Itinerant filmmaker facts for kids
Itinerant filmmakers were people who traveled around the USA in the early days of movies, starting with silent films. They would go from town to town to make movies right there, using local people as actors. They knew that people loved the idea of seeing themselves, their friends, or their children on the big screen!
These filmmakers also hoped that important people like politicians, wealthy families, or business owners would pay a small fee to be in the movie. Then, other townspeople would pay to watch their neighbors in the film. Often, a local group like the chamber of commerce (a business organization in a town) would pay for the film to be made. They would also help choose the best places in town to film. Sometimes, the filmmakers promised that the movie would be shown all over the country, hoping to make people want to visit the town they saw in the film. After the movie had been shown, it would be given back to the local chamber.
It was common for these filmmakers to use the same story and characters over and over again, just changing the actors in each new city. Sometimes, they would even change the movie's title, making people think their town's film was completely unique. These traveling films were very popular during the silent movie era, but some filmmakers kept making them even into the 1970s! Many people built their whole careers around making these special local movies.
Famous Itinerant Filmmakers
O.W. Lamb
O.W. Lamb was one of the first people to become an itinerant filmmaker. His company was called Paragon Feature Films, and they were very busy between 1914 and 1916. He made The Lumberjack in 1914, which was the first movie ever made in Wisconsin. He also made Present and Past in the Cradle of Dixie (1914) in Montgomery, Alabama.
Lamb also filmed The Blissveldt Romance (1915) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and The Spirit of Columbus 1865-1915 (1915) in Columbus, Georgia. The Maid of the Miami (1915) was made in Dayton, Ohio. Lamb often worked with the local Chamber of Commerce, who would help pay for the movie. A special thing Lamb did was offer a five-dollar gold coin as a prize to anyone who could come up with a good title for his films!
Richard Norman
Richard Norman made a movie called The Wrecker more than 40 times! He filmed it in many different cities across the Midwest and South between 1915 and 1919. Norman had bought real footage of a train crash, which he used as the exciting ending for his story. Sadly, no copies of this particular film exist today.
In 1919, Richard Norman started Norman Studios in Jacksonville, Florida. He became very successful making "race films," which were movies made for and often starring Black actors, at a time when Black people were rarely shown in mainstream films. His first "race film" was an all-Black version of The Wrecker called The Green-eyed Monster (1919). His movie The Flying Ace (1926) is the only one of his films that is still known to exist today.
Don O. Newland
Don O. Newland was an active itinerant filmmaker in the 1920s and 1930s. He made many of his films in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio. He often used the name of the town followed by "Hero" for his movie titles. Some of his known films include Janesville’s Hero (1926), Belvidere’s Hero (1926), Tyrone’s Hero (1934), and Huntingdon’s Hero (1934). You can even watch the beginning of Tyrone’s Hero and the entire film of Belvidere’s Hero online!
Melton Barker
Melton Barker was active later than most other itinerant filmmakers. His movie Kidnapper’s Foil was filmed dozens of times between the 1930s and the 1970s. This makes him possibly the last person to make these kinds of traveling films. He even tried to make the jump into television!
Melton Barker was special because he focused on using children as actors in his movies. That's why his company was called Melton Barker Juvenile Productions. His film Kidnapper’s Foil was chosen to be part of the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2012. This means it's considered an important film to be saved and protected.
