The Lubin Film
". . . its rise,
its reign, its requiem"
by Tim Lussier
Lubin Film Company operated
studios throughout the country. The one in Philadelphia was the
most modern, state-of-the-art studio of its day. At its peak ,the
company owned a chain of more than 100 theatres along the East
Coast, manufactured and sold motion picture cameras and projectors,
employed more than 2,000 actors, writers, directors and technicians
and was turning out more than a film a day. In spite of all these
successes, though, it suffered possibly the swiftest decline and,
ultimately, dissolution, in motion picture history.
Born in 1851, Sigmund "Pop"
Lubin was a German-Jewish immigrant who came to the United States
in 1876. He was a traveling peddler, did some gold prospecting,
and was known for his storytelling ability,
which brought him a contract offer as a vaudeville comedian. He
finally settled in Philadelphia where he opened an optical shop.
It was his knowledge of lenses that led to an interest in photography
and then to the design and development of his own motion picture
projector. It was this optical shop that soon became the home
of "S. Lubin World's Largest Manufacturer of Life Movies."
The company's logo was a logo representing the Liberty Bell and
accompanied by the slogan, "Clear As a Bell" emphasizing
the quality of its films.
Lubin's films before the turn
of the century were no different than those being turned out by
other film companies of the day. For example, one short film showed
Lubin's two daughters in a pillow fight. Another was of a horse
In 1897, he employed two Pennsylvania
railwaymen to re-enact the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight, reading
an account of the fight for the "actors" to following
accordingly. His recreations of prize fights proved to be very
popular. These were filmed on the roof of a building Lubin rented
in the red light district of Philadelphia. He would give specatators
one dollar each to bet on the fight in return for their appearance
in these films. It was not unusual to have a few hundred spectators
on the roof shouting and screaming followed by raid from the Philadelphia
Movie-making was not Lubin's
only enterprise. He also manufactured and sold a patented projector
he called the Cineograph. In 1899 he became an exhibitor when,
in Philadelphia, he constructed what was probably the first theatre
built solely for the exhibition of motion pictures. Soon, he had
over 100 theatres all along the East Coast.
In 1898, Edison filed suit
against Lubin for copyright infringement. As a result, he returned
to Germany, but was back in a short time producing pictures once
again. Edison's claims of copyright infringement led to a 10-year
battle that Edison not only waged against Lubin, but many other
film companies, as well. During this time, quite a few tactics
were used to disrupt filming, and Edison wasn't beyond sending
out thugs to bring a stop to a day's shooting. One of Lubin's
favorite tricks to deal with these situations was to set up a
fake film crew. While they were taking the thugs on a merry chase,
the real film company would be in some other location completing
their day's work.
To make matters worse, Lubin,
like many other filmmakers of his day, was not exactly "ethical"
in his practices. For example, he was known to remake someone
else's film scene for scene and shot for shot. In 1903, Edwin
S. Porter had directed "The Great Train Robbery" for
Edison. Immediately afterwards, Lubin produced "The Bold
Bank Robbery" with a very similar story.
However, the legal troubles
with Edison came to an end in 1909 when the Motion Picture Patents
Company was formed with Edison and each of the companies he claimed
were infringing on his copyrights. The companies agreed to pay
Edison a royalty, and Edison acknowledged the legality of their
various patents. Also, all parties agreed to pay royalties to
the owners of the various patents for the use of their devices.
The "Trust," as it was called, survived until an anti-trust
suit brought the MPPC to an end in 1916.
In 1910, Lubin built the most
modern, up-to-date studio in the world. The glassed-in structure
boasted editing rooms, laboratories, machine shops where his cameras and projectors were made and the
largest artificially lit stage in the world with one of the world's
most powerful indoor lighting systems. The studio permitted five
films crews to work at once. Located in Philadelphia and known
as "Lubinville," the studio turned out films that were
known for their production values, technical sophistication and
Two years later, he purchased
a 500 acre estate in Betzwood, near historic Valley Forge, which
was the home of brewer John Betz. He transformed this estate into
a studio and lot that was reknowned for its scenic beauty. The
$2 million dollar complex was outfitted with state-of-the-art
technology that included air-conditioned, automated labs.
The Betzwood studio provided
locations for almost any kind of story. Westerns were a very popular
product of the Lubin Film Company, and the grounds of the estate
were perfect for filming these "Eastern Westerns." Lubin
even hired real cowboys who lived on the grounds of the estate.
One of his most famous productions, "The Battle of Gettysburg,"
was filmed at the Betzwood location. The Betz home provided an
ideal backdrop for a European mansion and other story lines involving
"the wealthy." The estate also included four complete
farms all filled with livestock, a deer park and a two-mile stretch
of the Schuylkill River.
But Lubin expanded beyond the
East Coast and had studios throughout the country, though none
nearly so large as Lubinville in Philadelphia and the Betzwood
studio. He even owned a studio in Berlin. These other studios
were employing some individuals whose names have gone down as
some of the most famous in motion picture history.
During this time, film pioneers
working for Lubin included Arthur Johnson, Florence Lawrence,
Ethel Clayton, Lottie Briscoe, Rosemary Theby, Ormi Hawley, Edwin
Carewe and many others. Harry Myers, who is best remembered as
the drunken millionaire in Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights"
(1931), was a leading director and scriptwriter for the company.
Frank Borzage, who later became one of Hollywood's most prestigious
directors, started as an actor with Lubin.
Ethel Clayton was one of the
company's most popular stars during the 'teens. Her first appearance
in a movie for Lubin was "When the Earth Trembled" in
1912. She and House Peters co-starred in one of Lubin's last productions,
the 1916 feature, "The Great Divide."
Future director Henry King
made his acting debut in Lubin Films at the Los Angeles studio.
At the Jacksonville, Fla.,
studio in 1913, a young bystander named Oliver Hardy was given
his first chance at acting and continued honing his craft with
the Lubin company for the next two years.
An unusual actor known as Romaine
Fielding was Lubin's leading male star for a time and made films
in the Southwest that became popular for their psychological implications.
The authenticity of the westerns he made for Lubin earned him
the reputation as "The Man Who Put 'Real' in Realism."
He made history when he wrote, produced, directed and played the
only two roles in a film entitled "The Toll of Fear,"
itself a film of daring subject matter and innovative treatment.
The beginning of the end for
the Lubin Film Company came on June 13, 1914, when a massive film
vault explosion destroyed the master film negatives for all of
Lubin's films. Two months later, World
War I broke out drying up Lubin's, and other filmmakers', foreign
The dissolution of the Motion
Picture Patents Company came about soon afterward causing Lubin
to lose millions of dollars and adversely affecting his health,
The downhill spiral couldn't
be stopped, and, on Sept, 1, 1917, the Lubin Film Company closed
its doors forever.
Lubin spent the last years
of his life tinkering with radios and ended up back in his original
optical shop in Philadelphia also dabbling in optical and photographic
work. The world lost one of its greatest film pioneers September
11, 1923, when "Pop" Lubin passed away at his home in
For more information
on the life of Sigmund Lubin, go to the Lubin
For a book on
the life of Sigmund Lubin, check out THE KING OF THE MOVIES: FILM
PIONEER SIEGMUND LUBIN by Joseph P. Eckhardt. To order this book,
click on the Amazon link below and type the book's title or author
in the search field.
copyright 1999 by Tim Lussier. All rights reserved.