David Horsley

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David Horsley (1914)

David Horsley (born March 11, 1873 in West Stanley , England , † February 23, 1933 in Sunland (Los Angeles) , California , USA ) was one of the pioneers of the American film industry . He co-founded the first film studio in Hollywood , Los Angeles .

Life

Youth, first professional experience

David Horsley was born in West Stanley, Durham, England, a small mining town. His entire family was employed in mining. At the age of nine, he fell on a train track and his hand was badly injured by a moving train, causing him to lose three fingers. In the absence of adequate medical care, this wound became infected with gangrene and had to be amputated below the elbow. In 1884 the family immigrated to the United States and settled in Bayonne, New Jersey .

Film career

As a young man he started a bicycle shop. At this time he met a former employee of the Biograph Studios , Charles Gorman . Together with his brother William Horsley (1870-1956) they founded the Centaur Film Company . By 1910 they were already producing three films a week, including the famous " Mutt and Jeff " cartoons .

David and William Horsley fought together with other independent studios, including the Independent Motion Picture Company of Carl Laemmle , successfully against the hitherto existing monopoly of Thomas Edison's " Motion Picture Patents Company ". But the weather conditions on the east coast also made filming difficult, as at that time you were very dependent on sunshine and daylight. It had already been recognized earlier that California offers the best conditions all year round. David Horsley therefore relocated his activities to the west coast.

Among the first films ever made in Hollywood were his recordings, which were filmed on October 26, 1911 at HJ Whitley's plantation. (As early as 1909, DW Griffith shot the film "Love Among the Roses" in the house of the famous French flower painter Paul de Longpré ) Although this film has no name, it is still a piece of early Hollywood history. In the spring of 1911, the Nestor Motion Picture Company opened its first film studio in Hollywood in the Blondeau Tavern building on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. Together with Horsley, Al Christie and Charles Rosher ran the company. Christie became managing director, while David Horsley stayed with his brother in Bayonne, operating a film distribution and copying company there. Other studios that were previously located on the east coast saw the benefits and also moved to California.

In April 1912 the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was founded. Then a few small film studios were acquired, including that of David Horsley. The studio owners were offered shares in Universal when they bought them , giving Horsley preferred stock worth $ 175,000 and common stock for $ 204,000. He also became the new company's finance director. Despite this peaceful beginning, the parties fell out, so that Horsley sold his shares to Carl Laemmle in 1913 . As a now wealthy man, Horsley began to travel across Europe, including visiting his hometown. While he was traveling, the First World War broke out. That is why the "Bostock Animal and Jungle Show", a kind of exhibition of exotic animals, based in London, had to move out of its rooms. Horsley bought them for a large part of his fortune and had to spend considerable resources to ship the animals to California and to accommodate them adequately. Since the income could cover the running costs of the park, he had a film studio built next to it and founded the "Bostock Jungle Films Corporation". Horsley began making films that featured the animals in his park. Among other things, the five "With Stanley in Africa" ​​films and around 200 comedies with George Ovey were shot there. Nevertheless, he had to declare bankruptcy in 1919 . A series of setbacks cost him a lot of money, so that he finally died deeply in debt. His grave can be found in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery .

His son, David Stanley Horsley (1906–1976), worked for 30 years as a cameraman and special effects expert in the film industry.

literature

  • Allan R. Ellenberger ' Celebrities in the 1930 Census: Household Data of More Than 2,500 US Public Figures MacFarland, 2008
  • EJ Fleming: Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites: Sixteen Driving Tours with Directions and the Full Story, from Tallulah Bankhead to River Phoenix MacFarland, 2000
  • Cristina Stanca-Mustea: Carl Laemmle - The man who invented Hollywood . Osburg Verlag 2013. ISBN 3955100057
  • Christine Wunnicke : Selig & Boggs. The invention of Hollywood . Berenberg Verlag 2012. ISBN 3937834591

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Of Gods and Monsters: A Critical Guide to Universal Studios' Science Fiction, Horror and Mystery Films, 1929-1939
  2. ↑ Hollywood History: The movies get moving
  3. ^ EJ Fleming Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites: Sixteen Driving Tours with Directions and the Full Story , page 2
  4. ↑ C. Stanca-Mustea Carl Laemmle - The Man Who Invented Hollywood , 2013
  5. ^ Uni Kiel, film lexicon
personal data
SURNAME Horsley, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH West Stanley , England
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1933
Place of death Sunland (Los Angeles) , California , USA