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Movies & Million-Dollar Mansions, Behind the Scenes at the "Flying A," & Silents on the Islands

MOVIES WAY BACK WHEN

Image: courtesy of John Woodward

 A Peak Performance

 

Dateline – March 1915

There used to be a large, picturesque rock on Santa Barbara's West Beach called Castle Rock. It was popular with tourists and starred in some "Flying A" silent movies as well.

 

"A certain scene taken near the Castle Rock bluff called for a fall down. A dummy might have been used, but rather than that, the director decided to make the fall himself, and in the picture, he will be shown going down and clutching at brush and rocks, all of which gave way. The final landing was made in a net, but that does not show in the picture. All who saw it, declare that it was some stunt." – Santa Barbara Morning Press, March 4, 1915

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MOVIES WAY BACK WHEN

Motion Picture News, February 12, 1916

Mermaids Uncovered and Unashamed

 

Dateline – March 1916

California's Channel Islands – Santa Catalina Island and Santa Cruz Island were popular locations for silent movie filming.

"The shores of Catalina Island furnished the settings of sandy beaches, rugged and jagged rocks." – News Pilot (San Pedro, California), March 13, 1916

 

Mermaid movies were popular in the early silent movie years when ladies rarely showed their ankles on the streets, so movies about mermaids wearing just a few wisps of seaweed were considered hot stuff. Scenes for the mermaid movie Undine were filmed on Santa Cruz Island (seen here) and Santa Catalina Island.

 

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MOVIES WAY BACK WHEN

Motography, March 18, 1916

Mae Murray, or Mae Rooned?

 

Dateline – March 1916

A silent movie crew filming To Have and to Hold off the shore of California's Santa Catalina Island lost the movie's leading actress for a while. "Mae Murray was left all night on a rock during a storm at Catalina . . . Now they call her 'Mae Rooned.'" – Motography, March 4, 1916

 

Here's how it happened:

"In two vessels, they went to Church Rock. Early in the afternoon, the sky began to look like rain, and Director George Melford decided upon a return to Avalon. Those in each vessel thought Miss Murray was in the other, and it was not until 8:00 that night, sometime after their arrival at Avalon, that they learned definitely that she had not left the rock with either party.

"Melford and Wallace Reid headed a rescue party in a launch . . . it was raining heavily, and they found Miss Murray vainly trying to obtain some shelter from the storm as she crouched by the side of the rock. She was so cold and wet and exhausted that they found it necessary to lash her to the skiff." – Moving Picture World, February 12, 1916

 

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BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE "FLYING A"

A scene from In the Twilight. (Moving Picture World, February 13, 1915)

Movie Making in Goleta, CA

 

Dateline: February 1915

 

There was little mention of Santa Barbara's "Flying A" studio filming in the Goleta area, but they did make a couple of silent movies there. "Twilight . . . and its long cast calls for the entire company and a number of extras. Thirty-four scenes were taken at the John Moore Ranch at Goleta." – Moving Picture World, February 6, 1915.

 

This silent film was released as In the Twilight.

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SILENTS ON THE ISLANDS

Exhibitors Trade Review, March 31, 1923

A Genuine Black Eye

 

Dateline: February 1923

 

Things got kind of rough during the filming of a silent movie called The Isle of Lost Ships that was taking place on a ship near Santa Catalina Island, CA. Here's the story for the movie: A small group of passengers on a ship is stranded in the middle of the Sargasso Sea when their ship collides with a shipwreck floating amidst the seaweed. One of the group is a nasty guy who is mean to everyone, including the only young woman in the group.

 

When the hero steps in to save the folks, he has to battle the nasty guy, and the fight got pretty realistic. (Sometimes actors in silent films used a movie fight as a way to settle an old score.) Somehow, the actor playing the hero got an honest-to-goodness injury. "[The actor] is wearing a 'beautiful' black eye, the result of an honest-to-goodness battle . . . one of the most thrilling scenes in the big melodrama." – Camera, February 3, 1923

 

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MOVIES WAY BACK WHEN

A scene from Snow Stuff. (Motography, April 1, 1916)

An Icy February Swim


Dateline: February 1916
The "Flying A" studio sometimes ventured outside of the Santa Barbara, CA area to find some variety in the landscape. For the silent movie Snow Stuff, they headed up to Truckee in Nevada County in search of some snowscape. As expected, the February weather made some stunts even harder to perform.


"[An actor] was called upon by the script to fall into the Truckee River, which was cold enough to make the bottom drop out of a thermometer. He did the stunt once and was rejoicing that it was finally in the past when [the director] added insult to injury by calling for a 'retake.' As a result, the rotund character man had to take two more immersions in the icy water before the proper effect was obtained. [The actor] says that from now on wild animals, autos, railroad trains and explosives will have no terrors for him."


The cameramen who were shooting this scene were also having a hard time. "Both of them were standing up to their waists in the river in order to 'shoot' the tumble from the best angle." – Santa Barbara Morning Press, February 20, 1916

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MOVIES WAY BACK WHEN

Movies & Million-Dollar Mansions, Betsy J. Green

Mary Pickford Films in Montecito Estate Garden

 

Dateline: January 1918

 

 

 

 

One of the more unusual silent films that Mary Pickford made was Stella Maris, in which she played a dual role. She personified both a rich woman and a bedraggled orphan, and looked dramatically different in both roles.

 

While playing the rich woman, some scenes were filmed in the garden of the palatial Bothin estate in Montecito, CA. Both Pickford and the scenery got a rave review in the Variety trade journal in January 1918. "It is a whale of a Pickford release . . . It is a revelation in exterior locations and interior settings." – Variety, January 25, 1918

 

Good news! This film is available for viewing on Youtube.

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MOVIES WAY BACK WHEN

Jack Richardson (Reel Life, August 8, 1914)

Villains and Kids Don't Mix     

 

Dateline: January 1915

 

Sometimes the folks making silent movies in Santa Barbara, CA had a hard time convincing the kids in the cast that they were only pretending. One day, "Flying A" actor Jack Richardson's acting was so real, he scared one of the children in a scene from The Law of the Wilds.

 

"The famous villain made a lunge at the youngster, letting out a fine line of choice expletives. The startled child gazed, paralyzed for a moment, into the sinister face of his pseudo parent. Then he gave vent to a terrified shriek, and to another, and yet another, wailing hysterically and refusing to be comforted. . . The small actor had to be returned to headquarters and another less sensitive child taken out to the location." – Reel Life, January 16, 1915

 

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MOVIES WAY BACK WHEN

A 1903 Bioscope movie camera. (We Put the World Before You By Means of the Bioscope and Urban Films, 1903)

Santa Barbara's First Movie

 

Here's another news nugget from December way back when.

 

In 1904, the Bioscope motion picture company came to Santa Barbara and filmed the local fire truck rushing down State Street on December 22.


In early January, the film was shown at the Lobero Theater. "Don't fail to see the Santa Barbara fire department run, taken by the Bioscope company, the first and only moving picture ever taken here. Prices 10, 25, 35." – Santa Barbara Morning Press, January 3, 1905


The Bioscope company also filmed fire trucks in Chico, Woodland, Marysville, Oroville, Visalia, and Colusa at about the same time. Does anyone else have info about this in their city?

 

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MOVIES WAY BACK WHEN

The good guy gets the girl. (Motion Picture News, November 13, 1915)

Saskatchewan in Santa Barbara – Why Not?


December movie-making in northern Canada would have been beyond difficult, so Santa Barbara's "Flying A" kept close to home for this film called Alice of Hudson Bay. In the movie, the good guy and the bad guy are fighting on the edge of a cliff, until the bad guy goes over the edge.


"The fall . . . over the shale cliff in Sycamore canyon is one of the realest things staged before the camera. [The actor] is seen tumbling the entire distance and not for a second does the camera miss him. He strikes right in the foreground and as he picks himself up and limps away, one knows the stunt was actually done." – Santa Barbara Morning Press, December 14, 1915

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