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The First Hollywood: Florida and the Golden Age of Silent Filmmaking
Jacksonville, Florida, was the king of the infant film industry. Devastated by fire in 1901, rebuilt in a wide variety of architectural styles, sharing the same geographic and meteorological DNA as southern California, the city was an ideal location for northern film production companies looking to relocate.
- GenresHistoryFilmNonfiction
240 pages, Hardcover
First published July 28, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 26, 2021
Brief and breezy, Bean's The First Hollywood puts Jacksonville's largely forgotten history as the nation's film capital back in the spotlight, highlighting the few decades at the beginning of the 20th century when we gave Hollywood a run for its money.
Divided into ten roughly chronological chapters, the book offers a brief overview of the history of motion picture technology and just enough local history to offer context before focusing on its main subject: the migration of the film industry from Northeast to Northeast Florida, which as far as I can tell is largely due to 1) the weather and 2) Thomas Edison being a spectacular jackass. Between cutaways to California to check on the development of arch-rival Hollywood, Bean covers the pictures and the politics of Jacksonville, including a full chapter and more on Norman Studios, which produced films for and starring African-Americans from 1920-1928.
Though well-written and entertaining, The First Hollywood has such a broad scope that it offers more of an overview than an in-depth history (all of the above topics are covered, plus an appendix with a list of films shot in Jacksonville, in under 200 pages), and while the context of what was happening in Hollywood at the same time was valuable, I started to feel frustrated every time the author cut to the west coast. Though not as frustrated as the Jacksonville Film and Television Office must feel, since the section on their efforts to reinvigorate the city's film industry does little more than make Jacksonville look like a less well-dressed Norma Desmond.
The First Hollywood offers a fascinating look at Jacksonville's past that can't help but make you wonder about the road not taken, and how it might have all gone had we managed to keep our name in lights.
Divided into ten roughly chronological chapters, the book offers a brief overview of the history of motion picture technology and just enough local history to offer context before focusing on its main subject: the migration of the film industry from Northeast to Northeast Florida, which as far as I can tell is largely due to 1) the weather and 2) Thomas Edison being a spectacular jackass. Between cutaways to California to check on the development of arch-rival Hollywood, Bean covers the pictures and the politics of Jacksonville, including a full chapter and more on Norman Studios, which produced films for and starring African-Americans from 1920-1928.
Though well-written and entertaining, The First Hollywood has such a broad scope that it offers more of an overview than an in-depth history (all of the above topics are covered, plus an appendix with a list of films shot in Jacksonville, in under 200 pages), and while the context of what was happening in Hollywood at the same time was valuable, I started to feel frustrated every time the author cut to the west coast. Though not as frustrated as the Jacksonville Film and Television Office must feel, since the section on their efforts to reinvigorate the city's film industry does little more than make Jacksonville look like a less well-dressed Norma Desmond.
The First Hollywood offers a fascinating look at Jacksonville's past that can't help but make you wonder about the road not taken, and how it might have all gone had we managed to keep our name in lights.
October 7, 2011
You might like this better than me if you like a "flip" writing style. Since I don't, and I caught several minor errors (from the beginning p8, where the St. Johns River is the only river in the country to flow north, to the end p158, where Warner Brothers owns Marvel Comics), it gets an "OK" review. It's possible that it is only minor errors, and that everything about silent films is correct - but the flip writing style doesn't give me confidence.
On the other hand, if you don't mind those sort of things, and know nothing about film making in the early 20th Century, and don't plan to quote the book, you might find this an interesting read on a little known part of Jacksonville and movie history.
On the other hand, if you don't mind those sort of things, and know nothing about film making in the early 20th Century, and don't plan to quote the book, you might find this an interesting read on a little known part of Jacksonville and movie history.
January 24, 2009
http://miamisunpost.com/archives/2009...
Bound - Miami SunPost Jan. 8, 2009
The Other Hollywood
Shawn C. Bean Revisits a Filmmaking Mecca
By John Hood
Believe it or not, before Hollywood, Calif., became a filmmaking mecca, another town much closer to home held that distinction. No, it wasn’t our Hollywood (this was well before Joseph Young built his “Dream City”); it was Jacksonville.
Really.
Yep, back in 1908 when nickelodeons were as prevalent as air and movies were still silent, Jacksonville was the location of choice for some 30 different movie studios. In The First Hollywood: Florida and the Golden Age of Silent Filmmaking (University Press of Florida, $27.50), Shawn C. Bean travels back to those halcyon days of hustle, muscle and bluster, and recalls the moment when a sleepy little town truly missed its big chance.
It’s a colorful story, to say the least, so much so in fact that I decided to ask Bean to elaborate. Here’s what he had to say:
First the obvious: Why did early film producers choose Jacksonville?
Same thing that made Hollywood [Calif.:] so appealing: sunshine and warm weather. Sunshine was a cheap alternative to the expensive, volatile lighting rigs of that era, and the warm weather allowed filmmakers to shoot from dawn till dusk. But the luckiest break was that the railroads from New York City dead-ended in Jacksonville. It was a relatively mindless commute for Manhattan’s production companies.
How’d you come across the story?
A few years back, a museum in Jacksonville exhibited these big watercolor movie posters from the silent era. The exhibit’s literature mentioned that Jacksonville had a thriving film community in the early 20th century. After a little digging, I learned Jacksonville actually predates Hollywood by three years. Just like that, Indiana Jones found the Ark of the Covenant.
What kinds of movies were made there at that time?
The first film troupe in town, the Kalem Players, was a bunch of formal New York theater actors. Upon arrival, they chose to make movies about the surroundings, to tell stories about Florida and its people. And they did. They made movies about backwoods crackers living in the scrub, drinking, fighting, killing their adulterous wives and dragging them into the swamp. A couple movie titles from that era are The Seminole Half-Breeds and A Slave to Drink. That says it all.
Any studios we might recognize?
Metro Picture, the first M in Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Fox, as in 20th Century Fox. The first Technicolor film ever made was produced in Jacksonville.
What about stars?
Oliver Hardy. The Barrymores. Mary Pickford. D.W. Griffith.
Without giving too much away: Why did everybody blow town?
A number of things tore it all asunder. World War I started in 1914. The railroads, which filmmakers relied on to ship film stock, costumes, etc., were now being used to ship war supplies. The film boom also attracted a lot of schemers and hucksters, giving the industry writ large a bad name. But the real kicker was Mayor J. E. T. Bowden losing his re-election bid in 1917. Bowden was a huge film booster, and because of the industry’s dwindling reputation, his ties to it cost him the election.
Is there much left of the original infrastructure?
There’s almost nothing you can touch. The studios are gone. The theaters are gone. Almost all of the movies have been lost, destroyed or damaged by time. There’s only one piece of that history left, a dilapidated film studio in the suburb of Arlington. A Category 1 would wipe it out.
What about the films — any available?
Hardly any. According to my research, about 300 films were made in Jacksonville during its heyday. But most of them are long gone. I got to screen only 10 or 12 movies. I’ve heard that there are a few billionaire types out there who pay all kinds of silly money to collect rare silent films, but I haven’t met any.
Does J-ville have any film action to speak of these days?
It’s funny. One of Jacksonville’s biggest perks for those early filmmakers was its variety of architecture. Filmmakers found Chicago, Savannah, New England, Europe and Africa all within the city limits. But the problem now is when modern-day filmmakers use the city, you can’t even recognize that it’s Jacksonville. Downtown doubled for New York in The Devil’s Advocate starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. The HBO mini-series First Time Felon had Jacksonville standing in for Chicago. In the John Travolta-Sam Jackson vehicle Basic, the jungle thickets near Commerce Park served as Panama. When the city is on film, it has no unique role.
How ‘bout a film called The First Hollywood?
I’ve always contended that the book would make an excellent HBO mini-series. Deadwood meets Entourage.
Bound - Miami SunPost Jan. 8, 2009
The Other Hollywood
Shawn C. Bean Revisits a Filmmaking Mecca
By John Hood
Believe it or not, before Hollywood, Calif., became a filmmaking mecca, another town much closer to home held that distinction. No, it wasn’t our Hollywood (this was well before Joseph Young built his “Dream City”); it was Jacksonville.
Really.
Yep, back in 1908 when nickelodeons were as prevalent as air and movies were still silent, Jacksonville was the location of choice for some 30 different movie studios. In The First Hollywood: Florida and the Golden Age of Silent Filmmaking (University Press of Florida, $27.50), Shawn C. Bean travels back to those halcyon days of hustle, muscle and bluster, and recalls the moment when a sleepy little town truly missed its big chance.
It’s a colorful story, to say the least, so much so in fact that I decided to ask Bean to elaborate. Here’s what he had to say:
First the obvious: Why did early film producers choose Jacksonville?
Same thing that made Hollywood [Calif.:] so appealing: sunshine and warm weather. Sunshine was a cheap alternative to the expensive, volatile lighting rigs of that era, and the warm weather allowed filmmakers to shoot from dawn till dusk. But the luckiest break was that the railroads from New York City dead-ended in Jacksonville. It was a relatively mindless commute for Manhattan’s production companies.
How’d you come across the story?
A few years back, a museum in Jacksonville exhibited these big watercolor movie posters from the silent era. The exhibit’s literature mentioned that Jacksonville had a thriving film community in the early 20th century. After a little digging, I learned Jacksonville actually predates Hollywood by three years. Just like that, Indiana Jones found the Ark of the Covenant.
What kinds of movies were made there at that time?
The first film troupe in town, the Kalem Players, was a bunch of formal New York theater actors. Upon arrival, they chose to make movies about the surroundings, to tell stories about Florida and its people. And they did. They made movies about backwoods crackers living in the scrub, drinking, fighting, killing their adulterous wives and dragging them into the swamp. A couple movie titles from that era are The Seminole Half-Breeds and A Slave to Drink. That says it all.
Any studios we might recognize?
Metro Picture, the first M in Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Fox, as in 20th Century Fox. The first Technicolor film ever made was produced in Jacksonville.
What about stars?
Oliver Hardy. The Barrymores. Mary Pickford. D.W. Griffith.
Without giving too much away: Why did everybody blow town?
A number of things tore it all asunder. World War I started in 1914. The railroads, which filmmakers relied on to ship film stock, costumes, etc., were now being used to ship war supplies. The film boom also attracted a lot of schemers and hucksters, giving the industry writ large a bad name. But the real kicker was Mayor J. E. T. Bowden losing his re-election bid in 1917. Bowden was a huge film booster, and because of the industry’s dwindling reputation, his ties to it cost him the election.
Is there much left of the original infrastructure?
There’s almost nothing you can touch. The studios are gone. The theaters are gone. Almost all of the movies have been lost, destroyed or damaged by time. There’s only one piece of that history left, a dilapidated film studio in the suburb of Arlington. A Category 1 would wipe it out.
What about the films — any available?
Hardly any. According to my research, about 300 films were made in Jacksonville during its heyday. But most of them are long gone. I got to screen only 10 or 12 movies. I’ve heard that there are a few billionaire types out there who pay all kinds of silly money to collect rare silent films, but I haven’t met any.
Does J-ville have any film action to speak of these days?
It’s funny. One of Jacksonville’s biggest perks for those early filmmakers was its variety of architecture. Filmmakers found Chicago, Savannah, New England, Europe and Africa all within the city limits. But the problem now is when modern-day filmmakers use the city, you can’t even recognize that it’s Jacksonville. Downtown doubled for New York in The Devil’s Advocate starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. The HBO mini-series First Time Felon had Jacksonville standing in for Chicago. In the John Travolta-Sam Jackson vehicle Basic, the jungle thickets near Commerce Park served as Panama. When the city is on film, it has no unique role.
How ‘bout a film called The First Hollywood?
I’ve always contended that the book would make an excellent HBO mini-series. Deadwood meets Entourage.
July 25, 2011
As a Los Angeles native, this was an interesting read. Bean discusses Jacksonville, FL at the turn of the century and its battle to become the filmmaking mecca of the US. We all know LA won this battle without dispute... so it's interesting to learn about the impact of events that derailed Jacksonville's ability to create a strong movie empire in Florida.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews