The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by

William Selig William Nicholas Selig (March 14, 1864 – July 15, 1948) was a pioneer of the American motion picture industry. In 1896 he created one of the first film production companies, Selig Polyscope Company of Chicago. Selig produced a string of co ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring Tom Mix, Harold Lloyd, Colleen Moore, and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Selig Polyscope also established

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles. Ending film production in 1918, the business, based on its film production animals, became an animal and prop supplier to other studios and a

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to z ...

and amusement park attraction in

East Los Angeles East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purpo ...

until the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

in the 1930s. In 1947, William Selig and several other early movie producers and directors shared a special Academy Honorary Award to acknowledge their role in building the film industry.

History

General view of Selig Polyscope Company, studio and backlot, 1911

William Selig had worked as a magician and minstrel show operator on the west coast in

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 ...

. Later on, in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, he entered the film business using his own photographic equipment, free from

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

restrictions imposed through companies controlled by

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

. In 1896, with help from Union Metal Works and Andrew Schustek, he shot his first film, ''Tramp and the Dog''. He went on to successfully produce local actualities,

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such ...

comedies, early travelogues and industrial films (a major client was

Armour and Company Armour & Company was an American company and was one of the five leading firms in the meat packing industry. It was founded in Chicago, in 1867, by the Armour brothers led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's most ...

). In 1908 Selig Polyscope was involved in the production of '' The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays'', a touring "multimedia" attempt to bring L. Frank Baum's Oz books to a wider public (which played to full houses but was nonetheless a financial disaster for Baum). By 1909 Selig had studios making short features in Chicago and the Edendale district of Los Angeles. The company also distributed stock film footage and titles from other studios. That year, Roscoe Arbuckle's first movie was a Selig comedy short. The company's early existence was fraught with legal turmoil over disputes with lawyers representing

's interests. In 1909 Selig and several other studio heads settled with Edison by creating an alliance with the inventor. Effectively a cartel, Motion Picture Patents Company dominated the industry for a few years until the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

(in 1913 and 1915) ruled the firm was an illegal

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

. In 1910 Selig Polyscope produced a wholly new filmed version of '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. The company produced the first commercial two-reel film, '' Damon and Pythias'', successfully distributed its pictures in Great Britain and maintained an office in London for several years before World War I. Although Selig Polyscope produced a wide variety of moving pictures, the company was most widely known for its wild animal shorts, historical subjects and early westerns.

Edendale

Attracted by Southern California's mild, dry climate, varied geography for location shooting and isolation from Edison's legal representatives on the east coast, Selig set up his studio in Edendale in 1909 with director

Francis Boggs Francis Winter Boggs (March 1870 – October 27, 1911) was an American stage actor and pioneer silent film director. He was one of the first to direct a film in Hollywood. Biography He was born in Santa Rosa, California to George W. Boggs and ...

, who began the facility in a rented bungalow and quickly expanded, designing the studio's front entrance after Mission San Gabriel. Selig Polyscope Company studio ca

An early production there was '' The Count of Monte Cristo''. Edendale soon became Selig Polyscope's headquarters, but in 1911 Boggs was murdered by a Japanese gardener who also wounded Selig. The company produced hundreds of short features at Edendale, including many early westerns featuring Tom Mix (which were also shot at Las Vegas, New Mexico). Selig Polyscope made dozens of highly successful short movies involving wild animals in exotic settings, including a popular re-creation of an African safari hunt by Teddy Roosevelt. In 1914 Selig made 14 short experimental "

talking pictures A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

" with Scottish actor Harry Lauder.

The "cliffhanger"

In 1913, through a collaborative partnership with the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'', Selig produced ''

The Adventures of Kathlyn ''The Adventures of Kathlyn'' (1913) is an American motion picture serial released on December 29, 1913, by the Selig Polyscope Company. An adventure serial filmed in Chicago, Illinois, its thirteen episodes were directed by Francis J. Grandon ...

'', introducing a dramatic serial plot device which came to be known as the cliffhanger. Each chapter's story was simultaneously published in the newspaper. A combination of wild animals, clever dramatic action and

Kathlyn Williams Kathlyn Williams (born Kathleen Mabel Williams, May 31, 1879 – September 23, 1960) was an American actress, known for her blonde beauty and daring antics, who performed on stage as well as in early silent film. She began her career onstage in ...

' screen presence resulted in significant success. The ''Tribune''’s circulation reportedly increased by 10% and both dance and cocktail were named after Williams, whose likeness was reportedly sold on over 50,000

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as woo ...

Hearst-Selig News Pictorial

Hearst-Selig News Pictorial was established in 1914 by the Selig Polyscope Company and the Hearst Corporation. Hearst-Selig News Pictorial, No. 104 was released in US theaters by the General Film Company on December 30, 1915. After this release , the partnership between Hearst and Selig broke up: Selig continued to produce newsreels in collaboration with the

while Hearst made use of Vitagraph to produce the Hearst-Vitagraph News Pictorial series.

V-L-S-E, Incorporated

In 1915, Selig entered into an agreement with Vitagraph Studios, Lubin Manufacturing Company, and Essanay Studios to form a film distribution partnership known as

V-L-S-E, Incorporated Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907 ...

Selig zoo

Asian elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo, ca

By 1913 Selig had gathered a large collection of animals for his films and spent substantial funds acquiring and developing of land in Lincoln Heights northeast of downtown

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, where he opened a large public

. Circa 1915, the

Selig Zoo The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring To ...

held a five-year-old orangutan called Prince Chang. He supposedly lived in a castle with a southern exposure and its own garden; his enclosure was said to be electrically heated. He appeared in a one-reel Selig film called ''The Orang-Outang''. Described as "enormous," Chang did not immediately take to the rigors of film production. He reportedly chased costar George Larkin around the studio while brandishing a cane, and wrecked two sets. Eventually, furniture made of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuri ...

bolted to the floor allowed production to continue. Two of the keepers at the Selig Zoo were brothers Clarence and Melvin Koontz. A noted historian of American circuses and circus elephants, Chang Reynolds, worked at the Selig Zoo as a young man. In 1917 Selig sold the Edendale facility to producer William Fox and moved his movie studio to the zoo in East Los Angeles. Meanwhile, World War I cut severely into the substantial revenues Selig Polyscope had been garnering in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the company shunned profitable movie industry trends, which had shifted towards

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

tic (and more costly) full length

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

s. Selig Polyscope became insolvent and ceased operations in 1918. Mix signed with Fox back at Edendale and went on to even greater success as a matinée

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaqu ...

star. Movie studios rented animals and staged many shoots at the Selig zoo (sometimes later claiming they had been filmed in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

). The First

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

movie (1918) was filmed there. In 1920 Louis B. Mayer rented his first studio space for Mayer Pictures at the site. Selig planned to develop it into a major tourist attraction,

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

and popular resort named Selig Zoo Park with a Ferris wheel, carousels, mechanical rides, an enormous swimming pool with a sandy beach and a wave making machine, hotel, theatre, cinema, restaurants and thousands of daily visitors (more than 30 years before

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisio ...

). Only a single carousel was built. Selig Polyscope's extensive collection of props and furnishings were auctioned off at the zoo in 1923. Selig finally sold the zoo following a flood during the

. Some of the animals were donated to

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

, forming a substantial addition to Griffith Park Zoo. The property was used as a jalopy racetrack during the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1955 the site was described as "an inactive amusement park." Throughout its history, names appearing on the zoo gate included: :Selig Zoo and Studio :Selig Zoo :Selig Jungle Zoo :Luna Park Zoo :California Zoological Gardens :Zoopark :Lincoln Amusement Park The carousel survived on the site until 1976 when it was destroyed by fire. The former Selig zoo's arched front gate with its lavish animal sculptures was a crumbling landmark in Lincoln Heights for many decades. By 2003 the sculptures were reportedly being restored for installation at the Los Angeles Zoo and in 2007 tennis courts were on the site.

Legacy

Academy library

In the late 1940s, Selig made a large donation of business records to the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

Library. The William Selig papers, together with the donation, include Selig's correspondence, scripts, scrapbooks, production files and six feet of photographs that include production stills from over 500 films that are otherwise lost (only about 225 of the over 3,500 films released by Selig between 1896 and 1938 have survived into the present day). This collection still requires further study.

Lost films

The potential of movies as long term sources of revenue was unknown to early movie industry executives. Films were made quickly, sent into distribution channels and mostly forgotten soon after their first runs. Surviving prints were typically stored haphazardly, if at all. Nitrate film stock, in common use until the mid-20th Century, was chemically volatile and many prints were lost in fires or decomposed in storage. Some were recycled for their

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

content or simply thrown away to save space. Out of Selig Polyscope's hundreds of films, only a few copies and scattered photographic elements are known to survive.

Partial filmography

Release flier for LOST IN THE ARCTIC, 1911

Release flier for THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER, 1913

Selig Wamba Child of The Jungle movie poster (1913)

*'' The Tramp and the Dog'' (1896) *'' Soldiers at Play'' (1898) *'' Something Good – Negro Kiss'' (1898) *''

Chicago Police Parade (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

'' (1901) *'' Dewey Parade'' (1901) *'' Gans-McGovern Fight'' (1901) *'' Fun at the Glenwood Springs Pool'' (1902) *'' A Hot Time on a Bathing Beach'' (1903) *'' Business Rivalry'' (1903) *'' Chicago Fire Run'' (1903) *'' Chicago Firecats on Parade'' (1903) *'' The Girl in Blue'' (1903) *'' Trip Around The Union Loop'' (1903) *'' View of State Street'' (1903) *''

Tracked by Bloodhounds; or, A Lynching at Cripple Creek ''Tracked by Bloodhounds; or, A Lynching at Cripple Creek'' is a 1904 silent crime drama short film directed by Harry Buckwalter. Plot The film is set at a gold mining camp in Cripple Creek, Colorado Cripple Creek is a statutory city that ...

'' (1904) (survives) *'' Humpty Dumptry'' (1904) *'' The Tramp Dog'' (1904) *'' The Hold-Up of the Leadville Stage'' (1904) *'' The Grafter'' (1907) *'' The Count of Monte Cristo'' (1908) *'' Damon and Pythias'' (1908) *'' The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays'' (1908) *'' Briton and Boer'' (1909) *'' Hunting Big Game in Africa'' (1909) *'' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1910) (survives) *'' The Sergeant'' (1910) (survives) *''

The Way of the Eskimo ''The Way of the Eskimo'' is a Lost film, lost 1911 American Silent film, silent drama film that portrayed the Inuit or "Eskimo" culture of northeastern Canada along the coast of Labrador. Directed by William V. Mong and produced by Selig Polysc ...

'' (1911) *'' Lost in the Arctic'' (1911) *'' Life on the Border'' (1911) (partial section survives) *'' The Coming of Columbus'' (1911) *'' Brotherhood of Man'' (1912) *'' Kings of the Forest'' (1912) *''

War Time Romance War is an intense armed conflict between State (polity), states, governments, Society, societies, or paramilitary groups such as Mercenary, mercenaries, Insurgency, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violenc ...

'' (1912) *''

'' (1913) *'' Arabia, the Equine Detective'' (1913) *''

The Devil and Tom Walker "The Devil and Tom Walker" is a short story by Washington Irving that first appeared in his 1824 collection '' Tales of a Traveller'', in "The Money-Diggers" part of volume II. The story is very similar to the German legend of Faust. Stephen Vi ...

'' (1913) *'' The Sheriff of Yavapai County'' (1913) *''

Wamba A Child of the Jungle ''Wamba A Child of the Jungle'' is a 1913 silent short 2 reel film directed by Colin Campbell and released by the Selig Polyscope Company. Cast *Tom Santschi as Portuguese Pete *Bessie Eyton as Wamba * Frank Clark as Dr. Rice *Eugenie Besserer ...

'' (1913) *'' The Spoilers'' (1914) (survives) *'' A Black Sheep'' (1915) *'' House of a Thousand Candles'' (1915) *'' The Man from Texas'' (1915) *''

The Crisis ''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Mi ...

'' (1916) *'' The Garden of Allah'' (1916) *'' The City of Purple Dreams'' (1918) *'' Little Orphant Annie'' (1918)

References

External links

Lincoln Heights page with pictures of recovered statues
*
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
' (one of Selig Polyscope Company's few surviving films) download at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Authority control Entertainment companies established in 1896 Mass media companies established in 1896 Mass media companies disestablished in 1918 Silent film studios Defunct American film studios American silent films by studio Film studios in Southern California Entertainment companies based in California Companies based in Los Angeles Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles Film production companies of the United States Film production companies established in the 1890s