by Lea Stans
Silents are Golden: A History of the Iconic Vitagraph Studios
Very prolific in its day and older than Hollywood itself, Vitagraph was not only one of the earliest film studios but it created one of the very first movie stars – and it’s usually credited with creating the very first animal star, too. It was also well respected by its contemporaries. In honor of the studio’s 21st anniversary in 1918, the film magazine Motography wrote: “The history of Vitagraph is largely the history of the motion picture industry, for the organization has never lost its place in the front rank of producers.”
It certainly had humble beginnings. Founder James Stuart Blackton, whose family emigrated from England when he was ten years old, became a reporter and illustrator in New York City. He also performed in a versatile vaudeville act with Albert E. Smith, which used magic tricks, ventriloquism, lightning sketches, magic lanterns, and more. In 1896 Blackton had the good fortune of being assigned to interview Thomas Edison about his filmmaking process…