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With all the talk about the movie studios coming to Detroit, I wonder if anyone remembers the movie studios being here at the beginning of the last century. My grandfather worked for the Detroit Motion Picture studio on Vernor in Grosse Pointe in the early 1920s. He was a cameraman's assistant, and used to tell stories of the stars he met at that time. Anyone have info on the old studios?
Bump because this was posted in the wrong forum...
Jam Handy was the big studio in these parts. I know he did the 1965 Mayor Cavanaugh video that gets posted here a lot.
Never heard of a studio on Vernor in GPP. Most folks in GP call Vernor, Waterloo, I think. Of course, they say it through those stiff-jawed, nassally, clipped consonants and elongated vowels Waaatrlooo. In fact most of Waterloo/Vernor is residentail except for a small retail section near Alter.
Maybe you're thinking about the Cadieux Stage, Handy built it in the deco style in the late '30s and then Merrit's [[sp) bought the place in the mid-70's. I'm pretty sure Dinna Shore did the orginal version of "See The Usa in A Chevrovlet" at that stage.
For a while Detroit was turning out more footage weekly than the Hollywood studios. Some of the major Detroit studios were Jam Handy, Wilding, Group Productions, Henning and Cheadle, Movicon and Special Recordings.
I found the Atlas Motion Picture Co, in a 1915 volume of the Sanborn maps. It was located off of an alley behind Gratiot, a bit west of Shoemaker.
Attachment 2659
From "The Evolution of American Educational Technology" by Paul Seattler on Google Boooks:
Attachment 2660
Also found in google is a list of copyright entries by the Library of Congress in 1915. These titles all appear to be typical silent movie dramas, not educational films. Not sure if this company morphed into doing films for Ford, or is a different entity.
Purely anecdotal - once while touring Fairlane the docent told us that at one time Ford was the largest filmmaking company in the country. There was either a camera or old projector [[don't recall which) on display in the Fairlane powerhouse.
My father worked for both Jam Handy and Wilding from the mid-50's till the early 60's. I can remember visting Wilding as a child to meet various big name actors they brought in to make internal films for General Motors and others.
Designed by Joseph G. Kastler. Detroit Motion Picture Corporation Studio 160 Vernier built in 1922 Grosse Pointe Shores, MI.
Demolished: unknown to me
Image from the Grosse Pointe Historical Society circa 1922.
Just about everything in that post is completely wrong. I have no idea what I was thinking but since it was back in '09 I'll blame it on Kwame. He deserves the blame for everything ever said or done anyways.Quote:
Originally Posted by gnome
It ain't a good excuse, but the best I can muster.