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Bluebird Photoplays

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Bluebird Photoplays
IndustryFilm

Bluebird Photoplays (Bluebird Photoplays of New York, Inc. and Bluebird Photoplays of New England, Inc.[1]) was an American film production company that filmed at Universal Pictures studios in California and New Jersey,[2] and distributed its films via Universal Pictures during the silent film era. It had a $500,000 studio in New Jersey.[2]

"It was a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and employed Universal stars (and starlets) and used Universal’s facilities but the pictures were marketed independently from Carl Laemmle’s umbrella company."—Anke Brouwers[3]

Mary MacLaren, was one of its stars.[4] Louise Lovely, an actress from Australia, was one of its stars.[5] Bluebird was a prestige brand for Universal and had a core of actors and directors including Lovely who worked for it.[6][7] Ida May Park directed for Bluebird Photoplays. Elsie Jane Wilson produced and directed for Bluebird Photoplays.[8] Among those who worked for this short-lived subsidiary of Universal are Carmel Myers, Mae Murray, Rudolph Valentino, Tod Browning, Rex Ingram,[9] Robert Z. Leonard and Rupert Julian.[10]

Louis B. Mayer invested in the company.[1] M. H. Hoffman managed the company.[2]

Discover more about Bluebird Photoplays related topics

Silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound. Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of title cards.

Mary MacLaren

Mary MacLaren

Mary MacLaren was an American film actress in both the silent and sound eras. She was the younger sister of actresses Miriam and Katherine MacDonald and appeared in more than 170 films between 1916 and 1949.

Louise Lovely

Louise Lovely

Louise Lovely was an Australian film actress of Swiss-Italian descent. She is credited by film historians for being the first Australian actress to have a successful career in Hollywood, signing a contract with Universal Pictures in the United States in 1914. Lovely appeared in 50 American films and ten Australian films before retiring from acting in 1925.

Ida May Park

Ida May Park

Ida May Park was an American screenwriter and film director of the silent era, in the early 20th century. She wrote for more than 50 films between 1914 and 1930, and directed 14 films between 1917 and 1920. She was born and died in Los Angeles, California. She was married to film director and producer Joseph De Grasse, with whom she was regularly teamed at Universal.

Elsie Jane Wilson

Elsie Jane Wilson

Elsie Jane Wilson was a cinema actress, director, and writer during the early film era. She took part in the productions of the silent film era and starred in over thirty films. Between the years of 1916 and 1919, Wilson was credited for producing, writing two films, and directing eleven films. She was best known in the genres of dramas and comedy dramas.

Carmel Myers

Carmel Myers

Carmel Myers was an American actress who achieved her greatest successes in silent film.

Mae Murray

Mae Murray

Mae Murray was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen".

Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino

Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla, known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and The Son of the Sheik.

Rex Ingram (director)

Rex Ingram (director)

Rex Ingram was an Irish film director, producer, writer, and actor. Director Erich von Stroheim once called him "the world's greatest director".

Robert Z. Leonard

Robert Z. Leonard

Robert Zigler Leonard was an American film director, actor, producer, and screenwriter.

Rupert Julian

Rupert Julian

Rupert Julian was a New Zealand cinema actor, director, writer and producer. During his career, Julian directed 60 films and acted in over 90 films. He is best remembered for directing Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925). He also directed The Cat Creeps (1930), a sound remake of The Cat and the Canary (1927), which is now considered a lost film, with only two minutes of footage remaining in the 1932 Universal comedy short film Boo!.

Louis B. Mayer

Louis B. Mayer

Louis Burt Mayer was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industry's most prestigious movie studio, accumulating the largest concentration of leading writers, directors, and stars in Hollywood.

Filmography

Discover more about Filmography related topics

Shoes (1916 film)

Shoes (1916 film)

Shoes is a 1916 silent film drama directed by Lois Weber and starring Mary MacLaren. It was distributed by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company and produced by Bluebird Photoplays, a subsidiary of Universal based in New York City and with access to Universal's studio facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey as well as in California. Shoes was added to the National Film Registry in 2014.

Mother O' Mine (1917 film)

Mother O' Mine (1917 film)

Mother O' Mine is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Rupert Julian and starring Julian, Ruth Clifford and E. Alyn Warren.

The Flashlight

The Flashlight

The Flashlight is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Ida May Park and starring Lon Chaney, Dorothy Phillips and William Stowell. The screenplay was written by Ida May Park, based on the short story by Albert M. Treynore. This was the first film Ida May Park ever directed.

A Doll's House (1922 film)

A Doll's House (1922 film)

A Doll's House is a 1922 American silent drama film produced by and starring Alla Nazimova and directed by her husband Charles Bryant. The couple released the film through United Artists. It is based on the 1879 play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen with the scenario written by Nazimova under the pseudonym Peter M. Winters. The film was the fourth silent version filmed of the play, being preceded by a 1918 Paramount film directed by Maurice Tourneur. The film is classified as being lost.

Flirting with Death

Flirting with Death

Flirting with Death is a 1917 American silent comedy film directed by Elmer Clifton and starring Herbert Rawlinson, Agnes Vernon and Frank MacQuarrie.

Hell Morgan's Girl

Hell Morgan's Girl

Hell Morgan's Girl is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Joseph De Grasse, and starring William Stowell, Dorothy Phillips and Lon Chaney. The screenplay was written by Ida May Park, based on the Harvey Gates story entitled The Wrong Side of Paradise. The film's working title was The Wrong Side of Paradise. The film's tagline ran: "This is "Hell Morgan's Girl". You Doubt Her. You Accuse Her. You Pity Her. You Condemn Her. You Hate Her. You Love Her. SHE'S WONDERFUL!"

A Kentucky Cinderella

A Kentucky Cinderella

A Kentucky Cinderella is a 1917 American silent drama directed by Rupert Julian and featured Rupert Julian and Ruth Clifford, and a cast including child actress Zoe Rae. It was released June 25, 1917 by Bluebird Photoplays, a subsidiary of Universal Studios.

Susan's Gentleman

Susan's Gentleman

Susan's Gentleman is a lost 1917 silent film feature drama directed by Edwin Stevens, a stage actor who made a foray into silent films, and starred Violet Mersereau. It was produced by Bluebird Photoplays and released through the Universal Film Manufacturing Company. This film has an appearance by James O'Neill, famed for The Count of Monte Cristo, here making a rare screen appearance.

The Mysterious Mrs. M

The Mysterious Mrs. M

The Mysterious Mrs. M is a 1917 silent film drama directed by Lois Weber and starring Harrison Ford and Mary MacLaren. It was a Bluebird Pictures Production distributed by Universal Film Manufacturing Company.

The Girl in the Checkered Coat

The Girl in the Checkered Coat

The Girl in the Checkered Coat is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse and starring Lon Chaney, Dorothy Phillips and William Stowell. It was written by Ida May Park, based on the short story by E. Magnus Ingleton. The film today is considered lost. A still exists showing Lon Chaney in the role of Hector Maitland.

Broadway Love

Broadway Love

Broadway Love is a 1918 American silent romance film directed by Ida May Park and starring Dorothy Phillips, William Stowell, and Lon Chaney. It was written by Ida May Park, based on the novelette by W. Carey Wonderly.

My Unmarried Wife

My Unmarried Wife

My Unmarried Wife is a 1918 silent film drama directed by George Siegmann and starring Carmel Myers. The film was based on the novel Molly and I and the Silver Ring by Frank R. Adams.

Gallery

Source: "Bluebird Photoplays", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, November 26th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebird_Photoplays.

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Further Reading

Elsie Jane Wilson

Metro Pictures

Grace Cunard

Lois Wilson (actress)

Lois Weber

All Night (film)

Louise Lovely

Violet Mersereau

Lule Warrenton

Ida May Park

The Savage (1917 film)

John K. Wells

Frank D. Williams (cinematographer)

Shoes (1916 film)

Butterfly (company)

The Gift Girl

Barriers of Society

The Yaqui
See also
Footnotes
  1. ^ a b United States Board of Tax Appeals (16 May 1928). Reports of the U.S. Board of Tax Appeals, Volume 11. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  2. ^ a b c "M. H. Hoffman talks on Bluebird". The Moving Picture World. World Photographic Publishing Company. 1916. p. 402. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  3. ^ Brouwers, Anke (2015-07-04). "Only Whoop Dee Do Songs. Bluebird Photoplays Light(en) Up the Cinema Ritrovato — Photogénie". Cinea. Archived from the original on 11 April 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  4. ^ The Mysterious Mrs. M (1917)
  5. ^ Delamoir, Marie Jeanette (2004). "Louise Lovely, Bluebird Photoplays, and the Star System". The Moving Image. 4 (2): 64–85. doi:10.1353/mov.2004.0025. JSTOR 41167168. S2CID 194017782.
  6. ^ Delamoir, Marie Jeanette (9 October 2012). "Louise Lovely's Bluebird Photoplays". National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Retrieved 11 April 2022. The National Film and Sound Archive's festival of Spring Silents 2012 season 'Silent Screwball' at Arc Cinema, Canberra, Australia
  7. ^ Kennedy, Cris (4 August 2014). "Arc Cinema: Sense of closure hard to accept". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Ella Hall in 'New Love for Old' Produced by Elsie Jane Wilson". Motion Picture Weekly. New York: Motion Picture Weekly Publishing Co. 1918-02-02. Retrieved 10 April 2022. via archive.org
  9. ^ The Chalice of Sorrow
  10. ^ Lewinsky, Mariann. "Beloved Bluebirds | Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival". Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  11. ^ based on the play Jeanne Doré (1913)
  12. ^ "Bluebird Photo-Plays". - British Film Institute
References
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