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The Essanay Film Studios complex is owned by St. Augustine College, an independent, bilingual institution of higher education. The College enthusiastically embraces the history of the property and supports a rebirth of the Essanay Film Studios as the Essanay Centers for Early Film and Cultural Performance as an enhancement to the College and within the Uptown community.
May 19, 2007 · Founded 100 years ago, Chicago’s Essanay studio launched the movie careers of Gloria Swanson and Wallace Beery and helped a cockney comic named Charlie Chaplin rocket to fame. By Robert Loerzel ...
Chaplin’s Essanay comedies reveal an artist experimenting with his palette and finding his craft. Publicity shot of "Chas. Chaplin with Essanay Company, Western Division, Niles CA", 1915. After the expiration of his one-year contract with the Keystone Film Company, Chaplin was lured to Essanay for the unprecedented salary of $1,250 per week ...
ESSANAY STUDIOS 1333-45 W. Argyle St. (1908-15; various architects) ESSANAY STUDIOS is the most important structure connected to Chicago’s role in the early history of motion pictures.
This is where Hollywood began--the Essanay Studios at 1333-1345 West Argyle Street in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. The studio was founded in 1907. Its first film, "An Awful Skate" or "The Hobo on Rollers," starring Ben Turpin (then the studio janitor), was produced for only a couple hundred dollars and released in July 1907.
Mar 17, 2003 · George K. Spoor, 81, who as president of the Essanay Film company pioneered the moving picture industry in Chicago, died yesterday in his home at 908 Argyle st. Spoor and Gilbert M. (Broncho Billy) Anderson founded the company in 1897. Many stars of the silent films got their start in the studio at 1345 Argyle st.
Mar 7, 2016 · The studio space in 2011. Longtime readers might remember five years ago, when this was the Chicago Unbelievable blog, and we explored the old Essanay silent film studios on a podcast. Essaany was a silent film studio here in Chicago, and for about ten years starting in 1907, it was one of the biggest in the world.
