Edwin August
Home
Biography
Filmography
Film Stills and Video
Hobbies
Photos
More Photos and Credits
Photos
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939) Columbia.
eabsmithgoestowashcropped.jpg

Edwin, Pageboy Richard Jones and James Stewart.

EDWIN AUGUST NOW A COMPOSER OF MUSIC. Among the many other accomplishments of writing over 300 scenarios, author of short stories, playwright, star of the legitimate and motion picture stages and successful motion picture director. Edwin August’s latest accomplishment is writing the words and music to the song entitled, “Honey Teach Me How to Fox Trot.” He is probably the only photoplay celebrity that has ever succeeded in publishing a song the words and music of which he has personally written. MOVING PICTURE WORLD May 20, 1916.

eabdirectingcropped.jpg

^ Edwin in his directing mode. Unsure of the film or others in photo.

AUGUST DIRECTING FILM IN COLORS. Edwin August, one of the screen stars of ten years ago, is back in Hollywood and wielding the well-known megaphone. He is directing “Movie Madness,” and original story by himself, photographed in natural colors. August has been perfecting a process for filming in natural colors for the past twelve years. He now contends he has it down letter perfect and promises an unusual picture in “Movie Madness.” United Color Pictures, Inc will release the finished picture. MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 2, 1927.

eabgroupcourtroomcropped.jpg

^ Late in his career from an unknown movie, Edwin in the center of this photo.

"Edwin August wrote and directed and played both roles in A STOLEN IDENTITY (1913), where his special achievement was said to be filming the two men he played walking and talking together along a sidewalk. As the film has not survived, it is not known whether that might have meant a tracking shot, which would indeed have complicated the trick." The Transformation of Cinema, Eileen Bowser.

The Romance of An Actor (1914) Powers
eaboconnorshepardcropped.jpg
Edwin, Alice O'Connor and Iva Shepard

"At about that time a local company financed a New York actor to make a picture called The Hoosier Schoolmaster. He was to direct it and play the lead. Edwin August was his name and I got the job as his assistant director. The group of men who financed him retained a very famous Los Angeles attorney who came out every day to watch the picture and see that the money was well spent. He couldn't talk to the director because the director was also the leading man and much too busy. He talked to me." -Hal Roach Sr. excerpt from the book The Real Tinsel by Bernard Rosenber and Harry Silverstein.

eatwixtlove.jpg

Moving Picture World noted that "at the close of The Last Straw the two chief characters appear before the curtain in real life fashion to receive the applause of the audience" (November 1910) and confirmed response to a letter of 1911 that Edison, Vitagraph, and Selig among others introduced actors by such a method at "the beginning of important reels" (July 1911). The introduction of Edwin August and Ormi Hawley in 'Twixt Love and Ambition from 1912 verifies Lubin engaged in this practice as well. - exerpt from page 146 of Charlie Keil's Wisconsin Press book "Early American Cinema in Transition". 


TOP

HOME