Summary:
On December 8, 1908, a small film production company called Kalem arrives in Jacksonville, officially kicking off the movie business in the River City. Over the next few years, Kalem will revolutionize the film industry …but who were they, and what brought them to Jacksonville?
Bibliography:
“Jacksonville, Florida, Queen City of the South” by William T. Blaine in The Metropolis, 12/7/1908 at https://newspapers.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00048819/02392/images/1 (Note: this article ran in multiple non-Jax newspapers but those appear behind paywalls so we’ve provided the link to when it appeared locally)
"Advertising Plans of Board of Trade" in The Metropolis, 12/3/1908 at https://newspapers.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00048819/02389/zoom/4
“Movie Mecca of the South: Jacksonville, Florida, as an Early Rival to Hollywood” by Richard Alan Nelson in The Journal of Popular Film and Television, 1980 (available via interlibrary loan)
Florida and the American Motion Picture Industry, 1898-1980 by Richard Alan Nelson, 1983, available at JPL
“Kalem Company: Manufacturers of Moving Pictures” by Robert S. Birchard in American Cinematographer, Aug/Sep 1984 (available via interlibrary loan)
“Film Scores in America, 1910-1914” in Music and Silent Film: Contexts and Case Studies, 1895-1924 by Martin Miller Marks, 1997 (available via interlibrary loan)
“Blazing the Trail: Part One” by Gene Gauntier in Women’s Home Companion, October 1928 available at https://wfpp.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Womans-home-companion_Blazing-the-Trail_1.pdf
“Blazing the Trail: Part Two” by Gene Gauntier in Women’s Home Companion, November 1928, available at https://wfpp.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Womans-home-companion_Blazing-the-Trail_2.pdf
“Blazing the Trail: Part Three” by Gene Gauntier in Woman’s Home Companion, December 1928, available at https://wfpp.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Womans-home-companion_Blazing-the-Trail_3.pdf
“Blazing the Trail: Part Four” by Gene Gauntier in Woman’s Home Companion, February 1929, available at https://wfpp.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Womans-home-companion_Blazing-the-Trail_4.pdf
“Blazing the Trail: Part Five” by Gene Gauntier in Woman’s Home Companion, March 1929, available at https://wfpp.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Womans-home-companion_Blazing-the-Trail_5.pdf
“Kalem Company (Inc.)” in Moving Picture World, June 8 1907, at https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor00worl/page/223/mode/1up
“Tell of Twenty Years Ago Before Stories Were Filmed” in New York Times, July 27 1924, at https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/07/27/101606496.html?pageNumber=122
“Kalem’s Achievements as Pioneer: Treasurer Wright Reviews the Business Career of Company – Sensing What the Public Wants” in Moving Picture World, 3/10/1917, at https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015039589877?urlappend=%3Bseq=866%3Bownerid=13510798884855162-864
"Amusement: A Florida Feud" in Florida Metropolis (1/9/1909) at https://newspapers.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00048819/03533/images/15
"Unwept, Unhonored, and Unfilmed: The results of a remarkable search for the stars of yesterday" by Frederick James Smith in Photoplay 26.2, July 1924, at https://books.google.com/books?id=zVcTAAAAIAAJ&q=unwept#v=onepage&q&f=false
"Cracker's Bride" in Variety 14.3 (3/27/1909) at https://archive.org/embed/sim_variety_1909-03-27_14_3
"Thrilling Rescue" in Film Index, 12/25/1909 at https://archive.org/details/filmindex190907film/page/n855/mode/2up
"Lobby Portraits: Kalem Company Meets an Urgent Demand from Exhibitors" in New York Dramatic Mirror, 1/15/1910 at https://books.google.com/books?id=6txNAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA13#v=onepage&q&f=false
"A Royal Send Off" in Moving Picture World, 6/24/1911 at https://archive.org/details/moviwor08chal/page/1426/mode/2up
“From the Manger to the Cross” in The Metropolis, 2/7/1913 at https://newspapers.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00048819/01925/zoom/14
Image credit: Kalem Promotional Photo, circa 1910
Music credit:
Special Piano Music for: The Drummer Girl of Vicksburg by Walter C. Simon (https://www.loc.gov/item/2020561121/) performed by Nina Eustaquio
Voice actors (in order of appearance):
- Reading “Jacksonville, Queen City of the South,” by William T. Blaine in The Metropolis: Jennifer Grey
- Gene Gauntier: Tauren Hagans
- William Wright: Dan Powell
- Sidney Olcott: Curtis Wucker
- The Florida Metropolis: Fulton Burns
- Anonymous movie house manager: Craig Kopp
- Frank Marion: James Strickland
Listen to more WJCT Public Media Podcasts:
