The Kalem Company was an early American film studio founded in New York City in 1907. It was one of the first companies to make films abroad and to set up winter production facilities, first in Florida and then in California. Kalem was sold to Vitagraph Studios in 1917.
Formation and history
The Kalem Company was founded by George Kleine, Samuel Long,[1] and Frank J. Marion. The company was named for their initials K, L, and M.
Kalem immediately joined other studios in the Motion Picture Patents Company that held a monopoly on production and distribution. Frank Marion had been the sales manager at Biograph Studios and Samuel Long was the manager of the Biograph production facility at Hoboken, New Jersey. Needing to raise more capital, the two experienced filmmakers approached Chicago businessman George Kleine to come in as a partner. Kleine, already a successful film distributor, was involved only a short time but it was a profitable investment for him as his partners were soon successful enough to buy out his shares at a considerable premium.
The company began operations from a small office in a loft building at 131 West 24th Street in New York City.[2] The partners were able to lure general manager and director Sidney Olcott away from Biograph. Olcoltt eventually became the Kalem Company's president and was rewarded with one share of its stock. Kalem had no indoor studios, so most of its films were shot on location. In February 1907, the company made its first motion picture, titled The Sleigh Belle. While Kalem scored successes in their first year, the rate of production at the once-powerful Biograph stagnated, hampered by the loss of important personnel.
Olcott leadership
The winter studios of the Kalem Company showing outbuildings on the grounds of the Roseland Hotel on the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, Florida. The cannons were used in Kalem's Civil War-themed productions like The Drummer Girl of Vicksburg and The Confederate Ironclad.
Under the direction of Sidney Olcott, Kalem made a number of significant films, including the first adaptation of Ben Hur and the following year, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In 1910 Olcott gave actress Alice Joyce her first acting job in his production of The Deacon's Daughter.
The one-reel version of Ben Hur – in which Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn was used as the location for the Holy Land – was made without obtaining the rights to the book, the usual procedure in the industry at the time, and Kalem was sued by the estate of the author, Lew Wallace. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Kalem in 1911 in Kalem Co. v. Harper Bros., they reached a settlement which paid the estate $25,000 – an extremely large amount for the time.[3] The action helped to establish the necessity for film studios to obtain the motion picture rights for the properties they wished to utilize.[4]
Kalem was also one of the first studios to regularly film year-round by setting up facilities in Florida during the winter. The Florida company consisted of Sidney Olcott, George Hollister, cameraman; Allen Farnham, scenic artist; Arthur Clough, property man; Gene Gauntier scenarist and leading actress; Jack J. Clark, leading male actor; Robert Vignola, the bad guy; J.P. McGowan, another leading actor; Alice Hollister and Ethel Eastcourt.
Expansion
Silent movie The No Account Count (1914) directed by Albert W. Hale for Kalem. This copy includes Dutch intertitles. Running time: 16:18. A comedy short in which the Count has found a bride, namely Mr. Krapaan’s extravagant daughter.
In the fall of 1910, Kalem began organizing other studio locations. In November 1910, William Wright, company treasurer, was sent to the West Coast to assess the feasibility of a permanent studio for the making of Western style films. Wright saw the potential and after given the go-ahead from head office he acquired a property in Verdugo Canyon in Glendale and a permanent crew was dispatched from New York City. Headed by director Kenean Buel, his crew consisted of star actress Alice Joyce, George Melford, Jane Wolfe, Frank Lanning, Howard Oswald, Frank Brady, Knute Rahmn, Francelia Billington and Daisy Smith.
With films from the Western genre much in demand, in 1911, a second California studio was opened in Santa Monica with actors Ruth Roland, Marin Sais, Ed Coxen, and Marshall Neilan taken under contract. The Santa Monica facility eventually would be used to make comedies.
In December 1912, after successful "air tests", Kalem sent a troupe of players and a crew headed by McGowan to Birmingham, Alabama where the Lubin Manufacturing Company had briefly begun producing films. They took over lodgings and an outdoor stage at the Bluff Park Hotel on Shades Mountain south of the city.[6]
Kalem operated in Glendale and Santa Monica until October 1913 when they took over the Essanay Studios property at 1425 Fleming Street (now, Hoover Street) in the east Hollywood.
Notable serials
In November 1914, Kalem released the first of 119 episodes of the serialThe Hazards of Helen, releasing a new segment every Saturday until February 1917. Each segment had a self-contained story, so it was more of a film series than a serial. Helen Holmes played the lead character "Helen" and did most of her own stunts in the first 26 episodes until she and director J. P. McGowan left to set up their own film production company. The two began a relationship while working on the serial that led to marriage. Director J. Gunnis Davis (billed as James Davis) took over and Elsie McLeod substituted in episodes 27–49 until a permanent "Helen" could be found for the remainder in the form of Helen Gibson.
On the heels of the immediate success of The Hazards of Helen, Kalem Studios simultaneously produced another 16-episode action/adventure series they released in October 1915 called The Ventures of Marguerite starring Marguerite Courtot.
Tracy, Tony (2016) Outside the System: Gene Gauntier and the Consolidation of Early American Cinema,Film History, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 71–106
Michel Derrien, Aux origines du cinéma irlandais: Sidney Olcott, le premier oeil, TIR 2013. ISBN978-2-917681-20-6(in French)
Film
Première passion, a documentary on From the Manger to the Cross, directed by Philippe Baron, France, 2009, 55 minutes, produced by Vivement lundi ! (in French)
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kalem Company.