Miami Studios and Early Film Production in South Florida

Abstract

This article examines the history of silent film production in south Florida with a focus on production context. Interest in south Florida as a site for film production increased around 1919 and flourished for several years. Production activity in south Florida in the early 1920s centered around Miami Studios in Hialeah, built in the summer of 1921. Within four short years, the facility had become virtually unutilized for film production. By reconstructing the events and processes surrounding the production of motion pictures filmed in south Florida—utilizing contemporaneous newspaper and magazine reports, business records and correspondences, and other extant archives—this study questions why film producers were interested in Florida and seeks to elucidate why this interest shifted by the end of the silent era. Focus will center around the production of D.W. Griffith’s The White Rose, filmed at Miami Studios during the 1922–23 winter season. This investigation demonstrates that the seasonality of Florida film production, despite the presence of industry heavyweight Griffith, ultimately led to the failure of Miami Studios to sustain long term operations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 David Morton, ‘The Heralds of the Dawn: A History of the Motion Picture Industry in the State of Florida, 1908 2019’ (PhD diss., University of Central Florida, 2019), 6.

2 Richard Alan Nelson, ‘Florida: The Forgotten Film Capital’, Journal of the University Film Association 29, no. 3 (summer 1977): 9.

3 Richard Alan Nelson, Lights! Camera! Florida! Ninety Years of Moviemaking and Television Production in the Sunshine State (Florida: Florida Endowment for the Humanities, 1991), 25.

4 Morton, ‘The Heralds of the Dawn’, 38.

5 Ibid., 67.

6 Richard Alan Nelson, ‘Florida and the American Motion Picture Industry, 1898–1980’ (PhD diss., Florida State University, 1962), 343.

7 Nelson, ‘Florida and the American Motion Picture Industry, 1898–1980’, 94.

8 Philip J. Weidling and August Burghard. Checkered Sunshine: The Story of Fort Lauderdale 1793–1955 (Gainesville: University of Flordia Press, 1966), 32–33, 52–53.

9 Benjamin B. Hampton, History of the American Film Industry From its Beginnings to 1931 (New York: Dover, 1970, originally published, 1931), 76.

10 Nelson, ‘Florida: The Forgotten Film Capital’, 11, 16.

11 Nelson, ‘Florida: The Forgotten Film Capital’, 12; Richard Alan Nelson, ‘Movie Mecca of the South: Jacksonville, Florida as an Early Rival to Hollywood’, Journal of Popular Film and Television 8, no. 3 (Fall 1980): 47.

12 Nelson, ‘Florida: The Forgotten Film Capital’, 17; Nelson, ‘Florida and the American Motion Picture Industry’, 354–55.

13 Richard Alan Nelson, ‘Palm Trees, Public Relations, and Promoters: Boosting Southeast Florida’s Motion Picture Empire, 1910–1930’, Florida Historical Quarterly 61, no. 4 (April 1983): 389. Nelson, ‘Florida and the American Motion Picture Industry’, 353.

14 Nelson, ‘Palm Trees, Public Relations, and Promoters’, 392.

15 Gregory W. Bush, ‘Playground of the USA: Miami and the Promotion of Spectacle’, Pacific Historic Review 69, no. 2 (May 1999): 154–55.

16 Bush, ‘Playground of the USA’, 158.

17 Ibid., 163.

18 Christina Lane, ‘Forging Florida’s Sun Screen: Architecture, Film, Orientalism, and the Settling of America’s Final Frontier’, Mississippi Quarterly 63, no. 3 (2010): 374, 376.

19 Jennifer Lynn Peterson, Education in the School of Dreams: Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012), 6, 217.

20 Nanna Verhoeff, The West in Early Cinema: After the Beginning (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006), 197–98.

21 Andrew Brodie Smith, Shooting Cowboys and Indians: Silent Western Films, American Culture, and the Birth of Hollywood (Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 2003), 64.

22 Morton, ‘The Heralds of the Dawn’, 21.

23 Nelson, ‘Florida and the American Motion Picture Industry’, 96–97.

24 Ibid., 345.

25 ‘Griffith Named as Sponsor: Producer Approves of Florida as a Producing Ground, It is Stated’, Motion Picture News XXII, no. 23 (27 November 1920): 4104.

26 ‘Four Griffith Studios Will Be Located in New York, California, Kentucky and Florida: Lloyd After Sites’, The Film Daily X, no. 27 (28 October 1919): 1.

27 Nelson, ‘Florida and the American Motion Picture Industry’, 413.

28 ‘Miami Motion Pictures’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, January 7, 1920, 12.

29 ‘Live Wire Producers Should Heed Demand for Scenic Variety: Florida Offers Great Wealth of Natural Beauty as Virgin Material for the Camera, Says James Beecroft’, Exhibitors Herald XII, no. 26 (24 December 1921): 145.

30 Scott Simmon, The Films of D.W. Griffith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 12–13.

31 Philip J. Weidling and August Burghard, Checkered Sunshine: The Story of Fort Lauderdale 1793–1955 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1966), 82.

32 G. W. Bitzer, Billy Bitzer: His Story (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973), 221.

33 ‘Ft. Lauderdale News’, The Miami Herald, 10 January 1920, 7.

34 ‘Griffith Named as Sponsor’, 4104.

35 Lane, 383–84, 388–89.

36 D. W. Griffith to E. G. Sewell, New York, NY, 11 July 1921.

37 Morton, ‘The Heralds of the Dawn’, 147.

38 ‘Accommodate 4 Companies in New Picture Studio’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 12 July 1921, 2.

39 ‘Live Wire Producers Should Heed Demand for Scenic Variety’, 145.

40 Morton, ‘The Heralds of the Dawn’, 147.

41 Nelson, ‘Florida and the American Motion Picture Industry’, 365.

42 ‘Hialeah City Hall Nears Completion’, The Miami Herald, 2 December 1925, 7.

43 ‘The Best Homes on Earth’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 12 February 1923, 8.

44 Lady Jane, ‘Romance of Past, Charm of Present and Dream of Future Combined in the Story of Hialeah’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 10 March 1923, 8.

45 Brian R. Jacobson, Studios Before the System: Architecture, Technology, and the Emergence of Cinematic Space (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015), 9.

46 Jacobson, Studios Before the System, 190.

47 Ibid., 185.

48 Ibid., 169.

49 Charles O’Brien, ‘Griffith’s Biograph Shorts: Electric Power and Film Style, from East to West’, in A Companion to D. W. Griffith, ed. Charlie Keil (Hoboken: Wiley, 2018), 150–51.

50 Mae Marsh to D.W. Griffith, Pasadena, CA, 3 February 1921.

51 D.W. Griffith to James M. Barrie, Mamaroneck, NY, 8 April 1921.

52 D.W. Griffith to Mae Marsh, Mamaroneck, NY, 27 April 1921.

53 Helen Klumph, ‘Griffith’s Choice’, Picture-Play Magazine XVIII, no. 3 (May 1923): 43, 86.

54 Klumph, ‘Griffith’s Choice’,43, 86.

55 Albert Grey to Albert H.T. Banzhaf, New York, NY, 23 November 1922.

56 Albert H.T. Banzhaf to D.W. Griffith, New York, NY, 15 May 1923.

57 D.W. Griffith to Ivor Novello, Mamaroneck, NY, 29 June 1923.

58 Albert Grey to Ivor Novello, New York, NY, 7 September 1923.

59 Richard Schickel, D.W. Griffith: An American Life (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), 480.

60 Susan Doll and David Morrow, Florida on Film: The Essential Guide to Sunshine State Cinema and Locations (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007), 34–35.

61 ‘Mae Marsh Again Seen in a Griffith Picture’, Newark News, Newark, NJ, 7 June 1923.

62 ‘Griffith on Filming Expedition’, Exhibitor’s Trade Review 13, no. 12 (17 February 1923): 603.

63 ‘City Items’, The Miami Herald, 16 January 1923, 16.

64 ‘Ince is Expected Today to Plan for New Film’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 6 January 1923, 15.

65 ‘Great Picture Director Here to Make Film’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 22 February 1923: 1.

66 ‘Griffith and Company Due in City Next Week’, The Miami Herald, 17 February 1923, 2.

67 J.C. Epping to A.H.T. Banzhaf, Miami, FL, 17 March 1923.

68 Central Union Trust Company Loan Agreement, 24 January 1923.

69 J.C. Epping to A.H.T. Banzhaf, Miami, FL, 16 February 1923.

70 J.C. Epping to A.H.T. Banzhaf, Miami, FL, 5 March 1923.

71 ‘D.W. Griffith’s Disregard for Smartness in Matter of Dress’, Newark News, Newark, NJ, 3 May 1923.

72 ‘28,000 Feet of Film Already “Shot” Here by David Wark Griffith’, The Miami Herald, 5 March 1923, 3.

73 D.W. Griffith to Mae Tinee, Mamaroneck, NY, 25 October 1923.

74 ‘Griffith Filming at Lauderdale Sunday’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 26 February 1923, 2.

75 ‘Griffith Says New River is Wonderful’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 3 March 1923, 2.

76 ‘Griffith Gives Praise’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 17 February 1923, 1.

77 ‘New Griffith Picture Nearing Completion’, The Miami Herald, 16 March 1923, 9.

78 ‘D.W. Griffith Talks of Motion Pictures’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 10 March 1923, 13.

79 Joan Mickelson, Joseph W. Young, Jr. and the City Beautiful: A Biography of the Founder of Hollywood, Florida (Jefferson and London: McFarland, 2013), 50–51.

80 Mickelson, Joseph W. Young, Jr. and the City Beautiful, 24.

81 ‘Interest Focused in Miami Studios’ Sale’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 30 January 1923, 3.

82 ‘Ince is Expected Today to Plan for New Film’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 6 January 1923, 15.

83 Jane, 8.

84 Ibid., 8. ‘28,000 Feet of Film Already “Shot” Here by David Wark Griffith’, The Miami Herald, 5 March 1923, 3.

85 ‘New Griffith Picture Nearing Completion’, The Miami Herald, 16 March 1923, 9.

86 D.W. Griffith Filming a Scene at Country Fair’, The Miami Daily Metropolis, 17 March 1923, 2.

87 ‘In the Field with Hotaling’, Moving Picture World 15, no. 2 (11 January 1913): 139–40.

88 Josh Glick, ‘Mixed Messages: D.W. Griffith and the Black Press, 1916–1931’, Film History 23, no. 2 (2011): 180.

89 Anne Morey, ‘Gendering Ministry and Reform: Griffith and the Plight of Protestant Uplift’, in A Companion to D.W. Griffith, ed. Charlie Keil (Hoboken: Wiley, 2018), 367.

90 ‘Hippodrome—D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation”’, The Miami Herald, 25 March 1923, 5.

91 ‘Appeal for Tolerance Made by D.W. Griffith’, The Miami Herald, 5 March 1923, 3.

92 Unknown newspaper clipping, February 18, 1923, in D.W. Griffith Papers, 1897–1954 (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America), microfilm.

93 Nelson, ‘Florida and the American Motion Picture Industry, 1898–1980’, 582–83.

94 ‘Griffith Says New River is Wonderful’, 2.

95 C.P. Weidling to D.W. Griffith, Tallahassee, FL, 21 April 1923.

96 ‘Big Winter’s Program for Miami Studios’, Miami News-Metropolis, 20 June 1923, 1.

97 ‘Tilford Plans Racing Movies During Winter’, Miami News-Metropolis, 18 August 1924, 1.

98 Nelson, ‘Florida and the American Motion Picture Industry, 1898–1980’, 358.

99 ‘Terwilliger with Brunton’, The Film Daily XXV, no. 12 (15 July 1923): 10.

100 ‘Physioc Starts on “Dreamers”‘, The Film Daily XXVI, no. 3 (3 October 1923): 3.

101 Nelson, ‘Palm Trees, Public Relations, and Promoters, 398–99.

102 Morton, ‘The Heralds of the Dawn’, 95.

103 ‘Suit on Studios Brought for Notes’, Miami News-Metropolis, 2 May 1929, 15.

104 ‘New Manager Engaged for Miami Studio’, Miami News-Metropolis, 17 October 1923, 1.

105 ‘Miami Studios Reopen’, The Billboard, 1 December 1923, 79.

106 ‘Cinema Park: A New Development Opening Tomorrow’, Miami News-Metropolis, 24 April 1925, 40.

107 Reginald A. Owen to D.W. Griffith, Miami, FL, 23 October 1923.

108 ‘Local Block is Bought By D.W. Griffith’, Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 30 November 1925, 1.

109 ‘Message From Griffith’, The Miami Herald, 8 December 1925, 8.

110 ‘Collie, Persian Cat Play Leads in Miami Movie’, Miami News-Metropolis, 9 February 1925, 1.

111 ‘Miami Studio Near 12-month Filming Basis’, Miami News-Metropolis, 6 February 1925, 1.

112 ‘Film Shorts’, The Billboard, 11 July 1925, 47.

113 Nelson, ‘Florida: The Forgotten Film Capital’, 18.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alex W. Bordino

Alex W. Bordino is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Nova Southeastern University. His research has appeared in Journal of Screenwriting, Film & History, Journal of Film and Video, and The Journal of American Culture.