Lights, camera, action! Springfield was epicenter of movie world in early 1900s when Jacksonville was first ‘Hollywood’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Nowadays, Hollywood is the movie-making capital of the world. However had Los Angeles not lured filmmakers to go west, we may be listening to “Lights, Digital camera, Motion!” in Jacksonville, and the River Metropolis might have been the film-making capital of the world.

We all know what our modern-day Jacksonville skyline seems like. Let your thoughts wander a bit and journey again in time. Within the early 1900s, there have been film manufacturing studios proper right here within the River Metropolis.

Again within the day, silent movie stars could possibly be seen strolling down Major Road in Springfield. Instantly, crowds would collect to observe. They might encounter stars, together with Babe Hardy. He began his movement image profession in Jacksonville in 1914.

Among the many different silent movie stars who made motion pictures in Jacksonville have been Rudolph Valentino and Lionel and Ethel Barrymore.

It was primarily impartial filmmakers who flocked to Jacksonville. They got here right here due to the local weather, unique places, structure, and rail entry.

“Properly, Jacksonville turned actually what was often known as the winter movie capital of the world,” stated Jim Kerkhoff, a movie historian. “And this occurred round 1908. Many of the manufacturing again in 1908 was executed up within the New York/New Jersey space.

“What was taking place, although, within the wintertime, they have been out of luck,” Kerkhoff defined. “It was chilly. That created issues with the cameras. The movie inventory would freeze up, fog up. So there was a direct rail line that got here from New York all the way down to Jacksonville as a result of that carried vacationers, rich vacationers, all the way down to the realm. And anyone thought, effectively, let’s do some filming down there, by way of with the ability to shoot year-round.”

In 1920, Richard Norman was producing movies. Norman, who was white, didn’t like the best way Black actors have been all the time portrayed in subservient roles. He needed to vary that.

So when he moved to Jacksonville and established his studio right here he produced a film in 1926, “The Flying Ace.” It employed an all-African-American forged and was proven particularly to African-American audiences.

“He believed that folks should be handled proper,” stated Rita Reagan, government director of Norman Studios. “And so they should be portrayed appropriately.

“A number of the motion pictures that have been made by the businesses that have been right here in Jacksonville, I gained’t point out the names of, you understand, they have been so terrible. And he hated that,” Reagan stated. “And he thought that he might make one thing that might painting African Individuals as they actually have been. And never as some racists noticed them — the stereotypes.”

The movie was made in Jacksonville on the website the place Norman Studios was refurbished for historical past’s sake. And the aircraft taxied proper by way of an space previous what was then the wardrobe constructing off what’s now a residential website off Arlington Avenue, blocks from the bustling Arlington Expressway.

“The wardrobe cottage was the place lots of the individuals who got here to be in Richard’s motion pictures would really keep,” stated Reagan. “In the event that they have been a married couple, they’d keep there. In the event that they have been two singles, as a result of he all the time introduced stars to city to be in his motion pictures.”

Norman Studios made motion pictures right here for about 10 years, however when the silent period ended, it by no means made the transition to “talkies.”

So why did Jacksonville lose out on being Hollywood East? Properly, it appears the residents who lived right here on the time have been characterised as being reasonably conservative.

“What occurred was, basically, Jacksonville actually was a hub of manufacturing for a lot of, a few years, a whole lot of exercise right here, the movement image folks type of wore out their welcome,” Kerkhoff stated. “As a result of what they’d do could be they do stunts the place they’d name in a false fireplace alarm, arrange a digicam throughout from the fireplace station to get the racing engine out of the storage. There was one notorious one the place one of many manufacturing corporations staged a mob scene downtown. And it bought uncontrolled, and it became a mob. And so they’re breaking storefront home windows and that type of factor. That didn’t go over effectively. Plus, they’d go into areas of city on Sunday when all people else is in church.”

Consequently, the filmmaking business in Jacksonville dwindled. You additionally had a mayor who took workplace who didn’t take kindly to the film makers. An influenza epidemic in 1918 didn’t assist, nor did World Struggle I.

Then there was Hollywood’s glamour. All that proved an excessive amount of for Jacksonville.

Whereas there’s some filmmaking that also goes on within the space, Jacksonville by no means regained its former glory nor turned Hollywood East as had been hoped again within the early 1900s.