Lubin Studios
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
motion picture production company that produced silent films from 1902 to 1916. Lubin films were distributed with a Liberty Bell
Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell is an iconic symbol of American Independence, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formerly placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House , the bell was commissioned from the London firm of Lester and Pack in 1752, and was cast with the lettering "Proclaim LIBERTY...
trademark.
History
The Lubin Manufacturing Company was formed in 1902 and incorporatedCorporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
in 1909 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
by Siegmund Lubin
Siegmund Lubin
Siegmund Lubin was a Polish-American motion picture pioneer.-Biography:He was born as Siegmund Lubszynski in Breslau, Silesia, Germany on April 20, 1851, to a German Jewish family...
. The company was the offspring of Lubin's film equipment and film distribution and production business began in 1896.
Siegmund Lubin, a Jewish immigrant from Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, was originally an optical and photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
expert in Philadelphia but who became intrigued with Thomas Edison's
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
motion picture camera and saw the potential in selling similar such equipment as well as the making of films. Known as "Pop" Lubin, he constructed his own combined camera/projector he called a "Cineograph" and his lower price and marketing know-how brought reasonable success. In 1897 Lubin began making films for commercial release. Certain his business could prosper, the following year he rented low-cost space on the roof of a building in Philadelphia's business district. He exhibited his new equipment at the 1899 National Export Exposition in Philadelphia and the 1901 Pan-American Exposition
Pan-American Exposition
The Pan-American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York, United States, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. The fair occupied of land on the western edge of what is present day Delaware Park, extending from Delaware Ave. to Elmwood Ave and northward to Great Arrow...
in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
.
The insatiable appetite of the American public for motion picture entertainment saw Lubin's film company undergo enormous growth. Aided by French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
-born writer and poet Hugh Antoine d'Arcy
Hugh Antoine d'Arcy
Hugh Antoine d'Arcy was a French-born poet and writer and a pioneer executive in the American motion picture industry. He is best known for his 1887 poem, The Face upon the Floor...
, who served as the studio's publicity manager, in 1910 Siegmund Lubin built a state of the art studio on the corner of Indiana avenue and Twentieth Street in Philadelphia that became known as "Lubinville." At the time, it was one of the most modern studios in the world, complete with a huge artificially lit stage, editing rooms, laboratories, and work shops. The facility allowed several film productions to be undertaken simultaneously. The Lubin Manufacturing Company expanded production beyond Philadelphia, with facilities in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, Los Angeles, and then in Coronado, California
Coronado, California
Coronado, also known as Coronado Island, is an affluent resort city located in San Diego County, California, 5.2 miles from downtown San Diego. Its population was 24,697 at the 2010 census, up from 24,100 at the 2000 census. U.S. News and World Report lists Coronado as one of the most expensive...
. In 1912, Lubin purchased a 350 acres (1.4 km²) estate in Betzwood
Betzwood
Betzwood is the name of an area of West Norriton Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The area once housed the Lubin Studios, an early motion picture studio that operated here from 1912 to 1923....
, in what was then rural countryside in the northwest outskirts of Philadelphia and converted the property into a studio and film lot.
Some of the pioneer actors who worked for Lubin included Harry Myers
Harry Myers
Harry C. Myers , sometimes credited as Henry Myers, was an American film actor and director. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and died in Hollywood, California from pneumonia...
, Florence Hackett, Alan Hale
Alan Hale, Sr.
Alan Hale, Sr. was an American movie actor and director, most widely remembered for his many supporting character roles, in particular as frequent sidekick of Errol Flynn. His wife of over thirty years was Gretchen Hartman , a child actress and silent film player and mother of their three children...
, Arthur V. Johnson
Arthur V. Johnson
Arthur V. Johnson was a pioneer actor and director of American silent films.Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Arthur Vaughen Johnson began as a film actor with the Edison Studios in The Bronx, New York in 1905 in the one-reel drama "The White Caps" directed by Wallace McCutcheon, Sr. and Edwin S. Porter...
, Florence Lawrence
Florence Lawrence
Florence Lawrence was a Canadian inventor and silent film actress. She is often referred to as "The First Movie Star." When she was popular, she was known as "The Biograph Girl," "The Imp Girl," and "The Girl of a Thousand Faces." Lawrence appeared in more than 270 films for various motion...
, Ethel Clayton
Ethel Clayton
Ethel Clayton was an American actress of the silent film era.-Career:Clayton's screen debut came in 1909, in a short called Justified. She jockeyed her early film appearances with a burgeoning stage career. Her pretty blond looks were reminiscient of the famous Gibson Girl drawings by Charles Dana...
, Gladys Brockwell
Gladys Brockwell
Gladys Brockwell was an American actress whose career began during the silent film era.-Early life:Born Gladys Lindeman in Brooklyn, New York, she was the daughter of a chorus girl who put her on stage at a very early age. By the time she reached her middle teens, she was already a veteran and...
, Edwin Carewe
Edwin Carewe
Edwin Carewe was an American motion picture director, actor, producer, and screenwriter. He was born in Gainesville, Texas, as Jay Fox.-Career:...
, Ormi Hawley
Ormi Hawley
Ormi Hawley was an American actress.Born Ormetta Grace Hawley in Holyoke, Massachusetts, she began her acting career in live theatre before turning to the new silent film industry in 1911 with Lubin Studios in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Over her short film career she reportedly appeared in more...
, Rosemary Theby
Rosemary Theby
Rosemary Theby was an American film actress. She appeared in some 250 films between 1911 and 1940.-Early life and career:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Theby studied at Sargent's School in New York...
, and Pearl White
Pearl White
Pearl Fay White was an American film actress, the so-called "Stunt Queen" of silent films, most notably in The Perils of Pauline.-Early life:...
. Lubin films also marked the first film appearance of Oliver Hardy
Oliver Hardy
Oliver Hardy was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted nearly 30 years, from 1927 to 1955.-Early life:...
, who started working at Lubin's Jacksonville, Florida studio in 1913. Hardy's first onscreen appearance was in the 1914 movie, Outwitting Dad
Outwitting Dad
Outwitting Dad is a 1914 comedy film that features Oliver Hardy's first onscreen appearance.-Cast:* Billy Bowers - Mr. Gross* Oliver Hardy - Reggie Kewp * Raymond McKee - Bob Kewp* Frances Ne Moyer - Lena Gross...
where he was billed as O. N. Hardy. In many of his later films at Lubin, he was billed as “Babe Hardy.” He was most often cast as “the heavy” or the villain and had roles in comedy shorts, appearing in some 50 short one-reel
Reel
A reel is an object around which lengths of another material are wound for storage. Generally a reel has a cylindrical core and walls on the sides to retain the material wound around the core...
er films at Lubin by 1915.
However, the company's downfall came even faster than its meteoric rise. Not being as adroit as its competitors in shifting to quality feature-length films plus a disastrous fire at its main studio in June 1914 that destroyed the negatives for a number of unreleased new films, severely hurt the business. When World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in September of that year, Lubin Studios, and other American filmmakers', lost a large source of income from these foreign sales. In 1915, the Lubin company entered into an agreement with Vitagraph Studios
Vitagraph Studios
American Vitagraph was a United States movie studio, founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York. By 1907 it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by Warner Bros...
, Selig Polyscope Company
Selig Polyscope Company
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. Selig Polyscope is noted for establishing Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles...
, and Essanay Studios
Essanay Studios
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture studio. It is best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies of 1915.-Founding:...
to form a film distribution partnership. However, the decline of the Lubin operations continued and the United States Supreme Court rulings against the monopoly of the Motion Picture Patents Company
Motion Picture Patents Company
The Motion Picture Patents Company , founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major American film companies , the leading film distributor and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak...
spelled the end of Lubin's business. After making more than a thousand motion pictures the corporation was forced into bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
and on September 1, 1916 the Lubin Manufacturing Company closed its doors forever.
Copyright battle with Edison
For years the Lubin Manufacturing Company, like most of the other major film studios, had a running legal battle with Thomas EdisonThomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
that saw repeated lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
s brought against Lubin for copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
. Eventually Lubin gave up the costly fight with Edison and became part of the Motion Picture Patents Company
Motion Picture Patents Company
The Motion Picture Patents Company , founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major American film companies , the leading film distributor and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak...
, a monopoly on production and distribution set up by Edison.