James Searle Dawley (October 4, 1877 – March 30, 1949) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, stage actor, and playwright. Between 1907 and the mid-1920s, while working for Edison, Rex Motion Picture Company, Famous Players, Fox, and other studios, he directed more than 300 short films and 56 features, which include many of the early releases of stars such as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Pearl White, Marguerite Clark, Harold Lloyd, and John Barrymore."J. Searle Dawley", career profile, The Film Daily (New York, N.Y.), June 7, 1925, p. 71. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California. Retrieved July 28, 2020.Katz, Ephraim; revised edition by Fred Klein and Ronald Dean Nolan. "Dawley, J. Searle." The Film Encyclopedia. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2001, p. 340. . He also wrote scenarios for many of his productions, including one for his 1910 horror film Frankenstein, the earliest known screen adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel. While film direction and screenwriting comprised the bulk of Dawley's career, he also had earlier working experience in theater, performing on stage for more than a decade and managing every aspect of stagecraft. Dawley wrote at least 18 plays as well for repertory companies and for several Broadway productions."J. Searle Dawley", Internet Broadway Database (IBDB), The Broadway League, Manhattan, New York. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
Early life and stage career Born in Colorado in May 1877, Dawley was the youngest of three sons of Angela (née Searle) and James Andres Dawley. Young "Jay" obtained his elementary education in Denver, continued his public schooling there through the eighth grade, and later attended the Scott Saxton College of Oratory, also located in Denver."Motion Picture Studio Directory", "DAWLEY, J. Searle", Motion Picture News (New York, N.Y.), October 21, 1916, pp. 108. Internet Archive. Retrieved August 4, 2020. According to his physical description recorded on his 1918 military registration card, Dawley as a child permanently lost sight in his right eye.
On September 9, 1895, at the age of 17, Dawley performed professionally on stage for the first time at the Grand Opera House in New York City, cast as François in the Lewis Morrison Company's production of Richelieu.Slide, Anthony. "Forgotten Early Directors", Aspects of American Film History Prior to 1920. Metuchen, New Jersey and London: 1978, p. 40. Internet Archive. Retrieved July 29, 2020. It was at that time when Morrison, the head of the theatrical group, urged the young actor to stop using his nickname "Jay" Dawley as a performer and to choose a better, more distinguished credit for the company's cast listings. Dawley heeded the advice and began emphasizing and consistently using his middle name, which was his mother's maiden name, "Searle". Three years later, now billed as J. Searle Dawley, he was serving as stage manager for Morrison while still performing in several of the company's most popular presentations such as Faust, Yorick's Love, Master of Ceremonies, and Frederick the Great.Lowery, Carolyn. "J. Searle Dawley", The First One Hundred Noted Men and Women of the Screen. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1920, p. 40. Internet Archive. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
1899–1907 Dawley's stage career continued into the opening decade of the twentieth century. He left the Morrison Company after five years to perform on the vaudeville circuit between 1899 and 1902. He then returned to the "legitimate" theatre in New York, joining the Edna May Spooner Stock Company in Brooklyn. While working for Spooner, Dawley acted, managed the company's productions, and also demonstrated his considerable talents as a dramatist despite possessing only an eighth-grade formal education. He wrote and produced no less than 15 plays during his five years with that stock company. By 1907 he left Spooner to begin working in the rapidly expanding motion-picture industry. Despite his career move to film, he continued to write plays, including three Broadway productions, which were presented in 1907 and 1908: The Dancer and the King, The Girl and the Detective, and A Daughter of the People.
Film career On May 13, 1907, Dawley began his motion-picture career in New York City. Edwin Porter, the head of production for Edison Studios, hired him that day, agreeing to pay him $60 a week ($ today) to serve as a director at the company's main film facilities, which were located in the Bronx at the corner of Decatur Avenue and Oliver Place.Slide, "Forgotten Early Directors", p. 41. Dawley's stage experience proved to be very useful in managing his early screen productions. His first directorial project was the now-lost 14-minute comedy The Nine Lives of the Cat, a story about a family's troublesome pet cat that repeatedly returned home after different people attempted to abandon or kill it. Dawley's numerous frustrations working with that production's feline star and problems with the film's supporting actress prompted the director to remark later, "'I hardly thought I was going to like the motion picture business.'"
After experiencing some initial frustrations in his new position at Edison, Dawley quickly established himself as a reliable and prolific director for the studio. He demonstrated an ability to administer efficiently a wide range of releases for the company, often completing two or more films in a single week. Ultimately, he would direct over 200 one-reelers for Edison."James Searle Dawley Papers", Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California. Online Archive of California (OAC). Retrieved July 28, 2020. A few of his more notable releases during the remainder of 1907 and through 1909 include Cupid's Pranks, Rescued from an Eagle's Nest, Comedy and Tragedy, The Boston Tea Party, Bluebeard, The Prince and the Pauper, Hansel and Gretel, an adaptation of Jules Verne's novel Michael Strogoff, as well as an adaptation of Johann von Goethe's early nineteenth-century play Faust, a story Dawley had already performed many times on stage as a member of the Lewis Morrison Company."J. Searle Dawley", American Film Institute (AFI), Los Angeles, California. Retrieved July 27, 2020. The 1908 action adventure Rescued from an Eagle's Nest is only a seven-minute film, but it is noteworthy for its special effects by Richard Murphy and for featuring an early screen performance by D. W. Griffith."Rescued from an Eagle's Nest" (1907)", Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era Company, Washington State. Retrieved July 28, 2020. In the short, the future legendary director portrays a woodsman who rescues his child after the infant is carried away by an eagle.
Frankenstein and other releases, 1910–1912 By 1910, Dawley was directing ever-more elaborate productions for Edison, although the company resisted and would continue to resist the growing trend in the film industry to create longer motion pictures in two- and three-reel formats. Among the numerous "one-reelers" he created at that time were an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1910) and presentations of two historic naval battles: The Stars and Stripes (1910), which depicted John Paul Jones' victory over HMS Serapis in 1779, and The Battle of Trafalgar (1911), a portrayal of British Admiral Lord Nelson's triumph in 1805 over a combined fleet of French and Spanish warships."Fourth of July Pictures", The Film Index (New York, N.Y.), July 18, 1910, p. 3. Internet Archive. Retrieved July 29, 2020."THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR (Edison)", The Moving Picture World, September 9, 1911, p. 695. Internet Archive. Retrieved July 26, 2020. Both of those productions required Dawley to oversee the creation of large maritime sets inside Edison's Bronx studio, including the construction of upper and lower decks of sailing vessels, as well as fabricating simulated views of sea battles using small-scale models and silhouettes of warships."Edison Photoplays and Player", The Nickelodeon, January 7, 1911, p. 14. Internet Archive. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
Among Dawley's most notable directorial works and screenplays in this period is his 14-minute 1910 horror "photoplay" Frankenstein, which is the earliest known screen adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel. The production, loosely based on that "harrowing tale", was also staged and filmed in three days at Edison's Bronx facilities in mid-January 1910."Frankenstein", Film, Video Collection, Library of Congress (LOC), Washington, D.C. Retrieved August 29, 2020."Frankenstein (1910)". AFI. Retrieved July 29, 2020. Copies of the film survive and showcase another special effect employed by Dawley in simulating on screen the creation of Frankenstein's monster. The burning of a papier-mâché human figure molded around a skeletal frame was filmed separately in reverse or "back-cranked" in the hand-driven camera, then that footage was spliced into the master negative for producing the final prints for release and distribution.Obrapta, Clement Tyler. "Inside Thomas Edison’s FRANKENSTEIN Adaptation", November 20, 2019, Film Inquiry. Retrieved July 29, 2020. The reversal of the action on the red-tinted footage produced a "creation" scene in which the monster, with its wired arms flailing, appears to form slowly and then rise from within "a cauldron of blazing chemicals". In a March 1910 issue of The Film Index, an advertisement for Dawley's film describes the effect as a "photographic marvel"."EDISON FILMS/. Frankenstein", The Film Index, March 12, 1910, p. 10. Internet Archive. Retrieved July 25, 2020.Marrero, Robert. Vintage Monster Movies. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1975, pp. 4, 8-11, 30.
By 1911, Dawley was one of four full-time directors under contract with Edison. The New York-based trade journal The Nickelodeon in its February 11 issue that year introduces the four men to its readers and highlights Dawley's speciality among his fellow directors:
In 1911 and 1912, Searle relocated with a crew to the British Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, 640 miles off North Carolina, to film The Relief of Lucknow, released in 1912. The production was based at "Villa Monticello", an estate near to Flatts Village, with filming locations scattered about the archipelago including the Prospect Camp Garrison Golf Links clubhouse (originally a private home built around 1700, and now a Bermuda National Trust property named "Palmetto House" due to the still-extant ornamental stand of palmettos visible in front of it in the film), "Walsingham House" (an historic home built in 1652 that is currently the location of the Tom Moore's Tavern restaurant), and the walled streets of St. George's town. The 2nd Battalion of The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment provided extras. The Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda and its garrison was also used as the location for another Edison film, For Valour, in which two army officers vie for the affections of a Bermudian woman during the Second Boer War.
Travels to California