That's right, New Jersey is where movies were born and where the early film industry thrived. Thomas Edison created the first working movie camera in 1891 and set up the first movie studio, the famous "Black Maria" in West Orange, NJ. Thus, an industry to support the creation of those films including actors, directors and editors thrived in North Jersey. The very first film produced by Edison was The Great Train Robbery and westerns would dominate the new medium for several decades. In looking to meet this demand for "western locales" many shots meant to depict the high cliffs of the Rockies were instead the Palisades of Fort Lee and nearby Coytesville. In fact the common TV metaphor "cliffhanger," which usually means an unresolved but exciting ending, can trace its start to these early westerns filmed on the literal cliffs of Fort Lee.
The Fort Lee Film Commission was created by classic film lovers Tom Myers and Nelson Page to bring attention to this early film history and showcase Fort Lee as the place "where the film industry was born." Their efforts look to educate the public on the area's rich history profiling Edison's films, early film directors such as D.W. Griffith and African American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, famous actors such as John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore and preserving the films and memorabilia produced in and around Fort Lee, NJ. Other projects spearheaded by the Commission include the restoration and preservation of films that were shot in Fort Lee such as the 1912 film Robin Hood and the 1916 The Waiter's Ball starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
The Commission is a non-profit organization that conducts several events during the year that raise money for its film restoration and historical awareness efforts. Some of these events include:
* Its annual "John Barrymore Birthday Celebration" which takes place in various Fort Lee area restaurants every February 15 and includes an actor taking the role of John Barrymore and doing a walking tour while recounting anecdotes of the young actor's life in the town.
*The Cliffhanger Film Festival which showcases notable themes such as highlighting the start of Universal Studios in the town and the films of Alice Guy Blache', the first woman director in cinema history who built her Solax Studio in Fort Lee in 1912.
*The Movies & Music Under the Stars summer film series which runs both classic and more recent films.
More recently the Commission partnered with Seton Hall University of South Orange, NJ to produce a short term exhibition highlighting Fort Lee's contribution to the film industry and timing it with New Jersey's 350th anniversary. Entitled, "A Celluloid Story, New Jersey's Filmmaking History", the exhibit ran from November 6 to December 12 in the Walsh Gallery on campus and showcased the state's film industry from 1880-1920. Some of the displays included Thomas Edison and Barrymore family artifacts, stills from films shot in Fort Lee and a screening of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's A Reckless Romeo.
"I think this exhibit on New Jersey film history is excellent and one of my favorite exhibits as it tells the story not just of Fort Lee but of New Jersey as we are the birthplace of the American film industry. We need to do a better job of using this history in the 21st century to showcase our state in a better light and to bring back some of this film / TV industry to help improve our economy and reconnect with an industry native to this state," said Commission Founder and Fort Lee Museum Operator Tom Meyers.
"I compare this exhibit to ones we have mounted in our Fort Lee Museum on film history such as our 2012 Universal Studio Centennial: From Fort Lee to Universal City exhibit or our upcoming 2015 exhibit Fox Studio Centennial: From Fort Lee NJ to Century City CA. The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens has fantastic permanent and changing exhibits and we have borrowed ideas for our exhibits from that venue," he added.
Sarah Hart and Romana Schaeffer are graduate students in Seton Hall University's M.A. program in Museum Professions and were awarded a mini-grant from the New Jersey Council of the Humanities (NJCH) to produce this exhibit. The grant program is part NJCH's annual program to support New Jersey based humanities projects. The students contacted the Fort Lee Film Commission last spring according to Myers. "They wanted to borrow from our collection of artifacts and archival photos to make up the bulk of this exhibit," he said.
In 2015, the Fort Lee Film Commission will highlight the 100th anniversary of the founding of Fox Studios in Fort Lee, NJ by William Fox. This centennial will be celebrated as an exhibit entitled "Fox Studio Centennial: From Fort Lee, New Jersey to Century City, California 1915-2015" and will run at the Fort Lee Museum, 1588 Parker Avenue from March -December, 2015. This exhibit will feature artifacts and archival stills from their collection as well as those borrowed from collectors. It will feature still images and enlarged photos scanned from the personal scrapbook of Fox's first star and the first sex symbol of film, Theda Bara. Theda worked at Fox Studio in Fort Lee on the corner of Main Street and Linwood Avenue from 1915 through 1918 prior to Fox's move to NYC and then California.
The annual Movies and Music Under the Stars will include the "Summer of Fox" and each film shown from July 4 through September 5 will be either a classic or more recent Fox Studios film.
For more information on the Fort Lee Film Commission visit www.FortLeeFilm.org
