The Crystal Film Company, sometimes referred to as Crystal Films or the Crystal Film Manufacturing Company, was an American film-production and film-processing company whose studio and laboratory were in the Bronx, New York. Incorporated in August 1911, it initially had Ludwig Erb as president and filmmaker Joseph A. Golden as vice-president. Crystal produced short comedies and dramas, including an extensive series starring Pearl White, and also developed and printed films for outside producers and rented its studio facilities.
Golden acquired Erb's interest in 1914. After a receivership proceeding in 1919, Golden and Amiel Alperstein obtained majority control and continued the business. Crystal filed notice of its dissolution in August 1920, when its Bronx laboratory operation passed to the newly formed Claremont Film Laboratories.
History
Formation and early production
Before organizing Crystal, Erb briefly held a half interest in David Horsley's film business and was subsequently associated with P. A. Powers. Robert Grau's 1914 history states that Erb organized Crystal after those two associations ended.
The Crystal Film Company of the Bronx was incorporated in Albany in August 1911 with capital of $150,000 for the manufacture of motion-picture films. Its incorporators were Erb, Henry L. Slobodin and Samuel Fine. In October, The Billboard reported that the company had opened offices in the German Savings Bank Building at Fourth Avenue and Fourteenth Street in Manhattan. Erb was identified as president and Golden as vice-president. Golden had recently resigned as stage director for the Selig Polyscope Company to take charge of Crystal's studio. Both men had previously been associated with Horsley's film operations, whose Nestor company also used the Fourth Avenue address. A later history identifies Golden as Crystal's director.
In April 1912, Wray Physioc, formerly associated with Pathé and Éclair, joined Crystal as scenic artist.
An October 1912 account of a nighttime visit to Crystal described its studio at the corner of Wendover and Park avenues in the Bronx. The writer toured the facility with general manager Ben Goetz and characterized the responsibilities of the principals as divided between production under Golden and laboratory work under Erb. According to the account, Crystal had previously concentrated on handling work for other producers but had begun releasing its own films, with plans to issue one split-reel comedy program each week. Its first such release comprised The Girl in the Next Room and The Man from the North Pole, while Pearl White and Chester Barnett were identified as the company's principal performers.
Crystal maintained its business offices in Manhattan, while its production studio in the Bronx was located at Park Avenue and Wendover Avenue, later known as Claremont Parkway; subsequent directories gave its address as 430 Claremont Parkway.
Crystal joined the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company and subsequently supplied short comedies to the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, frequently issuing two subjects together on a single reel. Pearl White appeared in a large series of its films before becoming known for her work in motion-picture serials.
Contemporary assessments of Crystal's comedies were mixed. The Moving Picture News described Box and Cox as “a very excellent little comedy bit” and considered With Her Rival's Help another strong offering. The magazine later praised the comedy in Accident Insurance as “exceptionally strong,” while judging its split-reel companion, Her Lady Friend, less successful but still commendable. Other releases were received less favorably: Strictly Business was called “a very poor excuse for a comedy,” and the use of coffins for humor in An Awful Scare was considered distasteful. Subsequent reviews characterized The Veiled Lady and Our Parents-in-Law as good comedies, while judging Two Lunatics and His Romantic Wife to be fair offerings, with particular praise for the comic situations in the former.
Crystal also provided facilities for outside productions. The interiors for the Pyramid Film Company's three-reel drama The Eye of a God, released through Warner's Features in 1913, were staged at Crystal's studio. The film featured Barnett, who was also associated with Crystal's own comedies.
By April 1913, Crystal was associated with Universal and was identified in the trade press as “Crystal (Erb & Golden)” among the film brands included in Universal's program.
Golden ownership and distribution arrangements
In June 1914, Erb sold his interest in Crystal to Golden. Contemporary reporting said that the company's commercial developing and printing work had grown to the point that it could not accept all the business offered to it. Ben Goetz remained its general manager.
After leaving Universal, Crystal supplied comedies to United Film Service. In 1914, Crystal joined several independent producers in United Motion Picture Producers, Inc., an organization headed by Erb and affiliated with Warner's Features, Inc. The organization supplied short films to Warner's United Film Service and planned a daily program totaling 21 reels a week. By November 1914, Golden was identified as Crystal's president and Superba as its production brand. Erb separately operated the L. G. B. Erb Company, whose films used the Pyramid brand.
The initial one-reel Superba comedies were made at the Crystal studio and starred Charles De Forrest, previously a leading performer in Crystal's Universal releases.
Contemporary release schedules identify Prince Charlie, A Taste of High Life, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Camille as She Never Was among the first Superba films released in November 1914. Superba productions were not confined to Crystal's Bronx facility: by April 1915 an eleven-member company headed by actress Edith Thornton and directed by Charles Hutchinson was making outdoor Superba comedies in Savannah, Georgia, for United Film Service.
Following the collapse of United Film Service, the producers formerly supplying it organized Combined Photoplay Producers, Inc., in late June 1915. Erb became president of the organization, Golden its treasurer and H. M. Goetz its secretary; Crystal was one of ten participating production companies. Combined Photoplay Producers contracted with Standard Pictures, a newly formed distributing company established by A. H. Warner, H. M. Warner and Al Lichtman. Standard planned to sell the producers' films outright to regional exchanges rather than lease them directly to exhibitors.
Studio and laboratory operations
Laboratory processing was an important part of Crystal's business from its early years. In July 1912, The Moving Picture News credited Erb with salvaging underexposed and overexposed negatives from an Alaskan expedition film through intensification and reduction, producing what the magazine called “a very creditable picture.”
That November, Crystal installed two film-drying drums, each capable of holding 2,381 feet of film, and had two more under construction. Once completed, the four drums would provide a combined capacity of 9,524 feet per drying cycle. The trade press reported that the equipment dried film without artificial heat in fifteen to twenty minutes and estimated that the plant could process nearly 200,000 feet during a day of intensive operation.
In 1913, Exhibitors' Times identified Leo Zoeller as the designer of the laboratory used by the Imp and Crystal motion-picture companies. In November, the trade press reported that Crystal had fallen behind in filling printing orders but had enlarged its capacity sufficiently to meet demand. By June 1915, Crystal advertised that its plant had been enlarged to three times its former capacity and offered developing, printing and tinting services twenty-four hours a day.
By 1916, Golden was listed as Crystal's president and the company gave its address as 430 Claremont Parkway. The studio was also offered for rent to outside producers. A 1917 directory described a enclosed studio, dressing and directors' rooms, a carpenter shop, cameras and lighting equipment, darkrooms and on-site developing and printing facilities. The Triumph Film Corporation and Ivan Film Productions were among the companies reported to have used it; A. Alperstein was then general manager.
Crystal was represented in the laboratory branch of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry. When the branch was organized in December 1917, Golden was elected its chairman.
Crystal was also involved in prolonged litigation arising from an accident at the studio. Actress and playwright Celie G. Turner, who performed as Celie Ellis, sued Crystal over an injury she sustained in April 1914 while jumping from a tree branch during production. Turner initially received a $4,000 jury verdict. The Appellate Division reversed the judgment and dismissed her complaint, but in 1919 the New York Court of Appeals reversed that decision and ordered a new trial.
Receivership and reorganization
In 1919, Crystal continued accommodating outside productions. Interior scenes for Joseph A. Golden's fifteen-episode serial The Whirlwind, produced by the Allgood Picture Corporation, were filmed at the Bronx studio.
By July 1919, minority shareholders had obtained the appointment of a receiver, alleging that the company's assets were being dissipated through mismanagement. Crystal appealed, staying the proposed liquidation while it continued operating. Contemporary reporting valued its assets at approximately $100,000 if liquidated and at a higher amount as a going concern, while describing its debts as comparatively small. The receivership was discontinued later that year after Golden and Amiel Alperstein acquired a majority of the company's stock. They announced that the business at 430 Claremont Parkway would continue.
On August 17, 1920, Wid's Daily reported that Crystal had filed notice of its dissolution with the Secretary of State of New York. The same issue announced that the newly formed Claremont Film Laboratories would assume management of Crystal's Bronx laboratory, with Walter E. Greene as president and Golden and Alperstein associated with the new concern.
Claremont was incorporated in Manhattan with stated capital of $35,000 and 1,000 shares of no-par-value common stock. Golden, Alperstein and Greene were named as its directors, and the company used an office at 729 Seventh Avenue while operating the former Crystal laboratory in the Bronx.
In November 1922, Claremont Film Laboratories was dissolved. That month, a new corporation, Claremont Laboratories, Inc., was organized in the Bronx to operate motion-picture laboratories. The successor company continued at 430 Claremont Parkway under Walter E. Greene; Golden was not named among its officers or directors.
Selected filmography
The Mind Cure (1912) Oh, Such a Night! (1912) Marriage a la Carte (1912) Oh, Whiskers! (1913) Pearl as a Detective (1913) Will Power (1913) An Innocent Bridegroom (1913) A Night in the Town (1913) The Girl Reporter (1913) Muchly Engaged (1913) True Chivalry (1913) Pearl's Dilemma (1913) Squaring Things with Wifey (1913) In Death's Shadow (1913) The Hall-Room Girls (1913) How Men Propose (1913) How Moscha Came Back (1914) Lost, Strayed or Stolen (1914)
For a more extensive listing, see List of films produced by the Crystal Film Company.
See also
List of film production companies
References