen at age 67. [7]
Director John H. Collins and star Viola Dana were married the same year this film was produced. [8]
Gladiola was released in the United States on October 15, 1915. [9] It debuted in Palmerston North in late March 1916, [10] and in Wellington in early April. [11] It was first shown in Oamaru on November 10, 1916. [12]
Viola Dana was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent films. She appeared in over 100 films, but was unable to make the transition to sound films.
The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over 3000 short films and 12 feature films. During the height of silent film as a medium, Biograph was the most prominent U.S. film studio and one of the most respected and influential studios worldwide, only rivaled by Germany's UFA, Sweden's Svensk Filmindustri and France's Pathé. The company was home to pioneering director D. W. Griffith and such actors as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and Lionel Barrymore.
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. 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. Selig Polyscope also established Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles.
Frankenstein is a 1910 American short silent horror film produced by Edison Studios. It was directed by J. Searle Dawley, who also wrote the one-reeler's screenplay, broadly basing his "scenario" on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. This short motion picture is generally recognized by film historians as the first screen adaptation of Shelley's work. The small cast, who are not credited in the surviving 1910 print of the film, includes Augustus Phillips as Dr. Frankenstein, Charles Ogle as Frankenstein's monster, and Mary Fuller as the doctor's fiancée.
Gertrude McCoy was an American film actress of the silent era. She appeared in more than 160 films between 1911 and 1926.
Shirley Mason was an American actress of the silent era.
Edna Marie Flugrath was the eldest of three sisters who found fame as silent film stars.
Harold Marvin Shaw was an American stage performer, film actor, screenwriter, and director during the silent era. A native of Tennessee, he worked in theatrical plays and vaudeville for 16 years before he began acting in motion pictures for Edison Studios in New York City in 1910 and then started regularly directing shorts there two years later. Shaw next served briefly as a director for Independent Moving Pictures (IMP) in New York before moving to England in May 1913 to be "chief producer" for the newly established London Film Company. During World War I, he relocated to South Africa, where in 1916 he directed the film De Voortrekkers in cooperation with African Film Productions, Limited. Shaw also established his own production company while in South Africa, completing there two more releases, The Rose of Rhodesia in 1918 and the comedy Thoroughbreds All in 1919. After directing films once again in England under contract with Stoll Pictures, he finally returned to the United States in 1922 and later directed several screen projects for Metro Pictures in California before his death in Los Angeles in 1926. During his 15-year film career, Shaw worked on more than 125 films either as a director, actor, or screenwriter.
On The Broad Stairway, from Edison Studios, was a 1913 American silent film (short) written and directed by J. Searle Dawley. The film was the second of three "Kate Kirby's Cases" detective tales produced in 1913 before Dawley and actress Laura Sawyer left Edison to continue the series later that year with the Famous Players Film Company. On The Broad Stairway was released in the United States on July 19, 1913.
Virginia Myers was an American dancer who gained national recognition as a precocious talent during her childhood in New York in the 1910s and 1920s.
In His Father's Steps is an American silent film.
Holding the Fort is a short American silent comedy produced by the Edison Company in 1912.
A Fresh Air Romance is an American silent film produced by the Edison Company in 1912.
Helping John is a 1912 short American silent comedy written Bannister Merwin, directed by Harold M. Shaw, and produced by the Edison Company at its main studio in New York City, in the Bronx.
A Soldier's Duty is a film produced by the Edison Company in 1912.
The Diamond Crown, from Edison Studios, was a 1913 American silent film (short) written and directed by J. Searle Dawley. It was the first of three "Kate Kirby's Cases" detective stories made in 1913 for Edison before Dawley and actress Laura Sawyer left Edison for Famous Players Film Co. later that year, where they produced three more. This film was also Justina Huff's debut in motion pictures. The Diamond Crown was released in the United States on July 12, 1913. This film is considered lost.
John H. Collins was an American writer and director of the silent film era. He married film actress Viola Dana. His career was cut short when he died at the age of 28 due to the 1918 influenza epidemic. During his career which began in 1914, he directed more than 40 features and film shorts, and wrote the scenario for over a dozen more features. His 1917 film The Girl Without a Soul was selected by the National Film Registry to be preserved by the Library of Congress. His final works were shown posthumously in 1919.
Harold Holland was a British theatre and silent film actor and playwright. He was born in Bloomsbury, London. He played Dr. Rogers in the 1913 film Riches and Rogues, and took the lead role of Dr. Thomas "Tom" Flynn in the 1914 comedy The Lucky Vest. After having worked on Charlie Chaplin films including Shanghaied and The Bank in 1915, he was hired by the Morosco Photoplay Company in 1916 as it expanded.
Ned Van Buren (1882-1969) was an early American cinematographer who worked in Hollywood during the silent era. He was a member of the American Society of Cinematographers, having been elected in 1923.
Frederick Ward was an English-born actor and theatre manager in Australia. He founded Sydney's first repertory theatre.