A Universal Studio Centennial Starts With A Mockingbird

This year marks the centennial of the largest movie studio in the world, Universal Studios. With its massive, legendary back lot in a city called Universal in Los Angeles, it started on a much smaller scale in the wilds of Coytesville (Fort Lee) New Jersey in 1912. 

Universal Studio founder Carl Laemmle  first came to Coytesville in 1909 when he operated the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP) – here he shot his first film, Hiawatha. In 1912, Laemmle purchased the Champion Studio on Fifth Street. This studio, built in 1910 by Mark Ditenfass, was the first studio built in Fort Lee and today still stands and is operated as a printing plant. 

The structure is the oldest standing movie studio building in America. Once Laemmle purchased the building, he amassed a number of smaller studios. He had everything but a name for his new studio. One day, while peering out of his New York City office building, he saw a truck pass by, and this inspired him - the name on the outside of the truck was Universal Plumbing. Thus Universal Studio was born 100 years ago with its first studio in Fort Lee.

In 1914, Laemmle broke ground on a much larger Universal Studio on Main Street opposite Jones Road in West Fort Lee. That studio for a time was the largest studio in the world, yet it was set in the very rural town of Fort Lee. As you can see in the aerial of this studio, there is a large water tower on the lot. 

Once the studio opened, Laemmle realized he lost all water pressure on Mondays, and essentially, the studio could not operate. Why? Because Mondays were washdays in Fort Lee, and all the women of the town used the water at the same time to do their weekly laundry. Laemmle sidestepped the problem by erecting a large water tower, which stood above the property until it and the studio where razed in 1964 to make way for Bonded Film Storage.

The Universal Studio on Main Street saw one large production in 1915, the ambitious Universal film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which was released in 1916. Shortly thereafter, Universal centered all their film production in Universal City in California, which opened in 1915. Though Universal retained their two studios in Fort Lee through 1931, they were leased to other producers such as Sam Goldwyn and Lewis Selznick.

When we worked with Universal in lining up film titles to screen this year for their centennial, one title jumped out from all the others—Universal’s 1962 Academy Award-winning film To Kill a Mockingbird. Based on the best-selling book by Harper Lee, it is one of the most recognized films ever produced in the United States with a performance by Gregory Peck that stands the test of time.

We thought of a on its 50th anniversary: the municipal courtroom in Fort Lee’s at 309 Main Street. What better place to screen one of the greatest courtroom dramas of all time? 

We also thought we could follow the screening with two live performances of To Kill a Mockingbird, and we worked with the Hudson Shakespeare Company to produce this live production in the same venue as the film. 

We will screen the film on Friday, April 13, at 8 p.m.—admission is free, but seating is limited. Doors open at 7 p.m. The live performances will run on April 14 and 15 at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are available at the door for $10 ($5 for senior citizens and students). Tickets go on sale when the doors open at 6:30 p.m. at Borough Hall. Seating is limited to 120 for each performance.

All proceeds from these performances will go toward the Fort Lee Film Commission's production of the Jerry Herman musical "Mack & Mabel," the musical features the drama department actors and is directed by high school drama department teacher Jodi Etra. This musical is about the founding of Keystone Studio in Fort Lee by Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand in 1912. The play will be in the Fort Lee High School auditorium on May 18 at 7:30 p.m. and May 19 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door the night of the performance.

The Fort Lee Film Commission has created Universal-centric events for this centennial year that include a historic jitney tour on June 24, when we will unveil two new commemorative street signs at the locations of the two Universal Studios in Fort Lee; a exhibit running from July 7 through the end of the year on Universal Studio that will include a display of rare archival photos and artifacts from the studio when it was in Fort Lee; a 10-week, free, summer-long, outdoor "Movies & Music Under the Stars" program on the outdoor stage of the running each Saturday night from July 7 through September 8 to include a screening of 10 Universal films courtesy of Universal Studios; and a Universal horror film festival in October.

All this to salute the greatest movie studio in the world, and one that was born in Fort Lee, N.J., 100 years ago.

Now back to the film To Kill  a Mockingbird. 

Currently there is a bestseller making the front pages of newspapers and leading TV newscasts across the nation called Fifty Shades of Grey, which centers on the subjugation of a woman to a billionaire by means that I cannot further describe in this column. 

More than a half a century ago there were no shades of grey in Harper Lee’s book, nor in the film that was released soon thereafter. Harper Lee didn’t write about billionaires and their voracious appetites. She wrote of a time in America when one man could stand up in his small community and make a difference at the risk of his life. She spoke of racial injustice at a time when that was a rare thing to center an American novel on, the dawn of the 1960s.  

Atticus Finch, the small town, southern attorney, portrayed in both the novel and film, was no billionaire, and he had no dangerous liaisons. His relationships were with his children and his community, and today that character represents the best of America. 

So join us in Fort Lee on April 13, 14 and 15 as we showcase the work of another Lee, Miss Harper Lee, and if you can, bring your children and grandchildren so they may learn of Scout, of Atticus, of Boo Radley and of a time when American ideals were seen in the pages of bestsellers and on the screens of local movie theatres.