Making Movies In 1899…Lubin Studios, Philadelphia
Making Movies In 1899…Lubin Studios, Philadelphia
Before there was Hollywood, there was Betzwood. Before there were film moguls and studio lots in California, Siegmund Lubin was doing it in Pennsylvania.
Lubin was originally an optical and photography expert in Philadelphia but he became intrigued with Thomas Edison’s motion picture camera and saw the potential in selling similar such equipment as well as the making of films. Lubin constructed his own combined camera/projector he called a “Cineograph” and his lower price and marketing know-how brought reasonable success.
In 1897 Lubin began making films for commercial release. Certain his business could prosper, the following year he rented low-cost space on the roof of a building in Philadelphia’s business district (seen here). He exhibited his new equipment at the 1899 National Export Exposition in Philadelphia and the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
The insatiable appetite of the American public for motion picture entertainment saw Lubin’s film company undergo enormous growth. Aided by French-born writer and poet Hugh 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 in Jacksonville, Florida, Los Angeles, and then in Coronado, California.
In 1912, Lubin purchased a 350-acre estate in Betzwood in the northwest outskirts of Philadelphia and converted the property into a studio and film lot. This was to be one of the first real film lots in history and is shown here complete with it’s “western set”. Enjoy and share!
And then along came American-Biograph
This is fascinating. Would you happen to know how such an expansive and wide operation like this went bankrupt in the ’20s during the largest expansion of the motion picture business, before the onslaught of the Great Depression? I had not heard anything about this until you enlightened me, and am I curious on why he did not succeed like the other Hollywood moguls, who, also, started primarily in the East, and then went West. Any info you have would be appreciated. Glenn in the Bronx, NY.
Wasn’t an old television western filmed there? It might have been a regional show, I’m not sure.