DALE HAWES

   If you are in Chicago and go to 3900 N Claremont Ave. (It’s on the north side of the city of Chicago by Western and Irving Park.) At this address is a yellow brick condo building that has an “S” in cement over the main entrance on the Claremont side of the building. The “S” stands for “The Selig Polyscope Company” from around the year 1900. Selig Polyscope Company was the first motion picture company to ever exist in the city of Chicago and one of the first in the world. In 1900s Selig Polyscope Company owned the whole block and the condo building I mentioned had a 3 story high glass house on top of the building to let sunlight spill in because the structure was a film studio. The Glass roof was needed because in the very early 1900s sunlight was the best way to get enough light on your subject in order to burn an image on film. 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. Also noteworthy: The first “Wizard of Oz” was shot at this studio released in 1925. This is not the Judy Garland version from 1939 but the silent film version that staring Dorothy Dwan.

 

   Now at 1345 W. Argyle St. you will be on the campus of St. Augustine College and above the main entrance of that building you will find the word “Essanay” Essanay was an important motion picture studio because for one, Gloria Swanson started her film career there as a background extra and also noteworthy: Charlie Chaplin shot one of his first films, “His New Job” (1915). This film was part of a franchise called The Essanay Comedies of witch Chaplin worked on many. However due to a conflict with a producer he refused to work at the Chicago location after that film and continued west to the Essanay Studios in Niles, California. Essanay stands for S & A witch are the initials of founders George K. Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson. "Broncho Billy" was a franchise considered to be the first western. It was shot at Essanay.
 

   Today both of these locations have changed to other purposes but there are many other production companies and film studios In the Chicagoland area that have taken their place.

​

- D. Hawes