"Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! and Murder!" is the title of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' celebration of the centennial of the first permanent film studio in the Los Angeles area. The event, which will showcase films shot in Los Angeles between 1909 and 1914, will take place on Wednesday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.
"Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! and Murder!" will also kick off a three-month exhibition exploring those pioneering days, when independent producers set up shop in Southern California to enjoy the sunshine, the varied topography, and the distance between Los Angeles and the East Coast's filmmaking oligarchy.
And what was the first LA-based film studio?
That's the Selig Polyscope Company's studio in the suburb of Edendale (today's Echo Park/Silver Lake area, northwest of downtown LA). Following some location shooting at a Los Angeles-area beach to insert into their Monte Cristo (1908), producer William N. Selig (pictured with baby elephant, chimp, and Academy librarian Margaret Herrick in 1948) and director Francis Boggs opened the region's first permanent film studio in 1909.
By 1911 the area had become a filmmaking hub. In its July issue, the now forgotten film trade publication Motography called Edendale "a very beautiful suburb of Los Angeles. It is the motion picture center of the Pacific Coast. With clear air and sunshine three hundred days out of the year, conditions are ideal for perfect picture making. The scenic advantages of the location, too, are unique. From [Edendale] can be seen the Pacific Ocean, twenty-two miles to the west, and the broad panorama of Southern California, with its fruit and stock ranches, its snowcapped mountains and its tropical [!!!!] vegetation, to the east, north and south. Within a short distance of Edendale may be found every known variety of national scenery, seemingly arranged by a master producer expressly for the motion picture camera."
As per the Academy's press release, "Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! and Murder!" will feature archival prints "representing the earliest surviving glimpses of Los Angeles as a filming location." On display at the accompanying exhibition will be rare photographs, original correspondence, vintage camera equipment and other film-related artifacts, in addition to materials about both the first film studio murder and the Selig menagerie, a forerunner of the Los Angeles Zoo.
The murder in question is that of Francis Boggs, who was killed by his gardener in 1911. (Selig was reportedly also injured in the incident.)
In the late 1910s, Selig's studio was sold to William Fox. A number of Theda Bara vehicles and Tom Mix Westerns were shot there and in the surrounding areas. More information on Edendale can be found at the Echo Park Historical Society website.
Tickets to "Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! and Murder!" on May 20 are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with a valid ID. Tickets are available for purchase by mail, at the Academy box office (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), or online at www.oscars.org. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All seating is unreserved.
The exhibition is free and open to the public through August 30. Exhibition hours are Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. and whenever Academy public programs are hosted at the Linwood Dunn Theater. The Academy will be closed for the Memorial and Independence Day holiday weekends, May 23 through 25 and July 3 through 5, respectively.
The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood. For more information call (310) 247-3600 or visit www.oscars.org.
Photos: Courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library