In the late 1800’s Northeast Florida
was the place to be. Henry Flagler had
completed his Florida East Coast Railway to St. Augustine where he built grand hotels. Tourists streamed in from the north lured by
the pleasant whether and, of course, the beaches.
The City of Jacksonville
benefited from the boom as well and by the turn of the century it was a busy
metropolis and the largest city in Florida
by population and had some twenty-nine thousand residents. Downtown Jacksonville was alive with commerce and
entertainment. Construction of the
largest railroad station south of Washington
DC was well underway. The city also ran one of the first electric
streetcar systems in the south.
Then, on May 3, 1901 tragedy struck. The Cleveland Fiber Factory was in the
business of supplying Spanish moss to be used as a filling for cushions and
mattresses. Part of the process involved
laying out the moss to dry. Because moss
is highly flammable, small fires were not uncommon and the company had a person
on staff to watch over the material and quickly douse any flames that he saw. As you might imagine, it was a boring job and
that day the watchman had dozed off in the hot Florida sun.
A single burning cinder from a nearby stove slowly floated
through the air and landed on the moss.
It did not take long for the fire to spread to the factory and nearby
buildings. Soon, all of downtown Jacksonville was in
flames. By the time the day was done,
most of the city had burned to the ground.
One hundred and forty six square blocks containing twenty four hundred
buildings were totally destroyed. Seven
people were killed.
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| Smoke Rising Above Jacksonville |
What happened next is a testament to the resilience and
determination of the people of Jacksonville. Within a few years the downtown was
completely rebuilt, replacing the old wooden structures with those of steel and
concrete. There were brand new office
buildings, apartments, hotels, churches, schools, and theaters. The newly rebuilt City of Jacksonville attracted many new visitors and
residents, and was soon boasting a population of over one hundred thousand
people.
Meanwhile, the seeds of the next phase of Jacksonville’s
growth were being planted some fifteen hundred miles away in Fort Lee, New Jersey,
at the offices of the famed inventor Thomas Edison.
In the early 1900s Thomas Edison was a dominant player in
the growing motion picture industry.
Having invented the Kinetoscope in 1889, Edison
went on to patent a range of motion picture equipment. The Edison Film Manufacturing Company, along
with a handful of studios, owned most of the patents for camera and projection
equipment. In order to thwart
competition these entities formed the Motion Picture Patent Company (sometimes
called the Patent Company) in 1908. The
newly formed company contracted exclusive rights with Eastman Kodak, virtually
the only maker of raw film stock, completing their monopoly on motion picture
production.
Soon, the motion picture industry was completely vertically
integrated under the Patent Company. If
you wanted to create and show a movie, it would be filmed in a Patent Company
member studio, using Edison cameras and
processing equipment, and captured on Eastman Kodak film. Further, the movie could only be shown in
theaters officially licensed by the Patent Company. Studios and theaters that did not comply
found themselves at the receiving end of lawsuits and worse. The Patent Company was said to hire thugs who
would confiscate equipment and physically terrorize the owners and employees of
non-compliant companies.
One of the companies that were part of the Patent Company
was Kalem Studios. At the time most
movies were shot on a set, similar to the filming of a play. Kalem was among the first to shoot on
location (perhaps because they did not own a physical building), mainly in New York, New Jersey, and
Connecticut. One of the studio’s first productions was an
adaptation of Ben Hur, filmed in Manhattan Beach,
Brooklyn.
Looking for more exotic locations, the Kalem set its sights
on Jacksonville, Florida.
Not only did Florida provide locations
that could suggest unusual settings for the viewing audience, Jacksonville
was on a railroad line that could easily transport actors, crews, and equipment
from New York. Florida also
had more daylight hours in which to shoot and, unlike New York, a climate which allowed them to
film year round. As a bonus, labor in Northeast Florida was significantly less expensive.
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| Kalem Studios Newspaper Advertisement |
And so, in 1908 Kalem Studios set up shop in Jacksonville. They leased space on the grounds of the
Roseland Hotel in the Fairfield
district. They utilized the grounds,
surrounding areas and the St. Johns River as
locations for their productions, many of which were about the Civil War. The first Kalem produced film in Jacksonville was A Florida Feud or Love in the Everglades. The film premiered at the Pastime Theater at 215 West Bay Street
on January 10, 1909 and was well received.
Kalem’s success did not go unnoticed by the industry and
during the next decade over thirty other production companies followed them to Jacksonville earning it
the nickname “The Winter Film Capital of the World.” The success of the film
studios brought more attention to Jacksonville as it drew tourists hoping to
catch a glance of silent film stars such as Ethel Barrymore and Rudolph
Valentino.
One of the first companies that followed Kalem Studios to Jacksonville was Lubin
Manufacturing Company which opened a facility at 750 Riverside Avenue. Lubin specialized in short comedies and it
was there that Oliver Hardy got his start.
Beginning in 1914 Hardy starred in dozens of films for the studio, the
first being Outwitting Dad, in which
he was billed as O.N. Hardy.
Lubin Manufacturing went bankrupt in 1915 and sold its Jacksonville facility to
the Vim Comedy Company. Vin Comedy
produced hundreds of short comedies over the next two years. However, they were forced out of business in
1917 after their star performer, Oliver Hardy, discovered that the principals
of the company were stealing from the payroll of actors and crews.
Another notable film company with roots in Jacksonville was Metro Pictures Corporation. Although it was headquartered in the city for
only about a year, it is the most well known of the Jacksonville studios today because it went on
to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). MGM
became a powerhouse under Louis B. Mayer, one of Metro Pictures founders, and
remains so today.
The only production studio from the time still standing is
Norman Studios at 6337 Arlington
Road.
Originally the home of Eagle Film Studios, the five building complex was
sold in 1916 to Richard Norman, a film maker originally from Middleburg Florida. There Norman
concentrated on making films with all black casts for all black audiences. Jacksonville, like most
of the South at the time, was segregated.
Although Norman
was white, he felt strongly about the state of race relations in the Jim Crow
era. He also saw an opportunity to sell
his films to a largely untapped audience.
The film “The Flying Ace”, shot on location in Mayport and Arlington, is the only one of Norman’s “race films”, as they were called,
that survived. In 2021, the film was restored and placed in the United
States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or
aesthetically significant". The
plot revolves around a World War I pilot, Billy Stokes, who returns home and
resumes his job a railroad detective.
Ironically, although Stokes is portrayed as a black man in the movie,
blacks were actually not allowed to become fighter pilots until the 1940s.
Finding that he
was unable to compete with the new “talking pictures” which were coming into
vogue, Richard Norman stopped producing films and the studio was closed in
1928. His wife operated the property as
a dance studio until 1935. She sold the
property in 1976. It was the home of a
few more businesses over the years but eventually was abandoned and fell into
disrepair.
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| Norman Studios Silent Film Museum |
Urged on by a
local preservation group, the property was purchased by the City of Jacksonville. The buildings were renovated with the help of
a grant from the State of Florida
and opened to the public on August 19, 2023 as The Norman Studios Silent Film
Museum. The museum’s mission is “preserving, presenting and promoting the history of
silent movies and race films in Northeast Florida.” The museum holds educational events year
round and hosts tours for the general public on the first and third Saturdays
of each month.
They say that all good things
must come to and end, and the heyday of filmmaking in Jacksonville was no different. In order to escape the long arm of the Patent
Trust, independent film makers were moving their studios out west, specifically
to Hollywood, California.
The independents also embraced several innovations that were avoided by
the Trust, including making full length feature films instead of single reel
shorts. Thanks to its temperate climate,
access to diverse shooting locations, and generous tax breaks, the center of
the industry was quickly shifting to the west coast.
In 1912, the United States
Department of Justice brought suit against the Patent Trust for violations of
the relatively new Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The Trust counter-sued and the case dragged
on. Finally, in 1918 the government won
and the Trust was ordered to dissolve.
However, the victory was moot as the Patent Trust had by then already
ceased its operations.
Meanwhile, the political tide
was turning in Jacksonville
and the movie studios found that they were no longer welcome. City residents were tired of the disruption
that filming brought to their neighborhoods.
Among their complaints were film crews pulling fire alarms so they could
film racing fire engines, driving a car into the St. Johns
River causing unneeded panic, and staging riots and shoot outs
that the residents did not know were fake.
Further, the morally conservative citizenry were opposed to vice which
they believed was exasperated by film crews and actors.
The people of Jacksonville were also
appalled by how they and their fellow southerners were portrayed in the movies
being made by the “outsiders” from up north.
As if to prove them right, the Kalem Company released the film The Cracker’s Bride. In addition to the offensive title, the movie
portrayed southerners as having both low intelligence and low morals.
In 1917, Jacksonville elected a new mayor, John W.
Martin, who promised to crack down of the abuse that the movie industry was
supposedly inflicting on the city. That,
along with dwindling theater attendance due an influenza epidemic in 1918 and
the onset of World War I, drove most of the remaining studios to either close
altogether or relocate to Hollywood.
Following the heyday of the
early twentieth century many famous (and not so famous) movies have been shot
in Northeast Florida. A few the more than sixty films produced in
the area in modern times are:
The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1988) In this
adventure film, Pippi Longstocking, played by Tami Erin, falls off her father’s
pirate ship and is washed ashore on a Florida Beach. Filmed on Amelia
Island the movie features a stately
home located in “Old Town” Fernandina
Beach looking out over
the Plaza of Fort San Carlos. Visitors
to Fernandina Beach today often ask for directions to
the “Pippi Longstocking House.”
Basic (2003) John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson star in
this action film in which a DEA agent must solve the case of a bungled training
exercise that goes horribly wrong killing several Army Rangers. It was filmed at Cecil
Commerce Center
(the former home of Naval Air Station Cecil Field) in Jacksonville’s west side. Scenes were also shot at Herlong Recreational
Airport, about 8 miles southwest of
downtown Jacksonville.
Tigerland (2000) In this drama, Colin Farrel stars
a Private Rolin Bozz, a rebellious draftee attending a training camp for
soldiers who were about to be sent to Vietnam.
In the film the recruits train at Fort
Polk, Louisiana. Filming took place at Camp
Blanding, the training site for the
Florida National Guard outside of Starke in Clay County.
Devil's Advocate (1997) In this horror film Keanu Reves
stars as a young Florida Lawyer who accepts a position with a high-powered New York law firm where
he comes to believe that his boss may actually be Satan himself. It costars Al Pacino and Charlize
Theron. Scenes were shot in Jacksonville’s Riverside
and Avondale districts, as well as at a church in Gainesville.
Revenge of the Creature (1955) This 3-D production
was a sequel to the cult classic Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) . In the movie the Creature, played by Tom
Hennesy, climbs out of the St. John’s River and grabs his victim from The Lobster House, a
former restaurant in Jacksonville. The scenes set at the “Ocean Harbor
Oceanarium” where the Creature was held captive, were shot at Marineland in St. Augustine. Marineland is still open as a world class
aquarium where you can even swim with the dolphins.
Illegally Yours (1988) Critically panned, this comedy
starring Rob Lowe is about a college dropout who is called for jury duty and
becomes infatuated with the woman on trial (Colleen Camp). It was shot in St.
Augustine, and many landmarks such as the Castillo de San Marcos and the St.
Augustine Lighthouse are featured prominently.
Some of the scenes were also shot at the historic Clay County Courthouse
in Green Cove Springs.
Brenda Starr (1989) Brooke Shields literally leaps
out of the comic pages as the heroin of this adventure film. Shot in Jacksonville,
Black Creek (a tributary of the St. Johns River)
stands in for the Amazon Jungle where Brenda travels to disrupt a mad
scientist’s plot to blow up the planet.
Cool Hand Luke (1967) This action drama starring Paul Newman not
only had scenes filmed in Northeast Florida, its subject was an actual prison
camp once located in southern Duval
County. In the movie Newman’s character is imprisoned
at “Road Prison 36” based upon the infamous Sunbeam Prison Camp in Jacksonville’s south
side. Most of the movie was filmed in California but a pivotal scene in which Newman tries to
escape was shot at an actual prison road camp in Callahan, Nassau County. In the scene, Newman’s character is chased by
bloodhounds that the filmmakers borrowed from the Florida Department of
Corrections.
From its pioneering
days as the “Winter Film Capital of the World” to its modern status as a sought
after shooting location, Northeast Florida has
provided iconic structures and exotic locations for the film industry. In 2007 the City of Jacksonville opened the Film and Television
Office to facilitate the filming of television shows, movies and commercials in
the region.
Duval County Public Schools established Douglas Anderson
School of the Arts in
1985 for high school students who have an interest in dance, music, theater,
and film. Florida
School of the Arts at St.
Johns River State College in Palatka attracts college students who want to
pursue a career in the visual arts. Jacksonville is also home
to Hollywood Acting Studio Jax where aspiring actors can receive individual
coaching from well known acting coach Jill Donnellan. Many local actors hone their skills at one of
several community theaters located throughout Northeast
Florida.
For over one hundred years Northeast
Florida has been a prime location for the film industry. With its natural beauty, historic locations,
public support and local talent pool, it should remain that way well into the
future.
Suggested Further Reading (Ad):
Silent Films in St. Augustine
The First Hollywood: Florida and the Golden Age of Silent Filmmaking
Jacksonville after the Fire, 1901-1919: A New South City
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