American Cinematographer - August 1984 - 39

General Film Company

(distributor of the Kalem films),
paid our negative expenses, whatever they may
be, and we supply the prints at cost. The profit, if any,
comes out of a division of the percentage earned by the
General Film Company.
we are

Very truly

yours,

Kalem Company, by F.J. MARION
The business details revealed in
these letters might clash with our vision of early film¬
makers as happy-go-lucky innocents - unsophisticated
and naive.

Actually,

very

little but styles have changed

since 1912 - although it is doubtful that any studio
executive today would commit these instructions to

writing!
Work on From the Manger to the
through the early months of 1912.
Olcott filmed the Nativity, the flight into Egypt, and
scenes from the boyhood of Jesus; then in April he
journeyed to London to engage an actor to play the

Cross continued

Rudolph Valentino in The Sheikj, and we have been
keeping [Pat C.J Hartigan s company on short come¬
dies, for which Miss [Ruth] Roland seems to be well
adapted.
The

Christ. He selected R. Henderson Bland, actor and

for the role, and there was some jealousy in the
company that the director would choose an outsider.
poet,

Those who knew Olcott remember
him

kind and generous man; but he was also noted
for his total preoccupation with his work, and he
as a

could be

taskmaster. A surviving call sheet out¬
expected of his actors:
"All people engaged in scenes must
be ready and made up for parts not later than 7.-45
A.M., unless otherwise notified.
"It is expected and absolutely un¬
derstood that Wardrobe and Properties shall be re¬
turned in as good a condition as when taken out,
barring ordinary wear, except in case of accident or call
for misuse in scenes.
a stern

lines what he

"All concerned

the
on

are

be present at

reading of Scenarios, notice of which will be found
the Call Board.
"All

study the characters as¬
signed them, in a painstaking and thorough manner,
with a view of giving a performance that will be a credit
to themselves and the Company."
Of course, Olcott's foreign produc¬
tions did not make up the entire Kalem release sched¬
ule. By 1912 there were more than 10,000 movie
must

theaters in the United States-each theater
three

five reels

on a

program,

business block in Glendale.

averaging

very

Melford's work of late has been
well (George Mclford would later direct

August/September 1984

studio which I established

directorship of George Le
Soir has not made much of a showing to date due very
largely to bad weather and bad photography. The studio
is ideally arranged and the location corresponds very
much to that at Jacksonville, and ought to turn out good
work. I am in hopes that we will see great improvement
there before long.
In Jacksonville I found [Kenean]
Buel most comfortably settled, and with all the prelimi¬
nary work so well done by you [that he is] in the best
position of all of our producers to turn out good stuff.
He has confined his work exclusively to [Civil] War
dramas, and so far has been quite successful. The
weather, however, has been very bad in Florida this
year, and he is three weeks behind.
Business continues very good with
us in the States, but the Foreign trade has shown a
slight
falling off.
The recent decision by the United
States Supreme Court in the Patent Case has, until
some new legislation is passed,
completely legalized the
licensing of manufacturers and the fixing of prices of a
patented article, so that we now have no fear of the
results of a Federal investigation under the Sherman

Gene Gauntier in Th
Fishermaid of

Ballydavid,

one

the "O'Kalems's"

produced on the
company's first IrisI
trip in 1911.

Law.

Marion's reference

running

and changing programs
daily. The need for product was tremendous.
My Dear Sid: I have just returned to New York
after an extended trip which
included a visit to our
various producing companies in the United States.
I think I wrote you that there were
many things to be straightened out in California, and I
am pleased to say that everything is satisfactorily ar¬
ranged out there. We are making our headquarters in a
to

new

in New Orleans under the

Sidney Olcott and

that

the patents

raging in the industry is especially interesing because it is one of the few candid observations
by a member of the so-called "Film Trust" that we
have. When the first bitter patents battle erupted in
1908, George Kleine had persuaded the leading pro¬
ducers (Edison, Vitagraph, Biograph, Lubin, et. al.) to
combine under the Motion Picture Patents Company
and to release their films jointly through the General
Film Company. In 1910 General Film began a push to
swallow up the independent film exchanges, and
thereby close the industry to all but their own product.
The independents fought back by producing their own
pictures. It is clear that Marion was fully aware of the
wars

American

were

Cinematographer

American Cinematographer - August 1984

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 1984