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23-531: Essanay was originally located at 501 Wells Street (modern numbering: 1360 N. Wells). Essanay's first film, An Awful Skate, or The Hobo on Rollers (July 1907), starring Ben Turpin (then the studio janitor), produced for only a couple hundred dollars, grossed several thousand dollars in release. The studio prospered and in 1908 moved to its more famous address at 1333–45 W. Argyle Street in Uptown, Chicago . Essanay produced silent films with such stars (and stars of

46-429: A Chaplin short. Chaplin's stock company at Essanay included Ben Turpin , who disliked working with the meticulous Chaplin and appeared with him in only a couple of films; ingenue Edna Purviance , who became his off-screen sweetheart as well; Leo White , almost always playing a fussy continental villain; and all-purpose authority figures Bud Jamison and John Rand . Silent films were largely photographed outdoors for

69-461: A farm, he faces various humorous situations, including a hobo trading his sandwich for a brick. The Tramp comes to the aid of a farmer's daughter who is harassed by a hobo. As the story unfolds, the Tramp engages in farm work, gets involved in a tiff with a farmhand, and foils a planned robbery. However, upon realizing the farmer's daughter is already in a relationship, the Tramp decides to leave, leaving

92-519: A film distribution partnership known as V-L-S-E, Incorporated . It was orchestrated by Chicago distributor George Kleine . Only the Vitagraph brand name continued into the 1920s, and was absorbed by Warner Bros. in 1925. In 1916, Essanay arranged a deal with William Kane, who later become the publisher and editor of The Black Cat , to acquire a hundred stories from the magazine to turn into "Black Cat" films, each about half-an-hour long. The plan

115-605: A location in Niles Canyon in the San Francisco East Bay Area, setting up in Frank Mortimer's empty barn on Second between G and H Streets, for interior scenes. The next year in the town of Niles at the mouth of Niles Canyon, "Essanay built 10 modest cottages for their actors on 2nd Street, between F and G streets, and constructed an unassuming (200-foot) studio nearby", across the street from

138-525: A series of silent comedies. Anderson died in Los Angeles in 1971. The Essanay building in Chicago was later taken over by independent producer Norman Wilding, who made industrial films and television commercials. Wilding's tenancy was much longer than Essanay's; he maintained the physical plant until at least 1967, when trade magazines stopped mentioning "Wilding, Inc." In the early 1970s, a portion of

161-415: Is felled by a gunshot wound, and then disappointed in romance). The film ends with the famous shot of the lonely tramp with his back to the camera, walking down the road dejectedly until shrugging off his disappointment. Attempting to capitalize on the popularity of Chaplin, the studio in 1915 had its cartoon character Dreamy Dud in a Chaplin-themed short Dreamy Dud Sees Charlie Chaplin in which Dud watches

184-487: Is presenting an entirely new film as stated." The finished film found an audience, since new Chaplin comedies were then hard to come by, but the revenue wasn't enough to save the company. George K. Spoor continued to work in the motion picture industry, introducing an unsuccessful 3-D system in 1923, and Spoor-Berggren Natural Vision, a 65 mm widescreen format, in 1930. He died in Chicago in 1953. G. M. Anderson became an independent producer, sponsoring Stan Laurel in

207-617: The Chicago and Niles studios, plus a cameo appearance in the Broncho Billy film 'His Regeneration'. Chaplin's Essanays are more disciplined than the chaotic roughhouse of Chaplin's Keystones, with better story value and character development. The landmark film of the Chaplin series is The Tramp (1915), in which Chaplin's vagabond character finds work on a farm and is smitten with the farmer's daughter. Chaplin injected moments of drama and pathos unheard of in slapstick comedies (the tramp

230-565: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 224084384 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:27:35 GMT The Tramp (film) The Tramp is the sixth film directed by Charlie Chaplin for Essanay Studios , released in 1915. It was Chaplin's fifth and final film produced at Essanay's Niles, California studio. The Tramp marked

253-412: The emergence of The Tramp character, a role Chaplin had played in earlier films but with a more emotional depth, showing a caring side towards others. The film also stars Edna Purviance as the farmer's daughter and Ernest Van Pelt as Edna's father. The outdoor scenes were filmed on location near Niles. The film begins with the Tramp walking down the road, narrowly escaping two cars. Seeking refuge on

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276-409: The first American Sherlock Holmes film. Directed by Arthur Berthelet , it stars William Gillette in the title role. Animated comedies were produced as well by the Chicago company, including installments showcasing the small boy "Dreamy Dud" and his dog "Wag", who in the early 1900s were among the favorite cartoon characters of theater audiences. Due to Chicago 's seasonal weather patterns and

299-510: The first American film version of A Christmas Carol (1908) as well as the Western short The James Boys of Missouri (1908), which is notable for being the first biopic about the nineteenth-century American outlaw brothers Jesse and Frank James . The first pie-in-the-face gag on screen is believed to have hit Essanay star Ben Turpin in Mr. Flip (1909). The studio in 1916 also released

322-458: The future) as George Periolat , Ben Turpin , Wallace Beery , Thomas Meighan , Colleen Moore , Francis X. Bushman , Gloria Swanson , Ann Little , Helen Dunbar , Lester Cuneo , Florence Oberle , Lewis Stone , Virginia Valli , Edward Arnold , Edmund Cobb , and Rod La Rocque . The mainstay of the organization, however, was studio co-owner Gilbert Anderson, starring in the very popular "Broncho Billy" Westerns, and ultimately its biggest star

345-530: The loss of the magazines, eventually winning his case in the US Supreme Court . The Chicago studio continued to produce films until 1918, reaching a total of well over 1,400 Essanay titles during its ten-year history. In a last-ditch attempt to cash in on Charlie Chaplin's popularity, Essanay cobbled together Triple Trouble , taking material from an unfinished Chaplin project called Life and having actor Leo White film new scenes in Chicago to connect

368-438: The natural sunlight; even some interior scenes were filmed outdoors, with theatrical scenery propped up behind the actors. Chaplin didn't like the unpredictable weather of Chicago or the chilly climate of Niles, and moved his production unit to the more temperate Los Angeles. He left Essanay after only one year for more money and more creative control elsewhere. His departure caused a rift between founders Spoor and Anderson. Chaplin

391-472: The older Chaplin scenes. Exhibitors were suspicious of the film's authenticity, so Spoor went public. "I wish to state that the film is new in its entirety, just as advertised, and is not a rehash, nor a reissue under a new title," Spoor explained. "The facts are that at the time of making the picture it went under the working title of Life . [Essanay] has reissued Chaplin pictures, and has always stated that they were reissues. In Triple Trouble , however, Essanay

414-486: The popularity of Westerns, Gilbert Anderson took a part of the company west, first to Colorado . He told The Denver Post in 1909, "Colorado is the finest place in the country for Wild West stuff". The Western operations moved to California, but traveled between Northern to Southern California seasonally. This included locations in San Rafael , north of San Francisco , and Santa Barbara . In 1912 Anderson settled on

437-494: The railroad tracks. More than 350 films were produced in Niles by Essanay. On 16 February 1916, the Niles lot was closed by George K. Spoor via telegram. By the 1930s, it had been torn down. In late 1914, Essanay succeeded in hiring Charlie Chaplin away from Mack Sennett 's Keystone Studios , offering Chaplin a higher production salary and his own production unit. Chaplin made fourteen short comedies for Essanay in 1915-1916, at both

460-695: The studio was offered to Columbia College (Chicago) for one dollar, but the offer lapsed without action. Then it was given to a non-profit television corporation which sold it. One tenant was the midwest office of Technicolor . Today the Essanay lot is the home of St. Augustine's College , and its main meeting hall has been named the Charlie Chaplin Auditorium. The facility was named a Chicago Landmark in 1996. Ben Turpin Too Many Requests If you report this error to

483-526: Was Charlie Chaplin , who for a time had his own production unit at the studio. Allan Dwan was hired by Essanay Studios as a screenwriter and developed into a famous Hollywood director. Louella Parsons was also a screenwriter for the studio and went on to be a powerful Hollywood gossip columnist. Owners Spoor (in 1948) and Anderson (in 1958) received the Oscars ' Academy Honorary Award , for their pioneering efforts with Essanay. Essanay's productions include

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506-626: Was the studio's biggest moneymaker, and Essanay resorted to creating "new" Chaplin comedies from file footage and out-takes. Finally, with Chaplin off the Essanay scene for good, Essanay signed French comedian Max Linder , whose clever pantomime, often compared to Chaplin's, failed to match Chaplin's popularity in America. In 1915, in a effort to save the studio, Essanay entered into an agreement with Vitagraph Studios , Lubin Manufacturing Company , and Selig Polyscope Company to form

529-410: Was to release one picture a week, starting on December 5, 1916 with "The Egg", a comedy starring Richard Travers and Marguerite Clayton . Kane loaned Essanay a set of The Black Cat issues, complete from the first issue through May 1915, and received $ 1,250 from Essanay for the one hundred stories they selected. Essanay failed to return the magazines to Kane, who sued them for $ 20,000 compensation for

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