Search Results

This chapter describes how the once close relationship between the Wharton brothers irreparably broke. In late spring of 1919, after he and Ted parted ways, Leo Wharton left New York and headed west—not to Los Angeles but to Texas, which he hoped would become part of a film community that might rival Hollywood. At San Antonio Motion Pictures, he believed that he would have the opportunity to produce the kinds of feature films that he had long wanted to make. The demise of San Antonio Motion Pictures, however, effectively marked the end of Leo's film career. Ted Wharton, who left Ithaca less than a year after his brother Leo did, also traveled west. But whereas Leo had sought fame and success in Texas, Ted moved to Hollywood, which was rapidly evolving into the film capital of the United States. Almost immediately, Universal—by then well known for its popular westerns—hired him to work on the production of The Moon Riders (1920). Sadly, little more is known about the Whartons' final years. Nevertheless, a close examination of their careers restores Ted and Leo Wharton to the classical narrative of early filmmaking and reveals their profound impact on the early serial picture and their influence on later popular genres.

This chapter details how Ted Wharton got into the entertainment business. The early years that Ted spent on and behind the stage gave him an invaluable introduction to virtually all aspects of the entertainment industry, especially to the performance and production of melodrama. They also taught him the technical and improvisational skills that would serve him well as he graduated from vaudeville performance and legitimate stage acting to direction of film shorts and production of serials, particularly since he was often experimenting as he developed the conventions and devices that would become staples of later cinema and television. Ted's interest in the motion picture industry was further aroused by his visits to the old Edison Studios in Manhattan, after which, on his own, he began writing screenplays that revealed his aptitude for the craft. He then joined Pathé Frères to assist in the opening of its American studio and then to serve as its director. In late 1911 or early 1912, Ted decided to leave the company for a better opportunity at another studio: Essanay. The chapter then looks at Ted's most thematically and technically sophisticated short for Essanay, From the Submerged (1912), which is now considered one of the masterpieces of silent film.

This chapter details the financial woes that the Wharton brothers faced. The once-bustling Wharton Studio at Renwick Park was, by 1919, a film studio in name only. With its debt increasing and prospects for new production slowing correspondingly, it was facing an uncertain future. By May of 1919, the brothers' long-standing money troubles had become too big to hide or ignore. To be sure, the Whartons' prospects in the industry looked grim. Yet surprisingly, within just days of the sale of the studio's contents, reports surfaced of a new Wharton film venture: The Crooked Dagger. However, between the problems with Pathé and the loss of the serial's leading man and other actors, Ted Wharton found himself unable to move forward with the production. Consequently, although a number of filmographies list The Crooked Dagger as a completed picture, the serial “never saw the light of day.”

This chapter recounts Ted Wharton's preparations for his new Wharton studio after cutting his ties to Essanay. The Ithaca Men's Business Association, acting on behalf of the Industrial Commission, offered him, free of charge, two acres on Cayuga Heights and promised improvements on the property. The recruitment efforts paid off: by mid-March of 1914, Ted announced that he and his brother Leo, by then formally his business partner, would base their new moving picture operation in Ithaca. The establishment of the Wharton Studio, one of the first independent production studios in the United States, was in itself a remarkable venture—all the more, given its regional location. Although several major producers had briefly filmed in southern locales, few studios operated beyond the New York metropolitan area, Chicago, and Southern California, where most filmmaking of the time was clustered. Nonetheless, the Whartons believed that, given the advantages of remarkable scenery and reasonable operating costs that Ithaca offered, they could make their studio a success. Adding to their confidence was their extensive background in live theater and their years in the early silent movie industry, which they knew would enable them to draw on contacts from Broadway and from movies for story material and stars.

This chapter describes Ted Wharton's brief stay in Ithaca, wherein he shot Football Days at Cornell (1912), the picture that would prove to be a turning point in his career. Convinced that the town would be an ideal location for a full season of summer shooting, he pressed George K. Spoor, cofounder of Essanay, to allow him to establish a temporary Ithaca studio facility. Spoor agreed to authorize the venture, and in May of 1913, Ted returned to Ithaca with the “Special Eastern,” a complete company of some twenty crew members and photoplayers, including the studio's biggest star, Francis X. Bushman, and his frequent leading lady Beverly Bayne. The Hermit of Lonely Gulch was the first of the pictures the “Special Eastern” would produce that season, and it proved to be an excellent start. Other pictures produced that season include Sunlight, For Old Time's Sake, A Woman Scorned, Tony the Fiddler, and Dear Old Girl. The chapter then considers assistant director Archer MacMackin, who—working under Ted's close supervision—kept himself and the company busy throughout the summer with rehearsals and production. The Toll of the Marshes would be the last picture filmed by Ted's Essanay “Special Eastern.” After the company decided against opening a permanent eastern studio, Ted terminated his contractual association with Essanay and moved to Ithaca to form his own independent production company.

This chapter studies Ted Wharton's final film for Essanay: a historical epic, originally titled The Indian Wars (1914) and later released under various other titles. That film, one of the first to be made with historical preservation in mind, would reenact some of the major Indian battles. Few other producers were capable of managing such a massive and challenging project. Ted, however, had already demonstrated his ability to recreate a similar large-scale “splendid Historical Pageant.” The Indian Wars promised to be even more spectacular. The film was largely the creation of the legendary William Cody, a colorful and iconic figure known worldwide by his public persona of “Buffalo Bill.” Recognizing the broad impact of film, Cody determined to use the new medium as a vehicle for writing—or, in some cases, rewriting—his own history and shaping his legacy.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the serial motion picture. Typically two-reel action-packed films that ran for ten, fifteen, or more installments, serials often ended with a cliffhanger and a promise “to be continued next week.” Episodically structured and suspensefully plotted, they not only served as the precursors of the popular installment dramas and crime procedurals that have become staples of modern network and cable television programming; they also anticipated the extended incremental storytelling methods and “thrilling episodes of inescapable fatality and hair-breath escapes” that later filmmakers would exploit in commercial blockbusters such as the Star Wars series and the Indiana Jones and Marvel movie franchises. Moreover, serials helped to forge a strong link between the print and the film industries. The chapter then traces the evolution of the serial form, looking at an early twelve-part Edison production, What Happened to Mary, whose first installment was released on July 26, 1912. It also describes the serial The Perils of Pauline (released beginning March 23, 1914), which not only heightened interest in the genre; it also immortalized its star, Pearl White, and became the most famous of all the early chapter plays. However, it was the pioneering serials produced by filmmakers Ted and Leo Wharton that would have the most profound and sustained impact on the genre.