Hale To The Chief

By Loey Lockerby

During his 31 years with the Kansas City Fire Department, George C. Hale became famous for his dedication. He expanded the department, travelled the world promoting his profession, and invented several life-saving devices. But it was after his retirement in 1902 that he became a significant – if largely forgotten – figure in the development of early moviegoing.

At this point, filmmakers were already attempting to make their work more “realistic,” photographing hot-air balloon rides and ships’ journeys to exhibit in specially-designed theaters. In England, a popular attraction involved mounting cameras on the cowcatchers of moving trains, so audiences could enjoy a “phantom ride” on the rails.

In 1904, Hale partnered with inventor William J. Keefe, Judge Fred W. Gifford, and Gifford’s son, Ward, to create what became known as Hale’s Tours and Scenes of the World. Combining the phantom ride concept with the idea of specially-built venues, Hale and his partners developed a system in which audiences boarded an actual train car, which moved on a short track before coupling with a stationary car. The film, usually of a ride through some scenic distant location, was projected at the front, while the car itself was manipulated to mimic the physical sensation of a train journey (complete with rushing wind effects). It even had the capacity for rear projection, although this doesn’t seem to have been used often.

As the tours became more popular, the design simplified, with most shows taking place solely in the stationary car. Locally, Hale’s Tours played at the old Electric Park, usually to sold-out crowds, and they enjoyed similar popularity all over North America. By 1906, there were exhibitions going on worldwide.

With such rapid success came an equally rapid downfall. The market became saturated with Hale’s Tours and various knockoffs, and it became increasingly difficult to find new material to satisfy the public. As the novelty wore off, so did box office, and the programs were all but defunct by the 1910s.

Despite their decline, Hale’s Tours had an enormous impact on the film industry, which continues to this day. Pioneers like Adolph Zukor and Sam Warner were involved in the programs’ exhibition, which helped them build the careers that would eventually take them to the top in Hollywood. As for Hale, he left the business and enjoyed a comfortable retirement in Kansas City until his death in 1923, probably never realizing how influential his work was. Anytime moviegoers are immersed in a new experience – through digital sound or 3-D or rumbling theatre seats – it’s a testament to people like George Hale and his remarkable tours of the world.

In-depth article on Hale’s Tours, with technical information.

A rare photo of audiences viewing a Hale film.

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Animated Characters

By Loey Lockerby

When Walt Disney moved from Kansas City to California in the early 1920s, he had already established himself as a creative force – if not a financial one (his Laugh-O-Gram studios went bankrupt shortly before his departure). His fortunes improved in Hollywood, and several of his talented KC colleagues joined him in his new venture. Some of them became famous in their own right, but even the lesser known artists made important contributions.

• • Isadore “Friz” Freleng (1905-1995) headed west in 1927, where he worked on the “ Alice ” comedies and the “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” series. He later teamed up with fellow Kansas City transplants Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising to form an independent studio. His greatest success came at Warner Bros., where he emerged as one of the top Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies animators. He directed the first Porky Pig cartoon, and eventually won five Academy Awards. He also co-created the “Pink Panther” cartoon series. Freleng remained active in the Looney Tunes franchise until the 1980s.

 

• • Ub Iwerks (1901-1971) has an automatic place in entertainment history as the artist who created Mickey Mouse, but he was Disney’s primary animator for nearly a decade before leaving to form his own studio. He returned to Disney in the 1940s, where he helped develop important special effects techniques and designed attractions for Disney’s theme parks.

 

• • Virginia Davis (1918-2009) was the young star of the “ Alice ” series, which Disney started in Kansas City , and used to establish himself in Hollywood . The films cleverly used an “ Alice in Wonderland” theme to combine animation with live action. Between 1923 and 1925, Davis made 13 “ Alice ” shorts, and continued working as an actress for several years. She later had successful second careers in magazine editing and real estate.

 

• Carl Stalling (1891-1972) started playing the piano at silent movie screenings in his small hometown of Lexington, Missouri, eventually moving to Kansas City, where he accompanied films at the Newman and Isis Theatres. During this period, he got to know Disney, who was creating advertisements for the theatres. In Hollywood, Stalling helped create the “Silly Symphonies” and developed techniques for composing and recording soundtracks that are still in use today. Like Freleng, he had his greatest success at Warner Bros., where he composed the iconic Looney Tunes scores from 1936 until his retirement in 1958.

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The Kalem Girl from KC

by Loey Lockerby

When she left the film industry in 1920, Gene Gauntier had written, directed, acted in and/or produced over 300 pictures, including the first adaptation of “Ben-Hur” and a “Girl Spy” adventure series. She had traveled the world and formed her own production company. She’d been hailed as the biggest star at Kalem Studios, and sued for copyright infringement.

All by the ripe old age of 35.

Born Genevieve Liggett in Kansas City, Gauntier took her love of the theater – and her new stage name – to turn-of-the-century New York, where the movies were already having a cultural impact. In between stage appearances, Gauntier acted in films for Kalem Studios beginning in 1906, and was soon turning out scripts for one-reelers. She was dubbed the “Kalem Girl,” often starring as daredevil young women in movies she’d written herself. “Adventures of a Girl Spy,” based on the real exploits of Confederate spy Belle Boyd, was especially popular, leading to a handful of sequels and what may be cinema’s first prequel, “A Hitherto Unrelated Incident of the Girl Spy” (1911).

Gauntier was responsible for other firsts as well, including the original 1907 adaptation of “Ben-Hur,” which led to a ground-breaking lawsuit establishing filmmakers’ legal responsibilities to authors. The estate of novelist Lew Wallace won compensation from Kalem for the use of his famous book, and the studios’ free-for-all violation of copyrights came to an end.

Gauntier also wrote and starred in “From the Manger to the Cross” (1912), one of the earliest depictions of the life of Christ. By this time in her career, Gauntier was traveling extensively, collaborating with director Sidney Olcott. While in Egypt on another project, she proposed filming the Biblical story in its historical locations. The result was one of the first motion pictures to go beyond the short, one-reel format, a distinction which helped it secure a place on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

As the industry became more entrenched, people like Gauntier no longer fit the business model, and she opted to leave altogether. She wrote an autobiography for “Woman’s Home Companion” in 1928, and continued working as a novelist and magazine writer until her death in 1966, at the age of 81.

Although contemporaries like Lois Weber and Alice Guy-Blache have received attention from film historians, Gauntier’s work has been largely forgotten. She remains a fascinating figure, and one of Kansas City’s most important contributions to the cinema. She deserves to be rediscovered.

Links:

Excerpts from Gauntier’s autobiography, “Blazing the Trail” http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/4_blaze1.htm

Article at TCM’s Movie Morlocks blog –
http://moviemorlocks.com/2008/08/25/the-hitherto-unrelated-incidents-of-the-girl-scriptwriter/

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The Carnival Comes to Lawrence

by Loey Lockerby

The Centron Corporation in Lawrence, Kansas, produced hundreds of educational films, but its true claim to fame couldn’t be further from “Why Study Industrial Arts?”  What made Centron beloved by generations of film geeks involved a pasty ghoul, an abandoned amusement park, and a director who wanted to try something new.

Herk Harvey had been making short films for Centron for a decade when he enlisted some of his co-workers in an ambitious project – a feature horror film, to be shot in a few weeks in Lawrence and Salt Lake City.  Harvey had seen the ruins of the once-posh Saltair park while driving through Utah, and the place’s creepiness stirred his imagination.  He shared his experience with writer John Clifford, who worked out the story of a young woman plagued by terrifying visions after surviving a car accident.  A separate company, Harcourt Productions, was formed, and a $30,000 budget raised from local investors.

Although Saltair and a department store scene were filmed in Utah, the bulk of “Carnival of Souls” was made in Lawrence.  The Lecompton Bridge was the setting for the drag race and crash that opens the film, and major sequences were shot at Trinity Episcopal Church and the old Reuters Organ Company building on New Hampshire Street.  Interior sets were built at Centron, which now houses KU’s Oldfather Studios.

The lead actress, Candace Hilligoss, was brought in from the East Coast, but nearly everyone else in the cast and crew had Lawrence connections, and many were Centron regulars.  Harvey himself played the leader of the ghostly apparitions, sporting white make-up and a diabolical leer.

“Carnival of Souls” got a limited release, primarily on the drive-in circuit, but problems with distribution and copyright ultimately caused it to lose money and enter the public domain.  Ironically, that may have been what saved it.  Television stations, eager for cheap material to fill airtime, began showing it on their late-night horror programs.  Its cult status developed over several years, and grew as the film hit the home video market.  In 1989, it was restored and re-released, this time to art houses, whose audiences appreciated its stark, nightmarish atmosphere.

That same year, a reunion of the “Carnival” cast and crew took place at Liberty Hall, where Harvey, Clifford, Hilligoss and co-star Sidney Berger spoke to an enthusiastic crowd.  Footage of this event is included on Criterion’s excellent DVD release, as are several other features, including informative short documentaries by Bill Shaffer at KTWU-TV in Topeka.

Although he never made another feature, Harvey continued working at Centron until his retirement.  He died in 1996, after fully enjoying the renaissance of his signature film.

Criterion DVD page – http://www.criterion.com/films/607-carnival-of-souls

Interview with KC businessman Wade Williams on his DVD release of the European version, at Images Film Journal – http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue05/reviews/carnivalinterview.htm

Interview with “Carnival” cinematographer Maurice Prather, by KCFCC member Dan Lybarger – http://www.tipjar.com/dan/carnivalofsouls.htm

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The Boller Brothers

by Loey Lockerby

cont. from Home Page…

The Bollers specialized… ideal choice to design the Country Club Plaza’s movie house in 1928.  Like many of the Boller buildings, the Plaza Theater mimicked another, more exotic space, in this case a Spanish country villa.  The Plaza remained a first-run house into the 1990s, when competition from the area’s megaplexes finally shut it down.  The building was converted into a Restoration Hardware store in 1999, although the facade is still largely intact.

The best-preserved of the Bollers’ local theaters is the Granada in Kansas City, Kansas, which opened in 1929.  Currently run by the Imago Dei arts organization, the Granada is one of the country’s few surviving, operational “atmospheric” theaters, also in the Spanish style.  Clouds and stars appear on the ceiling, giving the feel of a courtyard, with lighting effects that turn twilight into nighttime as the show begins.  The building has changed hands frequently over the years, but the majority of its owners (including CinemaKC’s Butch Rigby) have attempted to preserve its architectural integrity.  The Granada was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Carl moved to California in the 1920s, and the firm established regional offices, ultimately building or renovating over a hundred theaters throughout the west and midwest.  Although the company officially dissolved during the Depression, Robert remained active around the Kansas City area.  He was the architect for the Rio in Overland Park, part of the Fine Arts Group and also on the Historic Register.  It opened as the Overland in 1946, the year Carl passed away.  Robert was still working as late as 1953, when he consulted on the remodeling of the Frontier/New Aileen Theater in Worland, Wyoming.  He died in 1962, leaving a remarkable family legacy of elegance and artistry.

Area Boller Brothers theaters still in use as cinemas or arts centers:
Granada (KCK) – http://www.imagodeiarts.org/
Granada (Lawrence) – http://www.thegranada.com/
Hollywood (Leavenworth) – http://www.rccplv.com/
Missouri (St. Joseph) – http://www.saintjosephperformingarts.org/
Rio (Overland Park) – http://fineartsgroup.com/

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About History & Legacy of Cinema in Kansas City

Most people on the coasts know about Kansas City’s musical heritage.  They’ve heard about the barbecue.  They have a vague recollection that someone once told them it’s a nice town.  But it’s still a “flyover”: one of the places they see from the airplane window while traveling between New York and L.A..  The idea that this Midwestern city has a rich cinematic heritage would likely never occur to them.

It doesn’t always occur to people who live here, either, and the History & Legacy page is designed to change that.  This area has produced famous actors and groundbreaking directors, as well as major advances in film exhibition and distribution.  There are a remarkable number of historic buildings in Kansas City associated with the industry, including some of the country’s most beautiful theaters.  And, of course, there’s a tradition of both independent and Hollywood-based filmmaking here, going back to the silent era.

Ideas and information are always welcome.  There are hundreds of stories to tell, and I look forward to sharing some of them with you.

Loey Lockerby, author and President of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle has been chosen as the Official Historian of CinemaKC.  Ms. Lockerby will be sharing great stories about motion picture actors, artists and notables in the film industry with a Kansas and Missouri connection.