Flickering Empire

How Chicago Invented the U.S. Film Industry

Michael Glover Smith, Adam Selzer

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Hardback

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English

Columbia University Press
20 January 2015

Film, TV & Radio; Film movie production: technical skills; Cinema industry

Flickering Empire tells the fascinating yet little-known story of how Chicago served as the unlikely capital of American film production in the years before the rise of Hollywood (1907–1913). As entertaining as it is informative, Flickering Empire straddles the worlds of academic and popular nonfiction in its vivid illustration of the rise and fall of the major Chicago movie studios in the mid-silent era (principally Essanay and Selig Polyscope). Colorful, larger-than-life historical figures, including Thomas Edison, Charlie Chaplin, Oscar Micheaux, and Orson Welles, are major players in the narrative-in addition to important though forgotten industry titans, such as ""Colonel"" William Selig, George Spoor, and Gilbert ""Broncho Billy"" Anderson.

By: Michael Glover Smith, Adam Selzer
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 156mm, Width: 234mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 510g
ISBN: 9780231174480
ISBN 10: 0231174489
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 20 January 2015
Audience: College/higher education , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgements Foreword, by Susan Doll Persons Discussed in Flickering Empire Preface: Hollywood Before Hollywood Part 1. Thomas Edison, Invention and the Dawn of a New Chicago 1. Edison's Kinetoscope and Pre-Motion-Picture Entertainment 2. The Columbian Exposition 3. The Dawn of Exhibition Part 2. Chicago Rising 4. Colonel William Selig 5. George Spoor, George Kleine, and the Rise of the Nickelodeon 6. Gilbert ""Broncho Billy"" Anderson 7. The Edison Trust Part 3. The Golden Age of Chicago Film Production 8. The Golden Age of Essanay 9. The Golden Age of Selig Polyscope 10. Essanay Signs Charlie Chaplin 11. Chaplin in Chicago: His New Job Part 4. It All Came Crashing Down 12. The Decline of the Chicago Studios 13. Major M. L. C. Funkhouser and the Chicago Censorship Code Epilogue Post-Script: Oscar and Orson Appendix A: Selig Polyscope's Pointers on Picture Acting Appendix B: A Complete List of the Extant Chicago-Shot Films Named in This Book and Where to See Them Appendix C: Some Censored Scenes of Chicago Films Noted in Local Newspapers Endnotes Index

Michael Glover Smith is an independent filmmaker whose most recent films, At Last, Okemah! (2009) and The Catastrophe (2011), have won multiple awards at film festivals across the United States. He has taught film history and aesthetics at Oakton Community College, Triton College, Harold Washington College, and the College of Lake County, and lectures at Northwestern University and Facets Multimedia. Adam Selzer lives in Chicago and is a tour guide and the author of several books on history and folklore, including The Smart Aleck's Guide to American History.

Reviews for Flickering Empire: How Chicago Invented the U.S. Film Industry

Long overdue... * Chicago Tribune * An exceptional new book... that immediately joins the ranks of essential film references * Chicagoist * [Flickering Empire] is a goldmine for popular culture historians and early-film buffs.... Recommended. * Choice * A fascinating read from beginning to end. * The Midwest Book Review * Long overdue... Chicago Tribune An exceptional new book... that immediately joins the ranks of essential film references Chicagoist [Flickering Empire] is a goldmine for popular culture historians and early-film buffs... Recommended. Choice A fascinating read from beginning to end. The Midwest Book Review