ESSANAY FILM STUDIO COLLECTION, ca

Essanay Film Studio Collection, ca. 1910-1939

Descriptive Inventory for the Collection at Chicago Historical Society, Research Center.

Please address questions to:

Chicago History Museum, Research Center

1601 North Clark Street

Chicago, IL 60614-6038

Web-site: http://www.chicagohistory.org/Research

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Essanay Film Studio Collection, ca. 1910-1939

Accession number: 1981.0021

Storage: 5 boxes, horizontal, Film Storage--1 box

Restriction: To consult the glass negatives in this collection in the Research Center it is necessary to make an advance appointment (email: [email protected] ).

This descriptive inventory includes:

1. Description of collection

2. Container list

3. List of materials transferred to other CHS departments

4. Copy of article "Chicago and the Movies"

Description of Collection:

The Essanay Film Studio Collection was purchased from Mrs. Marvin (Olive) Spoor by the Chicago Historical Society in 1975. Mrs. Spoor's husband Marvin, known as Major, was the youngest brother of Essanay founder George Spoor. Major Spoor was an Essanay cameraman and he saved the material in the collection.

The collection consists primarily of photographs of Essanay actors and actresses, film sets and crews, movie stills, and interior and exterior views of the Essanay Studio on Argyle Street. Also included is a small collection of film footage from Essanay productions and samples of Spoor's invention--wide film or "natural vision" film negatives. Chicago was an important film center at the beginning of the twentieth century and the photographs in this collection provide excellent documentation of the early silent movie era.

Material has been transferred to the Library, Manuscripts Collection, and Decorative Arts Collection. See inventory for a detailed list of dispersed items. For additional information on the Essanay Studio, consult the Library clipping file under "MOVIES--A to F". The Chicago Public Library owns a movie entitled "When Chicago was Hollywood" a documentary on the Chicago film industry.

Inventory by: Maureen O'Brien Will, April 1984

Container List

Box 1 Alphabetical List of Major Essanay Movie Stars

1 G.M. (Broncho Billy) Anderson

2 Wallace Beery

3 Francis X. Bushman

4 Charlie Chaplin (with Bushman and Anderson)

5 Max Linder (in "Max Comes Across")

6 Max Linder (in "Max Want A Divorce")

7 Tom Shirley

8 Ruth Stonehouse

9 Gloria Swanson

10 Ben Turpin

11 Henry Walthal

12 Bryant Washburn

13 Identified Still, miscellaneous

Box 2

1 Publicity photographs of stars

2 Identified Stills--arranged by movie title:

"The Affairs of Anatole"

"The Egg Trust"

"For Heaven's Sake"

"Graustark"

"Henry's New Hat"

"His Only Child"

"Marooned"

"The Old Maid and the Burglar"

3 "The Pants"

"The Personal Conduct of Henry"

"The Rough Neck"

"Sherlock Holmes"

"Small Town Guy"

"The Twelfth Juryman"

"Two Bit Seats"

"The Widow"

"The Winning of Father"

"Winning for Winnie" & "Mr. Dippy Dipped"

"Riverview Park" & "Lost Chord"

"Base Deceiver" & "Quicksands of Sin"

"Something Rotten in Havanna" & "Tit for Tat"

"Tapped Wires"

4 "Danger Lights"--location shooting in Montana

5 "Niagara Falls"

6 Production photographs; photographs of camera equipment I

7 Production photographs; photographs of camera equipment II

Box 3

1 Essanay Studio, interior and exterior views

2 Essanay cast and crew, group shots

3 Film sets

4 "Natural Vision"

5 Unidentified stills

6 Negatives and film footage

7 Broadsides and printed material

8 Newspaper clippings

Box 4 One photograph album put together by Major Spoor. Included are photographs of Essanay actors and actresses, filming locations, and friends and associates of Spoor. Also, "The Raven" Album

Box 5 Two sixteen-inch reels of safety film prepared by the University of Wyoming Film Department from old nitrate negatives furnished by Mrs. Olive Spoor from Essanay Studio archives. See attached list for titles.

One seven-inch reel of George Ade Fable, the first three reeler made.

One three inch reel of Henry B. Walthall in "The Raven"

For additional information on the Essanay Studio, consult the following two articles: "Chicago: Center of the Silent Film Industry" by Charles A. Jahant in CHICAGO HISTORY Spring-Summer 1974 and "When Chicago Was Movie Capital, USA" by William Grisham in CHICAGO TRIBUNE MAGAZINE December 7, 1969.

Mrs. Marvin W. Spoor

Essanay Studio Film Negatives

Two sixteen inch reels of safety film prepared by the University of Wyoming Film Department from old nitrate negatives furnished by Mrs. Olive Spoor from Essanay Studio archives as listed below:

Subject--Number of Reels

1907 newsreel of President Howard Taft throwing out the first ball at the start of the World Series Baseball Game--3 Reels

Honeymoon for Three (Swanson)--2 Reels

Judgement (Western)--2 Reels

Tell Tale Blotter--3 Reels

Rags and Old Iron--2 Reels

The Sophomore's Romance--3 Reels

Summer Babies--2 Reels

He stubs his toe--2 Reels

Curing a Masher--1 Reel

George Ade Fables: The Fable of a Honeymoon that tried to Come Back--4 Reels

Fable of a Triangle--3 Reels

My Wife's Gone to the Country--4 Reels

The Sin Unpardonable--4 Reels

Dr. Mary Walker, Civil War Surgeon, receiving medal in Washington--1 Reel

Unidentified Dancer with Bat--1 Reel

Crowds marked Kleine--1 Reel

Two men walking (unidentified)--1 Reel

Robert Lincoln at foot of Monument placing wreath--1 Reel

Sheridan Theatre Essanay poster displayed--1 Reel

How to Wrestle--1 Reel

Tales of the West--3 Reels

Unidentified film (Honeymoon?)--1 Reel

Speaker ?--1 Reel

One seven-inch reel of George Ade Fable, the first 3 reeler made.

One three inch reel of Henry B. Walthall in The Raven.

List of Materials Transferred to Other CHS Departments

Decorative Arts 1975:187.1-4

One Bioscope movie camera, model DX 427, hand cranked movie camera marked Essanay.

One cane used by Charlie Chaplin.

One cameraman's lapel ID button marked Essanay Camera Department No. 5 with Indian Head symbol.

Three cuts of Essanay Indian Head Trade Mark designed by Mary Spoor Brand.

Library

Two copies of the newspaper Essanay News:

January 5, 1915 issue: "Charles Chaplin Joins Essanay"

December 24, 1913 issue: Christmas edition

Four programs:

"The American"

"Cinderella"

"The Lost Paradise"

"Billy McGrath on Broadway"

Archives and Manuscripts Collection

For a list of material transferred to this department, consult attached list. Name of the collection in Manuscripts is the George Spoor Collection.

Materials purchased from Mrs. Spoor

Located in Archives and Manuscripts Collection under collection name George Spoor Collection.

Script of "The Flag Maker" (or "The American"), by Jewel Spencer (dedicated to Franklin K. Lane)--George K. Spoor's copy (copy no. 1) Typed Manuscript, 62 pages

Same, copy no. 25.

Story of "The Flag Maker," by Jewel Spencer (copy 3)

Typed Manuscript, 143 pages

Script (including camera directions) of "The Dreamer" (suggested to Charles J. McGuirk by Freeman Tilden's story, "Mr. Williams Takes a Chance" in Red Book Magazine)

Typed Manuscript (448 scenes)

Scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the Spoors

Biographical sketch of Harry Spoor in The Advertising World, March 1918

Biographical sketch of George K. Spoor in The Motion Picture Director of Hollywood, February 1927 (vol. 3, no. 5)

The International Photographer,

June 1930 (vol. 2, no. 5)

July 1931 (vol. 3, no. 6)

American Cinematographer,

November 1921 (vol. 2, no. 20)

May 1922 (vol. 3, no. 2)

June 1922 (vol. 3, no. 3)

June 1924 (vol. 5, no. 3)

Maureen O'Brien Will

1984