William Nicholas Selig was a vaudeville performer and pioneer of the American motion picture industry. His stage billing as Colonel Selig would be used for the rest of his career, even as he moved into film production.
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.
Harold A. Lockwood was an American silent film actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most popular matinee idols of the early film period during the 1910s.
Lester H. Cuneo was an American stage and silent film actor. He began acting in theatre while still in his teens. His name remains associated with the history of Western film.
The Adventures of Kathlyn (1913) is an American motion picture serial released on December 29, 1913, by the Selig Polyscope Company. An adventure serial filmed in Chicago, Illinois, its thirteen episodes were directed by Francis J. Grandon from a story by Harold MacGrath and Gilson Willets and starred Kathlyn Williams as the heroine. Harold MacGrath's novel of the same title was released a few days later in January 1914, so as to be in book stores at the same time as the serial was playing in theaters.
Kathlyn Williams was an American actress, known for her blonde beauty and daring antics, who performed on stage as well as in early silent film. She began her career onstage in her hometown of Butte, Montana, where she was sponsored by local copper magnate William A. Clark to study acting in New York City. She later appeared in numerous films between 1910 and 1932 before retiring from acting. Williams died of a heart attack in Los Angeles at age 81.
Harold MacGrath was a bestselling and prolific American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. He sometimes completed more than one novel per year for the mass market, covering romance, spies, mystery, and adventure.
Edendale is a historical name for a district in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, in what is known today as Echo Park, Los Feliz and Silver Lake. In the opening decades of the 20th century, in the era of silent movies, Edendale was known as the home of most major movie studios on the West Coast. Among its many claims, it was home to the Keystone Cops, and the site of many movie firsts, including Charlie Chaplin's first movie, the first feature-length comedy, and the first pie-in-the-face. The Edendale movie studios were mostly concentrated in a four-block stretch of Allesandro Street, between Berkeley Avenue and Duane Street. Allesandro Street was later renamed Glendale Boulevard.
The Selig Zoo in Los Angeles, California was an early 20th century animal collection managed by Col. W.N. Selig for use in Selig Polyscope Company films and as a tourist attraction. Over the years the zoo was also known as the Luna Park Zoo, California Zoological Gardens, Zoopark, and, eventually, Lincoln Amusement Park. After Westerns, "animal pictures" were Selig's second-most popular genre of film product.
Charles Clary was an American actor of the silent film era. Clary appeared in more than 200 films between 1910 and 1930. He was born in Charleston, Illinois and died on his 58th birthday in Los Angeles, California. He worked for Selig and the Fine Arts Film Company. Before Clary joined Selig, he "played stock companies and road shows all over America".
George Guy Oliver was an American actor. He appeared in at least 189 silent film era motion pictures and 32 talkies in character roles between 1911 and 1931. His obituary gives him credit for at least 600. He directed three films in 1915.
Betty Harte (1882–1965) was a leading lady during the heyday of the silent film era, starring in nine feature films and 108 short films. She is credited with writing four screenplays. She chose Betty Harte as her professional name in honor of her favorite author, Bret Harte.
The Million Dollar Mystery is a 23-chapter film serial released in 1914, directed by Howell Hansel, and starring Florence La Badie and James Cruze. It is presumed lost.
Otis Bryant Thayer was an American actor, director, producer and owner of silent era film production companies. Before his film career he was a stage actor and operatic comedian. By 1910, he piloted the Chicago based Selig Polyscope Company filming westerns on locations at Canon City. He founded the Art-O-Graf film company of Denver in 1919. And by 1920, he was the president of the "Superior Foto Play Company."
Louella Maxam was an American actress who performed in over 50 silent films from 1913 until 1921. She was often cast in comedies and Westerns, most notably being identified in 1915 as a "leading lady" in a series of shorts starring Tom Mix, who during the silent and early sound eras was promoted as the "Cowboy King of Hollywood". Later, she was a female lead in other films for various studios, including several productions featuring another early cowboy star, Franklyn Farnum. Following her departure from acting, Maxam worked in county and municipal government in California, including service with the Burbank police department, where in 1943 she was hired as that city's first "police woman".
William Robert Daly was an actor and director of silent films.
The Way of the Eskimo is a lost 1911 American silent drama film that portrayed the Inuit or "Eskimo" culture of northeastern Canada along the coast of Labrador. Directed by William V. Mong and produced by Selig Polyscope Company, this "photoplay" was based on a love story written by Columbia Eneutseak, a young Inuit woman who was born in the United States in 1893, in the "Esquimaux Village" exhibition at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. She, fellow Inuit performer Zacharias Zad, and William Mong costarred in the film with a supporting cast that included members of Columbia's immediate family and other Inuit players. While this production was promoted in 1911 as being filmed on location in northern Canada, it was actually shot that year at the snow-covered port town of Escanaba, Michigan, along a frozen stretch of shoreline of Little Bay de Noc, which connects to Lake Michigan.
Miracles of the Jungle is a 1921 American adventure film serial, directed by James Conway and E. A. Martin, in 15 chapters, starring Ben Hagerty, Wilbur Higby, and Al Ferguson. A co-production by Selig Studios and Warner Bros., it was distributed by the Federated Film Exchanges of America; it originally ran in U.S. theaters between May 24 and August 24, 1921.
Goldie Colwell was an American film actress and journalist who starred in more than 80 films during Hollywood's silent era. She was Tom Mix's leading lady in many Selig westerns.
Otto F. Breitkreutz, universally known as Big Otto, was an American circus man and film producer during the early 20th century. He was called Big Otto because he weighed somewhere between 350–480 lb (160–220 kg) and was "big in heart and policy."
