Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by Warner Bros. in 1925.
Vitagraph Studios
William T. Rock, Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton, 1916
Advertisement for Vitagraph features in The Moving Picture World, 1916
Vitagraph Studios, Hollywood, California
James Stuart Blackton was a British-American film producer and director of the silent era. One of the pioneers of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1897. He was one of the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation, is considered a father of American animation, and was the first to bring many classic plays and books to the screen. Blackton was also the commodore of the Motorboat Club of America and the Atlantic Yacht Club.
Blackton in 1912
Vitagraph Studios founders William T. Rock, Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton (1916)
Blackton and daughter Marian Blackton Trimble (1901–1993), author of a personal biography of her father that was edited by film historian Anthony Slide
A Tale of Two Cities (1911)