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.
From 1916 to 1918, the company released at least 78 comedy shorts. They were marketed as Jaxon Comedies. Billy Ruge was one of the actors who appeared in the company's films as well as Walter Stull, Bobby Burns, and Kate Price. The studio's performers were "poached" from the Vim Comedy Company. [1] The studio released the 12 part serial A Daughter of Uncle Sam in 1918 directed by James C. Morton.
The company was established by Frank A. Tichenor who eventually closed down Jacksonville productions relocating production efforts to Providence, Rhode Island. [2] In 1917 the Providence studio caught fire and had to be rebuilt. [3]
Essanay Studios, officially the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, was an early American motion picture studio. The studio was founded in 1907 in Chicago by George Kirke Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson, originally as the Peerless Film Manufacturing Company, then as Essanay on August 10, 1907. Essanay is probably best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies produced in 1915-1916. In late 1916, it merged distribution with other studios and stopped issuing films in the fall of 1918. According to film historian Steve Massa, Essanay is one of the important early studios, with comedies as a particular strength. Founders Spoor and Anderson were subsequently awarded special Academy Awards for pioneering contributions to film.
Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company that operated from 1916 to 1924 when it was merged with two other production companies to form the major studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was founded on November 19, 1916, by Samuel Goldfish, an executive at Lasky's Feature Play Company, and Broadway producer brothers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using an amalgamation of both last names to name the company.
The Lubin Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture production company that produced silent films from 1896 to 1916. Lubin films were distributed with a Liberty Bell trademark.
Billy West was a silent film actor, producer, and director. Active during the silent film era, he is best known as the premier Charlie Chaplin impersonator. He was a star in his own right, appearing in more than 100 films for nine different companies. Beyond acting, he also directed short comedies in the 1910s and '20s, and produced films. West retired as an actor in 1935, but remained in the employ of Columbia Pictures into the 1950s.
Gilbert Pratt was an American film director, actor, and writer. He directed 87 films between 1917 and 1936 and was often credited as Gil Pratt. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and died in Los Angeles, California.
Billy Ruge was an American film actor. His early career was spent as an aerial trapeze acrobat in an act with partner Bill Frobel: Ruge and Frobel played Montreal in 1899, and shared a bill at London's Hippodrome with W. C. Fields, Houdini, and Sandow over the Easter holiday of 1904. According to Ruge, prior to playing his first silent film part- for Edison- he had "just returned from a seven years' engagement in the variety houses of Germany, England, France, Russia, South America, Belgium, and Spain." Ruge eventually appeared in 64 films between 1915 and 1922, mostly one-reeler Comedy Shorts. He frequently worked for Actor/Director Willard Louis, filming in Jacksonville, Florida for the minor studios Lubin Studios, the Vim Comedy Company, and the Jaxon Film Corporation.
Margaret Victoria Anderson known professionally as Myrtle Lind was an American film actress. She was one of Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties and appeared in several comedy films including with Oliver Hardy and John Gilbert. The Library of Congress has a photo of her holding a large camera on the beach.
William L. Sherill was a producer in the early film industry of the United States. He served as president of the Frohman Amusement Company. A 1918 issue of Theatre Magazine reported he was the single most important figure among independent producers of motion pictures.
George Foster Platt was an American stage actor as well as a director of stage and filmed shows. He was part of Thanhouser's short-lived Jacksonville, Florida, production unit.
Hal Clements (1869-1957) was an American actor and director of silent films. He starred in dozens of silent films. He married writer Olga Printzlau.
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.
Astra Film Corp was an American film production company that produced silent films. 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.
Earl Triplett Montgomery was a film director, writer, and comedian who performed in silent films including as the character Hairbreadth Harry. He established the producing company Earl Montgomery Comedy Company. Joe Rock partnered with him at Vitagraph.
Ethel Marie Burton Palmer was an American comedic film actress.
Dorcas Neville Matthews was an English actress in silent films in the U.S. She had numerous roles as a supporting actress and was well known.
Pallas Pictures was a film studio in the U.S. headed by Frank A. Garbutt. In 1913 the film production company Bosworth Incorporated was founded to release film adaptations of Jack London's stories. Hobart Bosworth was President of the company but as Jack London wrote, "Mr. Garbutt has absolute charge of the entire business of Bosworth, Inc." The company rented studio space until September 1914 when Bosworth Inc. constructed its own studio at 211 N. Occidental Blvd., Los Angeles. When Hobart Bosworth left in 1915 Garbutt assumed full control of Bosworth Inc. Several months later the company was renamed Pallas Pictures, with Melodile Garbutt listed as president of Pallas Pictures. The Pallas logo was a capital "P" with an owl on a branch.
Florence McLaughlin, sometimes credited as Florence McLoughlin, was an actress in the U.S. She appeared in numerous silent films including comedies with Oliver Hardy.
King-Bee Films Corporation was a film production company in the U.S. that released two-real short film comedies during the silent film era. The company's stars included Billy West, a Charlie Chaplin imitator. Louis Burstein was the company's president and general manager. He established it in 1917 after the breakup of Vim Comedy Company to produce comedies starring West. Oliver Hardy and Ethelyn Gibson also acted for the company. It operated a studio in Jacksonville, Florida, then Bayonne, New Jersey and finally at 1329 Gordon Street in Hollywood, California. Its offices were in New York.
Harold "Josh" Binney was an actor, film producer, film company executive, and film director in the United States. He worked as an actor before establishing the Florida Film Company in Jacksonville, Florida in 1918 and produced and producing their films through his Harold J. Binney Productions division. He moved on to Canada and then Sonoma, California.
Mirror Films Incorporated was a short-lived motion picture company producing films from late 1915 to early 1917. Their stated purpose was to bring business practices to bear on motion picture production in order to make a profit, to "look upon film...as so much canned product".