Selig Polyscope Studios

Colonel William Selig (1864-1948), a pioneer in the early motion picture industry, is credited with a number of important "firsts". In 1908, Selig filmed The Count of Monte Cristo, thought to be the first narrative film shot in Los Angeles, and in 1909, he established the first permanent Los Angeles motion picture studio, on Allesandro Street in Edendale. Selig-Polyscope may have been the first company to shoot a two-reel film (Damon and Pythias, 1908), and made the first true serial with their popular Adventures of Kathlyn series (1913-14), with their paradigmatic "cliff-hanger" endings. Many famous actors started at Selig-Polyscope, including Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Tom Mix, and G.M. "Bronco Billy" Anderson. Selig was also famous for animal films. In one notable 1909 film, Hunting Big Game in Africa, he recreated a lion hunt by President Theodore Roosevelt. Selig completed the film while Roosevelt was actually in Africa on safari. The film was released as soon as word was received that the President had actually slain a lion.

Though Selig started his Polyscope Film Co in Chicago, his associate Francis Boggs set up operations in Edendale in 1909, and the whole company would follow a few years later. The Selig-Polyscope Studio in Edendale was completed in 1910, featuring a mission-style facade adorning the front entrance, patterned after the bells at Mission San Gabriel. This set a style that would be echoed in the other studios in Edendale. 

In 1913, Selig acquired 32 acres of land near Lincoln Park (then known as Eastlake Park), and began to shift his operations to that new location. As Colonel Selig had acquired a sizable collection of wild animals to feature in his films, part of the new site was set up as a zoo, which eventually took on its own importance as a tourist attraction. In 1918, the Selig-Polyscope Company made its last film, but Colonel Selig continued to operate the zoo and to produce films independently up through the 1930's. When the zoo was closed, the animals were donated to the City of Los Angeles, forming the initial collection of the Griffith Park Zoo.

Meanwhile, back in Edendale, Selig leased his original studio lot to William Fox in 1916, who operated there until setting up the Fox studio lot on Sunset and Western the next year. Fox filmed Theda Bara in Cleopatra at the Edendale lot, as well as westerns starring Tom Mix (who had signed on with Fox). After Fox moved out, the Edendale lot served a series of studios, including Clara Kimball Young, Garson Studios (1920), and Marshal Neilan Studios (1925). In 1930, the lot, then abandoned but with its facade still standing, was the scene of an infamous rape. Within the next year, the site was demolished.

CREDITS

Biography of Colonel William Selig from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences / Margaret Herrick Library (Source: http://www.oscars.org/mhl/sc/selig_162.html)

History of Selig Zoo and Movie Studio (Soiurce: http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/lincolnpark/historyselig.html).

Hollywood Heritage on Francis Boggs and the establishment of the first studios in LA. (Source: http://www.hollywoodheritage.org/newsarchive/summer99/boggs.html)

Special thanks to Marc Wanamaker of Bison Archives.