In Old California (1910)
released 10th March 1910
Cast:
Frank Powell
Arthur V. Johnson
Marion Leonard
Henry B. Walthall
Mack Sennett
Francis J. Grandon
In Old California (1910)
Western, Drama, Short
17m
American Mutoscope & Biograph
Director:
D. W. Griffith
Writer:
No writer credited
"A Romance of the Spanish Dominion"
Film historians often say Hollywood evolved when independent filmmakers moved west to escape the aggressive tactics of the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC). There is some truth in this: if the MPPC considered legal action ineffective, it enforced its monopoly of the film industry by force and intimidation. But Biograph, a member of the Trust, was the first studio to shoot a film entirely within the boundaries of Hollywood. The harsh East Coast winters made film production difficult, so D.W. Griffith and a company of actors and crew departed for sun-drenched California in January 1910.
One notable absentee was Owen Moore, who was by then involved with Griffith’s leading lady, Mary Pickford. Griffith had refused Moore’s demand for a $10 raise for going west. As a result, the actor’s days at Biograph were over, although he was there to see off his sweetheart. Pickford’s mother also tried to wrangle a similar raise for her daughter as the company was about to board the ferry. She backed down when Griffith pointed out that Gertrude Robinson was ready to take Pickford’s place at a moment’s notice – and without a pay raise.
The company rented studio space on an empty lot in Los Angeles at the corner of Grand Avenue and Washington Street, where workmen constructed an open-air wooden stage. Mary Pickford remembered, “Our stage consisted on an acre of ground, fenced in, and a large wooden platform, hung with cotton shades that were pulled on wires overhead. On a windy day our clothes and curtains on the set would flap loudly in the breeze. Studios were all on open lots — roofless and without walls, which explains the origin of the term ‘on the lot.’”
Griffith, his wife Linda Arvidsen and the lead actors stayed at the Alexandria Hotel. Biograph expected the rest of the company to pay for board at a local rooming house out of their $2.00 daily allowance.
D. W. Griffith
Hollywood circa 1910
They filmed their first film, The Thread of Destiny, at the mission in San Gabriel. The second film, In Old California, was a short melodrama set in Spanish California and was the first movie ever filmed completely in Hollywood. The town had experienced rapid growth in the preceding three years: its population had increased from 1,000 to 5,000. Griffith chose it because he wanted to shoot in the Hollywood hills, and there was a convenient inn in Hollywood from which he could rent dressing rooms. Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard, Frank Powell and Henry B. Walthall starred.
Hollywood in 1910 was a vastly different place from the thriving entertainment hub we know today. In the early years of the 20th century, it was a sleepy suburban village surrounded by citrus groves, vineyards and barley fields. Locals who wanted to visit Los Angeles, ten miles to the west, took the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad, a journey of approximately two hours. Few residents owned cars; most were farmers and orchard workers. Hollywood Boulevard was just a dirt road named Prospect Avenue, bordered by wooden stores with boardwalks out front. A scattering of pepper trees lined the route. The Hollywood Hotel on the corner of Highland Avenue and Prospect Avenue provided a rare example of modern elegance. Local property developer H.J. Whitley built the two-story wood-frame building in 1902 to accommodate potential land buyers.
A Biograph ad in Moving Picture World for the 17-minute film described the plot: “The story told in this Biograph subject is of the early days of Southern California before and after Mexican independence was proclaimed. A young Mexican girl rejects her Spanish suitor in favor of a handsome young Mexican troubadour, only to rue it, for her husband proves to be a disreputable wretch. Twenty years later we find her in profound distress as to the future of her young son. The father’s conduct being anything but exemplary, she intercedes with her former sweetheart, who is now Governor, and he takes him into his army. Here the blood of the father is evident in the son, for he is a born profligate. Still, the Governor keeps this from the mother, who dies believing her son a hero.”
The film was believed lost for many years, but in 2001 Biograph announced it was working on restoring the picture. The restored print premiered at the Beverly Hills Film Festival in 2004. On 6th May 2004, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery erected a monument to the film at 1713 Vine Street, near to where Griffith filmed it 94 years before. The 2.8 tonne monument was stolen in April 2005, only to reappear almost a year later near a dumpster close to where it originally stood.