Lubin Company

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The Lubin Manufacturing Company was a motion picture production company based in Betzwood, west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which briefly moved to produce "cowboy pictures" in the Birmingham area. The company by then had 10 production teams, one of which had already begun using Jacksonville, Florida as a winter home.

The Lubin Co. had already made several plays from the writings of "a well-known society woman of Birmingham," and there is a possibility that she introduced the idea of moving some of their productions to the city.

Lubin's field representative, T. D. Cochrane, contacted Hollis Newsome, owner of the Amuse-U theater to arrange a visit. Newsome secured the assistance of F. E. Butler of the Messer Real Estate and Insurance Company in organizing a tour of the district. During his visit, Lubin explained that static electricity in the cold air made outdoor film work impossible during the winters in Philadelphia. Despite experiencing a rare snowfall during his visit, Lubin said that he saw no reason to change the company's plan to send a troupe to the city as early as Sunday, December 1 to begin a season of work through February, with the expectation they could shoot as many as six films per month, all "of the wild west variety."

Director of the Lubin production team was Francis J. Grandon, am acting veteran of D. W. Griffith's Biograph Company. He was joined by principal actors Clare Williams and Edgar Jones, John Ince, Franklin Hall, Emma Bell, and three other regular cast members, plus 10 extras. In addition to Grandon and his cast of 19 players, the company brought assistant director Walter Stanhope and screenwriter and publicity manager Wallace C. Clfiton.

They brought a special car with 2 cameras, 12 horses, staging, props and equipment. Their train was delayed by a day, and arrived on Monday, December 2. The principals took rooms in the Morris Hotel, with the rest of the company divided up in other lodgings. For their downtown offices the company leased room 811 of the Farley Building.

Shortly after arriving, it was proposed to Grandon that they might film some of the steel-marking processes on site at the Ensley Works, but U.S. Steel officials did not approve the request. Grandon also visited Noccalula Falls in Gadsden and the Southern Iron & Steel Co. plant as possible shooting locations.

On December 5, the group moved into the Bluff Park Hotel, which had been rented out for the season, and rapidly constructed an outdoor stage there. Inclement weather delayed the anticipated start of production, and prospects worsened when Clara Williams took ill.

Between December 12 and 14 the company completed its first short on Shades Mountain, The Western Heroine, and sent the film to Philadelphia for developing. A strip of 19 frames from the film was reproduced in The Birmingham News. On December 23 it was reported that continued poor weather had prevented them from tackling their second production. Nevertheless, the group were pleased with the varied topography and with their accommodations, and planned a Christmas dinner.

On December 26 the company filmed a scene of a man riding a horse into a saloon on the 300 block of 20th Street North. The next day, J. P. McGowan, a director for the Karam Company of New York, arrived in the city with plans to bring another production company to town, which would focus on industrial, railroad, and society pictures. Word spread that the Edison Company had also sent an agent to scout the city.

Soon, however, word reached Grandon that several of the scenes he had shot were unusable due to the overcast weather. McGowan ordered a series of screen tests and undertook a review of weather statistics before deciding whether to stay in Birmingham or to plan a later visit after a foray in Pensacola, Florida. Their tests were inconclusive, but the company was able to take advantage of Lubin's removal by taking up the lease for rooms and the newly-built outdoor stage at the Bluff Park Hotel.

The Lubin Company left on the Birmingham Special for Philadelphia on the morning of January 1.

References

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