Friday, January 4, 2013
January 1916 in Fort Lee, NJ, where Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand took up residence at the Triangle Movie Studio on Main Street and Linwood Avenue.
Early January is a time to look back as well as ahead - back to the previous year's successes and shortfalls and ahead to what we all hope will be a good year for all. This being an archives piece, I have the great good fortune of revving up the old Fort Lee way back machine and heading to a January distant in time but, as Einstein said, relatively not so distant in scope. The time, my friends, is January of 1916, some 97 years ago. Imagine Fort Lee without the George Washington Bridge, a small rural town with a vibrant Main Street, trolley tracks and movie studios. This was near the apex of Fort Lee’s days as the center of American film production. True, studios were consolidating in Hollywood by 1916, but Fort Lee still had the lead in…
40.85382
-73.97498
Main St & Linwood Ave, Fort Lee, NJ
/articles/happy-new-year-1916-97th-anniversary-of-fatty-in-fort-lee
/locations/8525596
Friday, November 9, 2012
Making movies in Fort Lee in 1912.
Fort Lee for those of us who live here is sometimes just home, and it is hard to fathom the interest the outside world shows in our little borough perched atop the bluffs of the Palisades. This column has covered much of Fort Lee’s history, including our role as the birthplace of the American film industry, but this week we add an international flavor via the year 1912. This year, 2012, as noted in previous archive pieces, we celebrate some of the most important centennials in American and world cinema history, all of which occurred on the streets of Fort Lee. Madame Alice Guy Blache built and opened her Solax Studio on Lemoine Avenue (present days site of the A&P) here in Fort Lee in 1912. She produced, wrote and directed hundreds of …
Friday, May 18, 2012
Fort Lee Film history along Main Street, and North to Coytesville, lead to Fort Lee High School this weekend.
The Fort Lee Film Commission has been at work feverishly since last year on plans for this weekend’s production of the Jerry Herman musical "Mack & Mabel." The musical is the “Keystone” of sorts in our centennial tribute to the founding of Keystone Studio in Fort Lee in 1912 by Mack Sennett with the aid of his leading lady, the lovely screen comedienne Miss Mabel Normand. The first order of business was to meet with Fort Lee High School Drama Department teacher Jodi Etra and get her on board to direct. Ms. Etra agreed, and work commenced on the plan and structure of the play, as well as the funding. The Fort Lee Film Commission applied for grants and raised funds in excess of $10,000 to take this idea from conception to reality. Some of …
40.85824
-73.965809
Fort Lee Borough High School
3000 Lemoine Ave, Fort Lee, NJ
/articles/from-barrymore-way-to-keystone-studio-all-roads-lead-to-fort-lee-high-school
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/locations/7054171
Friday, May 11, 2012
Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand in Fort Lee, NJ, as they start Keystone Studio in 1912.
Redevelopment Area 5 is the talk of the town, and rightly so. The development of the 40-plus year vacant tract of land off Main Street is a long time coming. But to look ahead to the future, we also need to take a look at the past - about 100 years ago. On Main Street, right across the street from Redevelopment Area 5, stands the Bank of America. This same building, pre-exterior job, was Fort Lee’s proud First National Bank. For many of us growing up in Fort Lee, especially lower Main Street, the image of the large clock on the exterior of the building is burned into our memories. I mention that very bank because on the Main Street side of the bank in 1911 DW Griffith shot one of his many Fort Lee-based Biograph films – this one starred …
40.85824
-73.965809
Fort Lee Borough High School
3000 Lemoine Ave, Fort Lee, NJ
/articles/mack-meets-mabel-on-main-street
1770838
/locations/6994636
Friday, April 13, 2012
Centennial of Keystone Studio's birth in Fort Lee to be celebrated with high school student performance of "Mack & Mabel," produced by the Fort Lee Film Commission.
The readers of this weekly "From the Archives" column are familiar with the centennial of Universal Studios, founded in Fort Lee in 1912. Thus, you may also be aware that the Fort Lee Film Commission is kicking off a yearlong tribute to this Fort Lee-born studio with a free public screening of the Universal's 1962 Academy Award-winning film To Kill A Mockingbird tonight (Friday, April 13 at 8 p.m.) in the Fort Lee Borough Hall Municipal Courtroom at 309 Main Street) What many of you may not know is that there was another studio founded in Fort Lee in 1912. It was born in a sense a wee bit earlier, when Mack Sennett appeared in a D.W. Griffith-directed Biograph film in 1909, The Curtain Pole. This short comedy, shot on the streets of Fort …
40.852771
-73.973355
Fort Lee Borough Administrative Offices-Borough Hall
309 Main St, Fort Lee, NJ
/articles/a-mack-a-mabel-and-a-mockingbird
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/locations/6799456
40.85824
-73.965809
Fort Lee Borough High School
3000 Lemoine Ave, Fort Lee, NJ
/articles/a-mack-a-mabel-and-a-mockingbird
1770838
/locations/6799457
Tom Meyers
12:47 pm on Saturday, January 5, 2013
Very cool - I will look them up on You Tube - thanks so much for the info!!! more ›