Location! Location! Location!

How did Jacksonville, Florida, become the southern silent film capital of America by 1908?

Romantic locations with abundant sunlight improved the quality of pictures made with the insensitive movie film of the era. Mild winters let filmmakers shoot year round. Sun drenched beaches on the Atlantic Ocean, giant moss-draped oaks on the banks of the mighty St. John's River, sub-tropical jungles, and virgin forests provided a wide variety of picturesque settings. As Florida's business center, Jacksonville offered bustling crowds, cooperative civic leaders, and under-priced real estate for building studios. Inexpensive labor and readily available talent lowered production costs. Ships, steamboats, and trains, not only connected studios to other film centers, but also provided additional settings.

For nearly 20 years Jacksonville was the perfect film location for a procession of film companies...Kalem, Selig, Edison, Lubin, Vim, King Bee, Encore, Eagle...until local politics and national events precipitated the denouement of the city as a film capital.

However, one notable home-grown movie maker struggled on after World War I. Between 1920 and 1928 Norman Film Manufacturing Company produced eight unique "race" films. Although the multifaceted entrepreneur was white, Richard Norman countered common racial stereotypes with all-black casts and crews in romance, action, adventure stories, such as The Bull-Dogger with rodeo star Bill Pickett.

Much of this work was done in the Norman Studios in Arlington, the only silent film facility still intact. An inventor and innovator, Norman's greatest contribution to film history remains his serious attempts to showcase positive role models for black audiences during an era of racial intolerance.

External Links:

• Local Silent Film Industry: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/356/120/

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