Christie Film Company was an American pioneer motion picture company founded in

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

by Al Christie and Charles Christie, two brothers from

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

, Canada. It made comedies. While Charles served almost exclusively in administration, it was Al Christie who made the films. Al had worked with

David Horsley David Horsley (March 11, 1873 – February 23, 1933) was an English pioneer of the film industry. He founded the Centaur Film Company and its West Coast branch, the Nestor Film Company, which established the first film studio in Hollywood in ...

at his Centaur Film Company in Bayonne,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

and moved to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

on October 27, 1911 to run

Nestor Studios The Nestor Film Company, originally known as the Nestor Motion Picture Company, was an American motion picture production company. It was founded in 1909 as the West Coast production unit of the Centaur Film Company located in Bayonne, New Jersey ...

, the first ever motion picture studio in Hollywood. The firm closed in 1933.

The Christies in Hollywood

In June 1912, Nestor Studios became part of the newly formed Universal Film Company and Al Christie was put in charge of the comedy companies. He remained with Universal Film until January 1916 at which time he and his brother, Charles Christie, formed their own movie studio named the Christie Film Company. The two rented facilities from Universal at

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in ...

and Gower Street, the place where Al Christie had first started in Hollywood. For the first six months of operations, the new Christie Film Company made comedies under a contract with Universal Film. In July of that year, the company began producing other comedies to sell to the independent distributors and their immediate success was such that they were soon able to finance the acquisition of their studio property. Within a short time, the Christie brothers doubled their stage capacity and constructed a film laboratory equipped with the latest in technology. Unlike some of the "over the top comedies" being produced at the time, Christie Studios emphasized situational comedy that sometimes featured show girls in skimpy costumes. As comedy specialists, the Christie Film Company debuted comedy actors

Harold Lloyd Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary '' Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55. One of the most influential film c ...

Fatty Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked w ...

, Anita Garvin and

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

actor

Spencer Williams Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", " Royal Garden Blues", " I've Found a New ...

, later known for his portrayal of Andy Brown in the '' Amos & Andy"'' CBS Television series. The innovative Christie company began issuing ''Film Follies'', a magazine advertising the latest films and events at the studio. In 1921, Canadian

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

was a driving force behind the creation of the Motion Picture Relief Fund, an organization designed to help actors who had fallen on hard times. Christie Film Company supported this and Charles Christie played a major role, serving on the first Board of Trustees. By 1922, the brothers were so successful that they set up Christie Realty Corporation with $1 million in capital stock. The Christie brothers welcomed Canadian talent and stars such as Marie Dressler and

Marie Prevost Marie Prevost (born Marie Bickford Dunn; November 8, 1896 – January 21, 1937) was a Canadian-born film actress. During her 20-year career, she made 121 silent and sound films. Prevost began her career during the silent film era. She was d ...

appeared in their films and became personal lifelong friends. In 1928, they hired

Florence Ryerson Florence Ryerson (September 20, 1892 – June 8, 1965) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and co-author of the script for the 1939 film ''The Wizard of Oz''.'' Between 1915 and 1927 she published more than 30 short stories and then joined ...

to write several short films, including ''Hot Lemonade''. Al Christie also hired

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

as a sound technician but soon recognized Williams' many talents and involved him in script writing. In early 1929, the Christie Film Company began making the first series of talking pictures written and conceived exclusively for

performers. They produced a number of comedy-musical shorts that featured an all-black cast from the Lafayette Players Stock Company out of

Harlem, New York Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harl ...

. The films, based on the popular Saturday Evening Post's ''Darktown Birmingham'' stories by

Octavus Roy Cohen Octavus Roy Cohen (1891–1959) was an early 20th century American writer specializing in ethnic comedies. His dialect comedy stories about African Americans gained popularity after being published in the ''Saturday Evening Post'' and were ada ...

(1891-1959), were distributed by

Paramount Studios Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest ...

Demise of company

However, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression devastated many businesses and in January 1933, the Christie brothers companies went into receivership and their studio assets were acquired by another large film making company.

Gallery of Female Christie Comics

File:Teddy Sampson 01.JPG, Teddy Sampson File:Dorothy Devore From Famous Film Folk.jpg,

Dorothy Devore Dorothy Devore (born Alma Inez Williams; June 22, 1899 – September 10, 1976) was an American silent film actress and comedian. Early life Born as Alma Inez Williams in Fort Worth, Texas, on June 22, 1899, her family soon moved to Los Angele ...

File:Ann Christy 1927.jpg, Ann Christy File: Duane Thompson Hartsook.jpg,

Duane Thompson Duane Thompson (born Lura Duane Malony; July 28, 1903 – August 15, 1970) was an American film actress during Hollywood's silent film era. When Talkies pushed silent films into the background, she worked in stock theater for a time befo ...

References

*Paul Zollo, ''Hollywood Remembered'' *Gregory Paul Williams, ''The Story of Hollywood By Gregory Paul Williams'', page 62

External links

List of Christie Film Company films at IMDB
{{Authority control Mass media companies established in 1916 Mass media companies disestablished in 1933 Defunct American film studios Defunct organizations based in Hollywood, Los Angeles 1916 establishments in California 1933 disestablishments in California Film production companies of the United States Film studios in Southern California