It was in 1916 that Samuel Goldfish in partnership with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn formed Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. The name came from a combination their names using Gold from Goldfish and Wyn from Selwyn. Shortly afterward Samuel Goldfish seeing an opportunity had his name legally changed to Samuel Goldwyn. Nearly a year later [...]

Lon Chaney was born on April 1, 1883 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the son of deaf mute parents, Frank and Emma Chaney. From childhood he learned to communicate through pantomime, sign language and facial expression. He is considered the Man of a Thousand Faces.

The great silent film comic Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle was born on this day in 1887. He was born in Smith Center, Kansas, one of nine children born to Mollie and William Goodrich Arbuckle who were of Scottish descent.

Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith incorporated United Artists on February 5, 1919. Each of them own 20% of the corporation with the remaining 20% by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo serving as general counsel for the founders. The first agreement allowed the principles to release four pictures a year. A number [...]

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were established in 1927. It was decided that they would create a ceremony to publicize and reward fourteen individuals and movies that were the best artistic examples of film making. The first award ceremony was in 1929 for the period August 1, 1927 to July 31, 1928. [...]

It was towards the end of the Silent Film Era that Oliver Hardy joined Stan Laurel to form the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy. Hardy was in his mid-thirties when the pair joined and had already had a long career in Silent Films. Oliver Hardy was born on January 18, 1892 in Harlem, Georgia [...]

1) Erich Von Stroheim Stronheim was an Austrian who had a long career in Silent Films in Hollywood beginning in 1915. His most famous work as a director is Greed, a detailed filming of the novel McTeague by Frank Norris. Stroheim originally edited a nine-hour version of the story, shot mostly at the locations as [...]

Harold Eugene “Hal” Roach, Sr. was born on January 14, 1892. He had a long career as a producer beginning with Silent Comedies in the 1920s with shorts featuring Harold Lloyd, Will Rogers, Max Davidson, the Our Gang kids, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, Patsy Kelly and Laurel & Hardy. Roach died [...]

6. The Crowd – 1928 – King Vidor, Director Cast: Eleanor Boardman [Mary Sims], James Murray [John Sims], Bert Roach [Bert], Estelle Clark [Jane], Daniel G. Tomlinson [Jim], Dell Henderson [Dick], Lucy Beaumont [Mary’s mother], Freddie Burke Frederick [John Sims Jr.], Alice Mildred Puter [daughter]; Sidney Bracey [John’s supervisor], Johnny Downs [John Sims, age 12], [...]

Silent Santa’: SANTA CLAUS AND THE CHILDREN (1898) SANTA CLAUS (1899) SANTA CLAUS FILLING STOCKINGS (1897) SANTA CLAUS’ VISIT (1900) WAITING FOR SANTA CLAUS (1901) AN UNEXPECTED SANTA CLAUS (1908) A TRAP FOR SANTA CLAUS (1909) THE ADVENTURE OF THE WRONG SANTA CLAUS (1914) SANTA CLAUS VS. CUPID (1915) THE DETECTIVE’S SANTA CLAUS (1924) SANTA [...]