Flickering Empire: How Chicago Invented the U. S. Film Industry

Tells the fascinating but too little known story of how Chicago served as the unlikely capital of film production in America in the years prior to the rise of Hollywood (1907-1913) Table of Contents Acknowledgements Foreword, by Susan Doll Persons Discussed in Flickering Empire Preface: Hollywood Before Hollywood Part 1. Thomas Edison, Invention and the Dawn of a New Chicago 1. Edison’s Kinetoscope and Pre-Motion-Picture Entertainment 2. The Columbian Exposition 3. The Dawn of Exhibition Part 2. Chicago Rising 4. Colonel William Selig 5. George Spoor, George Kleine, and the Rise of the Nickelodeon 6. Gilbert “Broncho Billy” Anderson 7. The Edison Trust Part 3. The Golden Age of Chicago Film Production 8. The Golden Age of Essanay 9. The Golden Age of Selig Polyscope 10. Essanay Signs Charlie Chaplin 11. Chaplin in Chicago: His New Job Part 4. It All Came Crashing Down 12. The Decline of the Chicago Studios 13. Major M. L. C. Funkhouser and the Chicago Censorship Code Epilogue Post-Script: Oscar and Orson Appendix A: Selig Polyscope’s Pointers on Picture Acting Appendix B: A Complete List of the Extant Chicago-Shot Films Named in This Book and Where to See Them Appendix C: Some Censored Scenes of Chicago Films Noted in Local Newspapers Endnotes Index Flickering Empire tells the fascinating yet little-known story of how Chicago served as the unlikely capital of American film production in the years before the rise of Hollywood (1907-1913). As entertaining as it is informative, Flickering Empire straddles the worlds of academic and popular nonfiction in its vivid illustration of the rise and fall of the major Chicago movie studios in the mid-silent era (principally Essanay and Selig Polyscope). Colorful, larger-than-life historical figures, including Thomas Edison, Charlie Chaplin, Oscar Micheaux, and Orson Welles, are major players in the narrative -- in addition to important though forgotten industry titans, such as "Colonel" William Selig, George Spoor, and Gilbert "Broncho Billy" Anderson. -- Provided by publisher This is the fascinating yet little-known story of how Chicago served as the unlikely capital of American film production in the years before the rise of Hollywood (1907-1913). It illustrates the rise and fall of the major Chicago movie studios in the mid-silent era (focusing principally on the Essanay and Selig Polyscope studios). It introduces colourful, larger-than-life historical figures, including Thomas Edison, Charlie Chaplin, Oscar Micheaux, and Orson Welles, and shows that they were major players in the narrative of the city's involvement in film An exceptional new book ... that immediately joins the ranks of essential film references Long overdue