This week, Ira spoke with Andrew A. Erish, author of Vitagraph, America’s First Great Motion Picture Studio. In this celluloid episode of Ira’s Everything Bagel, Andrew talks about the two men responsible for creating Vitagraph, which became the leading producer of motion pictures for much of the silent era; how, despite Hollywood mythology, Vitagraph gave birth to the studio system; why the history of the studio was not widely known after it created many firsts in the motion picture industry; who renamed the factory into “the studio”; how and why Vitagraph moved west, first to Santa Monica, California, then inland; and the biggest surprise that he discovered about the studio.
