 | |
| Industry | Motion pictures |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1896 |
| Founder | Siegmund Lubin |
| Defunct | 1916 |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | United States,Europe |
Key people |
|
| Products | Silent films |
TheLubin Manufacturing Company was an Americanmotion picture production company that producedsilent films from 1896 to 1916. Lubin films were distributed with aLiberty Bell trademark.[1]
The Lubin Manufacturing Company was formed in 1902 andincorporated in 1909 inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania bySiegmund Lubin. The company was the offspring of Lubin's film equipment and film distribution and production business, which began in 1896.
Siegmund Lubin, aJewish immigrant fromPoland, was originally an optical andphotography expert in Philadelphia but became intrigued withThomas Edison's motion picture camera and saw the potential in selling similar equipment as well as in making films. Known as "Pop" Lubin, he constructed his own combined camera/projector he called a "Cineograph"[2] and his lower price and marketing know-how brought reasonable success. In 1897 Lubin began making films for commercial release includingMeet Me at the Fountain in 1904. Certain his business could prosper, the following year he rented low-cost space on the roof of a building in Philadelphia's business district. He exhibited his new equipment at the 1899 National Export Exposition in Philadelphia and the 1901Pan-American Exposition inBuffalo, New York.
The insatiable appetite of the American public for motion picture entertainment saw Lubin's film company undergo enormous growth. Aided byFrench-born writer and poetHugh Antoine d'Arcy, who served as the studio's publicity manager, in 1910 Siegmund Lubin built a state of the art studio on the corner of Indiana Avenue and Twentieth Street in Philadelphia that became known as "Lubinville." At the time, it was one of the most modern studios in the world, complete with a huge artificially-lit stage, editing rooms, laboratories, and workshops. The facility allowed several film productions to be undertaken simultaneously. The Lubin Manufacturing Company expanded production beyond Philadelphia, with facilities at 750 Riverside Avenue inJacksonville, Florida,Los Angeles, and then inCoronado, California.
In 1912, Lubin purchased a 350-acre (1.4 km2) estate inBetzwood, in what was then rural countryside in the northwest outskirts of Philadelphia and converted the property into a studio and film lot. That November Lubin Company field representative T. D. Cochrane visitedBirmingham, Alabama as the guest of a local real estate executive and film exhibitor. After two days visiting sites he wired approval for a production team to immediately depart for Alabama to film cowboy movies at a rate of about six per month.[3] The company set up at the Bluff Park Hotel on the ridge ofShades Mountain south of the city, and constructed a stage. By the end of December, however, they had abandoned the project and the premises and stage were taken over by a troupe from theKalem Company of New York led by directorJ. P. McGowan.[4]
That same year, director and actorRomaine Fielding traveled out toPrescott, Arizona with cast and crew and set up offices at 712 Western Avenue and an outdoor stage for shooting interiors behind Mercy Hospital (now the site ofPrescott College). He filmed approximately a dozen movies there before moving toTucson, Arizona, where he directed another 60 or so silent short films.William Duncan andSelig Polyscope Company took over the Prescott facility.
Some of the pioneer actors who worked for Lubin includedRomaine Fielding,Ed Genung,Harry Myers,Florence Hackett,Alan Hale,Arthur V. Johnson,Lottie Briscoe,Florence Lawrence,Ethel Clayton,Gladys Brockwell,Edwin Carewe,Ormi Hawley,Rosemary Theby,Betty Brice,Alice Mann andPearl White. Lubin films also marked the first film appearance ofOliver Hardy,[5] who started working at Lubin's Jacksonville, Florida studio in 1913. Hardy's first onscreen appearance was in the 1914 movie,Outwitting Dad where he was billed as O. N. Hardy. In many of his later films at Lubin, he was billed as "Babe Hardy." He was most often cast as "the heavy" or the villain and had roles in comedy shorts, appearing in some 50short one-reeler films at Lubin by 1915.
The company's downfall came even faster than its meteoric rise. Lubin was not as adroit as its competitors in shifting to quality feature-length films. Also,a disastrous fire at its main studio in June 1914 damaged nearby buildings and destroyed the negatives for a number of unreleased new films, which severely hurt the business. WhenWorld War I broke out inEurope in September of that year, Lubin Studios, and other American filmmakers', lost a large source of income from these foreign sales.
For years the Lubin Manufacturing Company, like most of the other major film studios, had a running legal battle withThomas Edison that saw repeatedlawsuits brought against Lubin for patent infringement. Eventually, Lubin gave up the costly fight with Edison and became part of theMotion Picture Patents Company, a monopoly on production and distribution set up by Edison.
In 1915, the Lubin company entered into an agreement to form a film distribution partnership, withVitagraph Studios,Selig Polyscope Company, andEssanay Studios, known asV-L-S-E, Incorporated.[6][7][8]
However, the decline of the Lubin operations continued and theUnited States Supreme Court rulings against the monopoly of theMotion Picture Patents Company spelled the end of Lubin's business. After making more than a thousand motion pictures the corporation was forced intobankruptcy and on September 1, 1916, the Lubin Manufacturing Company closed its doors for good.
...Siegmund Lubin...Lubin Manufacturing Company
Release Date 12 April 2018
Copyright: S. Lubin; 9May1906; H77058.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
