William Fox kept his Movie Studio on the East Coast in New York City, instead of moving like many others to Los Angeles. A Fool There Was featured Bara in the role of woman who used charms to seduce and corrupt a moral Wall Street lawyer. The film was based on Rudyard Kipling’s poem The Vampire. Her screen credit was listed as the Vampire, although not a blood sucking one. From this came the word Vamp. The success of this film allowed Fox to create Fox Film Corporation.

She became a star as much through publicity as for her starring roles. Fox’s team had her develop a mysterious accent, for personal appearances since her film were silent, and dressed her in makeup, veils, copious jewelry and furs as the Vamp. In many ways she was the first Goth girl.

Her movies were just as mysterious and sexy as her off screen persona. Her costumes were scant and showed a great deal of skin in a time when women were always fully covered. She was the screen’s first sex symbol. Many consider her finest role being Cleopatra in 1917. The film was one of her biggest hits.

In 1919 her five year contact with Fox ended and was not renewed. Nearly all of her films were made during this five year period. After leaving Fox she would do The Unchastened Woman in 1956 and Madame Mystery in 1926, her last film. She married film director Charles Brabin in 1921.

She was born Theodosia Burr Goodman on July 29, 1885 and died on April 7, 1955 of abdominal cancer at the age of 69.

From 1902 to 1908 he toured in stock companies, and on vaudeville and burlesque circuits. He was in San Francisco during the great Earthquake in 1906 and was forced to clear debris. In 1908 he appeared as an extra for Selig’s Polyscope Company.

Between 1909 and 1921 Arbuckle made more than 150 silent films defining the art of slapstick at Keystone Studios, where he excelled as a performer, writer and director. Even though he had a bulky, 250-pound frame (the reason for the nickname, Fatty, one that he hated) he was an able acrobat and played the hero who saved the day by pie-throwing, back-flipping and outwitting his opponent. In “A Noise from the Deep,” Arbuckle became the first film comedian to be hit with a pie on film. He also had the ability to throw two of them at the same time in different directions.

While on vacation in September 1921 he hosted a party at his room. Virginia Rappe, who attended the party, died of an inflammation of the lining of the pelvis. Arbuckle was accused of raping Rappe, which allegedly caused her injuries. After two trials resulted in hung juries the third ended in an acquittal.

Even though he was acquitted of any crimes and having support from Hollywood friends, the motion picture industry, partly through public opinion, wasn’t. He was able to work behind the scenes, under the name William B. Goodrich as a director and gag writer. He also performed on the vaudeville stage under his own name, but his film career seemed to be at an end.

In 1932, Warner Brothers gave Arbuckle a chance to star in a comedy short called “Hey, Pop.” The public loved “Hey, Pop,” and its success led to five more talkie shorts. On June 30, 1933, hours after completing his sixth Warner’s short and signing to make a feature-length film, Arbuckle died of a heart attack. He was only 46.

It is a story of Northern Stoneman family and the Cameron family from Piedmont, South Carolina. Through their eyes we see how their friendship is affected by the Civil War. The consequences of the War in their lives are shown in connection to major historical events, like the development of the Civil War itself, Lincoln’s assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.

The movie was based on Thomas Dixon Jr’s ‘The Clansman’. Dixon had committed his entire writing career arguing in favor of the superiority of whites and the Ku Klux Klan’s use of violence. After being angered by a staging ‘Uncle Brown’s Cabin’ in 1901 he decided to produce a play that offered his own interpretation of race relations. He said: “My object is to teach the North, the young North, what it has never known—the awful suffering of the white man during the dreadful Reconstruction period. I believe that Almighty God anointed the white men of the South by their suffering during that time . . . to demonstrate to the world that the white man must and shall be supreme.”

After the release of the film in 1915, the NAACP and other groups protested the film. The NAACP published a pamphlet titled ‘Fighting a Vicious Film: Protest Against The Birth of a Nation’. W. E. B. Du Bois published scathing reviews in ‘The Crisis’, which helped spur a debate among the National Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures to whether the film should be shown in New York. In the years after Griffith released ‘The Birth of a Nation’ there were massive race riots throughout the country, peaking in 1919.

President and former history professor Woodrow Wilson after viewing the film at the White House proclaimed it not only historically accurate, but like “history writ with lightning.” Many whites feeling it to be a truthful and accurate portrayal of racial politics flocked to join the rejuvenated Ku Klux Klan.

‘The Birth of a Nation’ went on to become one of the most admired and profitable films produced by Hollywood during its silent phase. Many Film scholars agree that it is the most important and a key film in American movie history. It contains many new cinematic innovations and refinements, technical effects and artistic advancements with a formative influence on future films.

Mabel Normand, a popular silent film comedy actress, was at the Taylor home on February 1, leaving the house at 7:45. It is thought that she was the last person, other than the murderer who saw him alive. She left the house in a happy mood.

Taylor was born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner on April 26, 1872 in Ireland. He came to America in 1890. He married in 1901 to Ethel May Harrison whose father was a wall street broker. He vanished in 1908 deserting his wife and daughter.

While there were many suspects including Mabel Normand, Edward Sands – a former Taylor’s Valet, and Henry Peavy – Taylor’s Valet, no one was ever charged with the murder. Even to this day the identity of the actual murderer is unknown.

It has been discovered that Taylor had a relationship with teen screen actress Mary Miles Minter. At his death Taylor was 49 and she was 19. There is cause to believe that they may have had an intimate relationship prior to her turning 18. Minter’s mother Charlotte Shelby has also been linked as a possible suspect in the murder. Shelby, too, may have had an intimate relationship with Taylor.

From 1993 to 2000, Bruce Long collected and compiled information about Taylor and the murder. He called his effort Taylorology. It can be found at http://www.angelfire.com/az/Taylorology/

Oliver Hardy was born on January 18, 1892 in Harlem, Georgia and moved to Florida when he was a child. His birth name was Norvell, but unofficially to his father’s name Oliver when he came of age. To those close to him he was known as Babe, a nickname given to him in those early years.

While his mother wanted him to become a lawyer, Hardy fell in love with the new genre. His show business career began working and then running a movie theatre.

During the early days of film, sunny places were used. Florida became one of those early film locations. Oliver Hardy was hired to appear in those early films due to his large girth and expressive facial features.

He appeared in his first film in 1913. The film was called Outwitting Dad. After that he appeared in a number of series including the Pokes and Jabbs series of comedy shorts, the Plump and Runt series of two reelers, the Jimmy Aubrey series, and as an actor and co-director of comedy shorts for Larry Semon.

When Hal Roach brought Oliver and Hardy together the pair had appeared in the same film. He had a minor part in the 1917 film Lucky Dog that stared Stan Laurel. Although appearing in the same film the two didn’t have any scenes together.

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Also published at the newly designed SilentFilmEra.com

His birth name was Thomas Hezekiah Mix, but when he enlisted in the army during the Spanish-American War he entered as Thomas E. Mix. The E is Edwin, his father’s name. Was his name ever legally changed. It was in his mind since he appeared to have never liked the name Hezekiah and always used Thomas Edwin Mix.

Mix was a real Cowboy. After army he worked his way west until finally working at Will A. Dickey’s Circle D Ranch. The ranch was hired by Selig Pictures to supply cowboys and Indians along with horses for the movies. Mix was originally hired by Selig to provide and handle horses.

The real Tom Mix and the Legend of Tom Mix are at times different. As a showman he tended to claim to have done things before his stardom that are either totally false or can’t be confirmed. While he was in the army during the Spanish-American War, he was not one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.

Of the reported 336 films he appeared in between 1910 and 1935, all but nine were silent. As the first Western star he defined the cowboy genre. All that followed has Tom Mix to thank. In the 1920′s he was among the highest paid film stars and one of the decade’s top box stars.

During a trip through the Arizona deserts on October 12, 1940, when he took a turn a bit too fast a suitcase stuck him in the head. He lost control of his 1937 Cord Sportsman car and plunged into a ravine. The ravine where Mix died has been named “The Tom Mix Wash” in his honor.