A Star is Born – Gloria Swanson at Essanay

Young Gloria Swanson

Thanks to my recent work with Essanay, I was given the exciting opportunity to pen a series of blog posts for the wonderful Classic Movie Hub site. The third post is live, and all about Chicago's own Gloria Swanson and her time with Essanay. Here's an excerpt to get you started:

Born in Chicago on March 27, 1899, Gloria May Josephine Swanson was born just six years after Thomas Edison held his first public exhibition of Kinetograph films, and the Pathe-Freres was founded. She matured as the movies matured, but she did not intend on becoming a movie star. Her father was a civilian supply officer with the army, which caused the family to move from Chicago to Florida and even Puerto Rico. In 1914 they returned to Chicago, and by this time, the city’s own Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was a major contender in the film industry. One day, Swanson toured the studio with her aunt. It was this tour that, fellow Essanay star Rod La Rocque later said, inspired her to become a photoplayer.

You can read the entire post over at the Classic Movie Hub by clicking here.

Gilbert M. Anderson and the Rise of the Western Star

G.M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson

Thanks to my recent work with Essanay, I was given the exciting opportunity to pen a series of blog posts for the wonderful Classic Movie Hub site. The second post is live, and all about Broncho Billy himself. Here's an excerpt to get you started:

G.M. Anderson, best known by his onscreen persona of Broncho Billy, holds a special place in film history. Not only did he have multiple roles in one of the most iconic silent films of all time, “The Great Train Robbery,” he also co-founded Essanay Studios, discovered a number of iconic silent film stars and created a character archetype that spawned an entire genre of film. Anderson’s persona and image became so entwined with that of cowboy Broncho Billy, that audiences truly believed he’d been a rough rider all of his life. In actuality, he was a stage actor who’d grown up in St. Louis.

You can read the entire post over at the Classic Movie Hub by clicking here.