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American Film Manufacturing Company

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American Film Company
FormerlyAmerican Film Manufacturing Company
IndustryMotion picture
Founded1910
FounderHarry Aitken
John Freuler
Charles J. Hite
Samuel S. Hutchinson
Defunct1921
Headquarters,
US

The American Film Manufacturing Company, also known as Flying “A” Studios,[1] was an American motion picture production company. In 1915, the formal name was changed to the American Film Company.[1]

History

Samuel S. Hutchinson, president of the American Film Manufacturing Company
Samuel S. Hutchinson, president of the American Film Manufacturing Company
Postcard illustration of the company's building in Chicago
Postcard illustration of the company's building in Chicago
American Film Company plant in Santa Barbara, California
American Film Company plant in Santa Barbara, California

The American Film Manufacturing Company was founded in Chicago in the fall of 1910[1] by Samuel S. Hutchinson, John Freuler, Charles J. Hite and Harry Aitken, four Midwestern businessmen who joined forces and capital to create the company.

Flying "A" Studios was located in La Mesa, California, from August 12, 1911, to July 6, 1912, using filming locations in La Mesa and other East County areas such as Lakeside, in addition to sites around San Diego.[2]

Under the leadership of Allan Dwan, Flying "A" made over 150 films in San Diego County. The films were usually western adventures, comedies or an occasional local documentary. The Flying A westerns were popular with the public and kept Dwan and his crew extremely busy. The Dwan westerns gave the Flying A the ability to mount large advertising campaigns, create additional films, and become a player in the motion picture industry. While mostly filming in the backcountry near La Mesa, some sets were built behind the Flying A Studios. Dwan would occasionally film a cowboy chase scene and then build a plot around that chase. Dwan's troupe of actors became very popular with the public.[3]

The Navy Recruiting Band at the entrance to the American Film Company in Santa Barbara, California, June 1919
The Navy Recruiting Band at the entrance to the American Film Company in Santa Barbara, California, June 1919

In August 1912, Flying "A" Studios established its western branch in Santa Barbara. Prior to this, three shooting companies were created. Two would work at the studio or surrounding locales of Chicago, while it was the third unit that was sent out to concentrate on westerns. This western unit would move through the southwest with stops in New Mexico, Arizona and finally California.

The third unit would eventually settle in the town of La Mesa before moving Northwest to Santa Barbara. California was chosen for its sunny weather,[4] and to avoid the constraints of the "Edison Trust" (i.e., The Motion Picture Patents Company or MPPC) operating in Chicago and New York.[5]

The main reason for choosing Santa Barbara before La Mesa was that the American Film Company wanted to have urban backdrops in some of its movies.[6] During its operation between 1912 and 1917, Flying "A" Studios was one of the largest motion picture studios in the United States.[4] At the time, this made Santa Barbara a filmmaking center rivaled only by Hollywood.

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Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census, it is also the most populous city in the Midwest. As the seat of Cook County, the city is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, one of the largest in the world.

Charles J. Hite

Charles J. Hite

Charles Jackson Hite was an American businessman and film producer of the early 20th century, most importantly the president and chief executive officer of the Thanhouser Film Corporation from 1912 to 1914.

La Mesa, California

La Mesa, California

La Mesa is a city in San Diego County, located nine miles east of Downtown San Diego in Southern California. The population was 61,121 at the 2020 census, up from 57,065 at the 2010 census. Its civic motto is "the Jewel of the Hills."

Allan Dwan

Allan Dwan

Allan Dwan was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.

Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Santa Barbara's climate is often described as Mediterranean, and the city has been dubbed "The American Riviera". According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the city's population was 88,665.

New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region of the western U.S. with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona, and bordering Texas to the east and southeast, Oklahoma to the northeast, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora to the south. New Mexico's largest city is Albuquerque, and its state capital is Santa Fe, which is the oldest state capital in the U.S., having been founded in 1610 as the government seat of Nuevo México in New Spain.

Arizona

Arizona

Arizona is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th-largest and the 14th-most-populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Four Corners region with Utah to the north, Colorado to the northeast, and New Mexico to the east; its other neighboring states are Nevada to the northwest, California to the west and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south and southwest.

Motion Picture Patents Company

Motion Picture Patents Company

The Motion Picture Patents Company, founded in December 1908 and terminated seven years later in 1915 after conflicts within the industry, was a trust of all the major US film companies and local foreign-branches, the leading film distributor and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak. The MPPC ended the domination of foreign films on US screens, standardized the manner in which films were distributed and exhibited within the US, and improved the quality of US motion pictures by internal competition. But it also discouraged its members' entry into feature film production, and the use of outside financing, both to its members' eventual detriment.

New York City

New York City

New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), New York City is the most densely populated major city in the United States and more than twice as populous as Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest city. New York City is located at the southern tip of New York State. It constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by both population and urban area. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities, and over 58 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of the city. New York City is a global cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care and life sciences, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, dining, art, fashion, and sports. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy, and is sometimes described as the capital of the world.

Hollywood, Los Angeles

Hollywood, Los Angeles

Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures, are located near or in Hollywood.

Contract players and directors

When the American Film Company was formed in 1910, it culled many performers, directors, scenario writers and crew members from Essanay Studios the Motion Picture Patents Company. Among the directors and writers that worked for American were Frank Beal, Allan Dwan, J. Warren Kerrigan, and Tom Ricketts. In 1913, Wallace Reid directed several society dramas for the company.[7]

The company's roster of actors included Dot Farley, Margarita Fischer, Mary Miles Minter and William Russell.[8]

Discover more about Contract players and directors related topics

Essanay Studios

Essanay Studios

The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an early American motion picture studio. The studio was founded in 1907 in Chicago, and later developed an additional film lot in Niles Canyon, California. Its various stars included Francis X. Bushman, Gloria Swanson and studio co-owner, actor and director, Broncho Billy Anderson. It is probably best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies from 1915-1916. In the late 1916 it merged with other studios and stopped issuing films in the fall of 1918. According to film historian Steve Massa, Essanay is one of the important early studios, with comedies as a particular strength.

Frank Beal

Frank Beal

Frank Beal was an American actor and film director of the silent film era.

Allan Dwan

Allan Dwan

Allan Dwan was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.

J. Warren Kerrigan

J. Warren Kerrigan

George Jack Warren Kerrigan was an American silent film actor and film director.

Tom Ricketts

Tom Ricketts

Thomas B. Ricketts was an English-born American stage and film actor and director who was a pioneer in the film industry. He portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in the first American film adaptation of A Christmas Carol (1908), and directed one of the first motion pictures ever made in Hollywood. After directing scores of silent films, including the first film to be released by Universal Pictures, Ricketts became a prominent character actor.

Wallace Reid

Wallace Reid

William Wallace Halleck Reid was an American actor in silent film, referred to as "the screen's most perfect lover". He also had a brief career as a racing driver.

Dot Farley

Dot Farley

Dorothea "Dot" Farley was an American film actress who appeared in 280 motion pictures between 1910 and 1950. She was also known as Dorothy Farley.

Margarita Fischer

Margarita Fischer

Margarita Fisher was an American actress in silent motion pictures and stage productions. Newspapers sometimes referred to her as "Babe" Fischer.

Mary Miles Minter

Mary Miles Minter

Mary Miles Minter was an American actress. She appeared in 53 silent films from 1912 to 1923.

William Russell (American actor)

William Russell (American actor)

William Russell was an American actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. He appeared in over two hundred silent-era motion pictures between 1910 and 1929, directing five of them in 1916 and producing two through his own production company in 1918 and 1925.

Demise

In mid-1918, American Film Company lost its primary distributor when Mutual Film folded. The company signed with a new distributor, Pathé, and continued to produce features. Over the next three years, the company's output decreased significantly. In 1921, one of American's most prominent contract players, Margarita Fischer, left the company. American Film Company was dissolved shortly thereafter.[8]

Gallery

Source: "American Film Manufacturing Company", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, February 10th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Film_Manufacturing_Company.

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Bibliography
  • Birchard, Robert S. Silent-era filmmaking in Santa Barbara, Charleston, SC: Arcadia, c2007. ISBN 0-7385-4730-1.
  • Lawton, Stephen (1997). Santa Barbara's Flying A studio. Santa Barbara, Calif: Fithian Press. ISBN 1-56474-210-5.
  • Lyons, Timothy J. The silent partner: the history of the American Film Manufacturing Company, 1910-1921, New York: Arno Press, 1974 [c1972]. ISBN 0-405-04872-6.
  • Slide, Anthony. The American Film Industry: A Historical Dictionary. New York: Limelight Editions, 1990. p. 17. ISBN 0-87910-139-3.
  • Tompkins, Walker A. Santa Barbara History Makers. McNally & Loftin, Santa Barbara. 1983. ISBN 0-87461-059-1.
References
  1. ^ a b c "filmandmedia.ucsb.edu". Archived from the original on 2009-09-15. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  2. ^ Raftery, Miriam (13 February 2011). "La Mesa Resident Seeks to Revive City's Silent Movie Herigage for Centennial". East County Magazine. Drupal. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  3. ^ Williams, Gregory L. (Spring 2002). Hennessey, Gregg (ed.). "FILMING SAN DIEGO, Hollywood's Backlot, 1898-2002". The Journal of San Diego History. 48 (2). Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  4. ^ a b Lawton 1997, p. 130.
  5. ^ Lawton 1997, p. 17.
  6. ^ "Santa Barbara, CA". Department of Film and Media Studies. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2009.
  7. ^ Slide, Anthony (2014). The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry. Routledge. pp. 8–9. ISBN 1-135-92554-2.
  8. ^ a b (Slide 2014, p. 9)
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