Bluebird Photoplays (Bluebird Photoplays of New York, Inc. and Bluebird Photoplays of New England, Inc.[1]) was an American film production company that filmed at Universal Pictures studios in California and New Jersey,[2] and distributed its films via Universal Pictures during the silent film era. It had a $500,000 studio in New Jersey.[2]
 Logo from BlueBird Magazine Ad | |
| Bluebird Photoplays | |
| Industry | Film |
| Predecessor | Independent Moving Pictures |
| Defunct | Branding ceased in the 1920s |
| Fate | Universal Branding abandoned |
| Successor | Universal |
| Headquarters | , |
Number of locations | 2 |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Motion pictures |
| Owner | Universal Film Manufacturing Company |
| Parent | Universal Film Manufacturing Company |
"It was a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and employed Universal stars (and starlets) and used Universal’s facilities but the pictures were marketed independently from Carl Laemmle’s umbrella company."—Anke Brouwers[3]
Mary MacLaren, was one of its stars.[4] Louise Lovely, an actress from Australia, was one of its stars.[5] Bluebird was a prestige brand for Universal and had a core of actors and directors including Lovely who worked for it.[6][7] Ida May Park directed for Bluebird Photoplays. Elsie Jane Wilson produced and directed for Bluebird Photoplays.[8] Among those who worked for this short-lived subsidiary of Universal are Carmel Myers, Mae Murray, Rudolph Valentino, Tod Browning, Rex Ingram,[9] Robert Z. Leonard and Rupert Julian.[10]
Louis B. Mayer invested in the company.[1] M. H. Hoffman managed the company.[2]
Filmography
- Jeanne Doré, (1915)[11]
- Shoes (1916)
- Undine (1916)
- Mother o' Mine (1917)
- The Flashlight (1917)
- A Doll's House (1917)
- Flirting with Death (1917)
- Hell Morgan's Girl (1917)
- A Kentucky Cinderella (1917)
- Susan's Gentleman (1917)
- The Mysterious Mrs. M (1917)
- The Girl in the Checkered Coat (1917)
- Broadway Love (1918)
- The Winner Takes All (1918)
- My Unmarried Wife (1918)
- The Raggedy Queen (1918)[12]
- Wife He Bought (1918)
- Beans (1919)
- The Game's Up (1919)
Gallery
- Trade advertisements
Ad for The Flashlight (1917)
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See also
Footnotes
References
- Blonski, Annette; Creed, Barbara; Freiberg, Freda (1987). Don't Shoot Darling!: Women's Independent Filmmaking in Australia. Spinifex Press. ISBN 978-0-864-36058-8.
- Delamoir, Marie Jeanette (January 1998). "Styling a star: 'Call her Louise Lovely'". Journal of Australian Studies. 22 (58): 48–55. doi:10.1080/14443059809387401.
- Delamoir, Marie Jeanette (2002). Louise Lovely: The Construction of a Star (Thesis). Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: La Trobe University.
- Delamoir, Marie Jeanette (2004). "Louise Lovely, Bluebird Photoplays, and the Star System". The Moving Image. 4 (2): 64–85. doi:10.1353/mov.2004.0025. JSTOR 41167168. S2CID 194017782.
- Cooper, Mark Garrett (2010). "Tackling Universal Women as a Research Problem: What Historiographic Sources Do and Don't Tell Us about "Gender" in the Silent Motion Picture Studio". Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media. 51 (2): 334–342. doi:10.1353/frm.2010.a402494. ISSN 0306-7661. JSTOR 41549236. S2CID 145793482.
- Irikura, Yuki (October 2020). "Enchanting the Hearts of Taisho Japan: Why did Japanese Audiences Fall for the Films of Bluebird Photoplays?" (PDF). Waseda RILAS Journal. 8. Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University. ISSN 2187-8307. NAID 120006952940
External links
- Bluebird Photoplays - IMDb
- "Bluebird Photo-Plays". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020.
- "Bluebird Photoplays". letterboxd.