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 the company's assumption of the new FBO name. Two years later, the studio contracted with Western leading man Fred Thomson, who within a couple years was one of Hollywood's most popular stars. Thomson was just one of several silent screen cowboys with whom FBO became identified.
William Davis Garwood, Jr. was an American stage and film actor and director of the early silent film era in the 1910s.
Clara Beyers was an American silent film stock actress.
Mollie McConnell was an American silent film actress.
Gypsy Abbott was an American actress of stage and silent film.
Travers Vale, born Solomon Flohm, was an English-born silent film director, theatre impresario, playwright, and actor. Raised primarily in Victoria, Australia, he worked as a photographer, playwright and theatre manager in Victoria, Southern Australia, and New Zealand prior to his career in film. In his early career in theatre in Australia he was known by the name S. F. Travers Vale under which name he authored his first known play, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1888); an adaptation of the 1886 novel of the same name by Fergus Hume. He established his own theatre troupe, The Travers Vale Dramatic Company, which was in residence at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide in 1889 and the Auckland Opera House in New Zealand in 1890. In 1892 and 1893 he was the business manager of the American husband wife magician team of Charles N. Steen and Mrs. Steen.
Alta Allen was an American actress.
Jackie Saunders was an American silent screen actress who was one of the major players and stars of Balboa Films.
The Wilderness Trail is 1919 American silent Western film directed by Edward J. Le Saint and starring Tom Mix and Colleen Moore. It was one of the first of two films that featured Mix and Moore. The Wilderness Trail is based on the 1913 Western novel of the same name by Francis William Sullivan and was adapted for the screen by Charles Kenyon.
Nell W. Franzen was an American film and stage actress of the silent era. A native of Portland, Oregon, Franzen began her career acting in local theatre. She signed with the Baker Theatre Company and performed in various stage productions, becoming a prolific stage actress in the Pacific Northwest.
J. Gordon Edwards (1867–1925) was a Canadian American film director, screenwriter, and producer of the silent era. His oeuvre consists of over fifty feature films made between 1914 and 1924. He is perhaps best known for directing twenty-four films starring vamp actress Theda Bara—including Cleopatra, her most famous role— and also the 1921 epic The Queen of Sheba. Edwards was born in Montreal and educated at a military academy with the expectation that he would pursue a career as a British Army officer. He decided against a life in the military in favor of a future in theater. At the time, the Canadian theater and film industry was limited primarily to repertory theatre, so Edwards became one of many to emigrate to the United States to work in the field. He had a short career as an actor before becoming a stage director. By 1910, he was working for American motion picture producer William Fox, who sent him to Europe to study film production.
Frank Erlanger, also credited as Frank A. Erlanger or Frank Charles Erlanger was a Hungarian-American silent film actor best known for his work with the Balboa Amusement Producing Company.
St. Elmo is a 1914 American silent drama film produced by the Balboa Amusement Producing Company and distributed by William Fox's Box Office Attractions Company. It was the first feature-length film adaptation of Augusta Jane Evans's 1866 novel of the same name. The story follows the life of the title character, who kills his cousin over the love of Agnes, falls from grace, and eventually finds redemption and love with Edna. It is disputed who directed the film; many sources credit Bertram Bracken, while others list St. Elmo as J. Gordon Edwards's directorial debut.
Life's Shop Window is a 1914 American silent drama film directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starring Claire Whitney and Stuart Holmes. It is a film adaptation of the 1907 novel of the same name by Annie Sophie Cory. The film depicts the story of English orphan Lydia Wilton (Whitney), and her husband Bernard Chetwin (Holmes). Although Wilton's marriage is legitimate, it was conducted in secret, and she is accused of having a child out of wedlock. Forced to leave England, she reunites with her husband in Arizona. There, she is tempted by infidelity with an old acquaintance, Eustace Pelham, before seeing the error of her ways and returning to her family.
The Balboa Amusement Producing Company was a film production company in Long Beach, California, from 1913 to 1918 that produced more than 1000 films, around 90% of which have been lost.
Spellbound or The One-Eyed God, is a 1916 American crime drama silent black and white film directed by Harry Harvey and produced by E.D. Horkheimer and H.M. Horkheimer. It is written by Bess Meredyth.
William "Billy" H. Clune was an American railroad property developer, film exchange and then theater chain owner, film studio owner, and film producer.
Minerva Bussenius, known professionally as Roberta Arnold, was an American stage and silent film actress. She started in Los Angeles before moving to New York, appeared in leading roles in several Broadway plays and received positive reception.
The Stolen Play is a 1917 silent film directed by Harry Harvey from a script by the Horkheimer brothers for their Balboa Amusement Producing Company.
Frederick J. Whitman was an American actor during the silent film era.