Edendale – The Film Years

by Mike Forster

*** News 21 September 2023: A new version of this eBook as a PDF download for US$11.99 (plus tax where applicable) is available at:

https://knowledgewise.lemonsqueezy.com

The first film studios in Los Angeles were not in Hollywood along Vine Street, Sunset Boulevard or La Brea Avenue, nor in Culver City, nor in Burbank.  The first purpose-built film studios in Los Angeles were located along Allesandro Street in the pleasant valley and the surrounding foothills known as Edendale about three miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.  Edendale is now known as Echo Park and Silver Lake, and much of Allesandro Street was renamed Glendale Boulevard in the 1920s.

This tells the stories of these early studios: Selig Polyscope, Pathé, the Norbig rental studio including Hal Roach, Bison, Keystone, Mack Sennett Comedies, Mixville, and others. The studios story starts in 1907 in downtown Los Angeles and ends with Mack Sennet moving from Edendale to Studio City in 1928. 

This story emphasizes the studios, filming locations, creativity, production advances, and participant experiences at the Edendale studios … to give the reader a feel for what it was like to produce silent motion pictures from 1907 into the 1920s. It also touches on the Pacific Electric Edendale and Glendale-Burbank trolley car lines, remnants of the Edendale studios, and growth occurring in and around Edendale during these decades.

408 pages: over 210 pages of narrative followed by over 190 pages of research notes and references; over 170 figures including photographs, maps, tables, and sketches, and over 700 reference links that touch on over 1500 individual page references.

To view 6 images and 2 extracts from the book, click Continue Reading:

Continue reading Edendale – The Film Years

CalShuttle – The Future of Bay Area Transit

2033: Your Neighborhood Is Your Transit Station

By the early 2030s, CalShuttle shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs) will become the public transit means for the San Francisco Bay Area.

CalShuttle SAVs will provide transit that is: on-demand, point-to-point, fast, 24/7, resilient, robust, and scalable.

CalShuttle benefits will include: reduced traffic congestion and emissions; make full use of existing roadway infrastructure; eliminate the need for more highways or bridges; reduce household car ownership costs; reduce passenger and pedestrian injuries and death; improved mobility for older and disabled residents; enable conversion of street parking, parking lots, and garages to other community uses; and enable productive activities or resting while commuting.

For the complete picture, read the summary, detailed report, and spreadsheet analysis:

CalShuttle – Mike Forster – v3.4 – SummaryDownload
CalShuttle – Mike Forster – v3.4Download
CalShuttle Analysis – Mike Forster – v1.0Download

Palo Alto Early Filmmakers

In the 1870s, Eadweard Muybridge sparked the motion picture industry with is work at Leland Stanford’s stock farm in Palo Alto. His multi-camera configuration enabled him to capture sequences of images. These could be presented side-by-side on a single page to show indicate the subject’s motion.

Muybridge went on to invent the first motion picture projector. He placed the images around the edge of a circular disk through which a light would shine to project the sequence of images on a white screen.

This inspired other inventors to experiment, leading to the sprocketed film reels we know today.

Over three decades later, one motion picture company, Exactus Photo Film, set up shop in Palo Alto, California. Like Los Angeles, the climate was quite favorable to motion picture filming. That company did not succeed. It was absorbed into a second motion picture company, Palo Alto Film Company, based in Palo Alto. However, that company also did not succeed.

These are their stories.

Palo Alto Early Filmakers – Mike Forster – v1 Sept 2023Download

Forster-Hulse Family History

Welcome to the family history of William “Bill” Forster and Elizabeth “Betty” (Hulse) Forster. With luck, research, luck, perseverance, and more luck, ancestors have been traced along family lines as far back as the mid- 12th century England, and with some links to lineages back to as early as 32 AD/CE.

This family history includes family members who were emigrants from Europe to America, fought in America’s wars, graduated from many colleges, and were beloved parents, uncles, aunts, and friends.

Forster-Hulse Family History 2023 (35MB)

Surnames that appear in the main narrative are listed here.
* indicates key surnames by historical significance or number of family members.

Allerton *
Amy
Anderseon
apIevan
apLlen
Archer
Aune
Babbs
Bagnall
Baird
Barnabit
Barr
Beebe
Benedict
Bertain
Betts *
Bishop
Blaxton
Borevitz
Borewicz
Borodonsky
Bowen
Bradley
Bret
Brewster
Brouthton
Brown
Brunig
Burford
Burwell
Butterworth
Carpenter
Carre
Clark
Coombs *
Couchman *
Crosby
Cushman *
Davenport *
Dickenson
Edgar
Ellis
Elwell
Fairchild
Fennike
Fenton *
Fitts
Flemming		Forster *
Garshfield
Gay
Gold
Goss
Gould
Graves
Hanford
Harrington
Harvey
Herbert
Hesselden
Hoge
Hubbard
Hulse *
Ingrahm
Johnson *
Lacie
Lawry
Limbocker
Lipkin *
Littleton
Lockwood *
Logan
Logbeck
Lynn
Malotzske
Maltby *
Mathew *
Mathews *
Mathewson
McClanahan
McClelland
McClung *
McGavin
McKenney
Melgrave
Middleton
Milkewicz
Miller
Milligan
Milligton
Morgan
Morris
Musgrave
Nevill
Norris
Norton		Parsons
Peck *
Perry
Pierce
Pierson
Pointz
Pratt
Priest *
Reder
Rogers
Romig *
Rubelt
Saunders
Savill
Schleuter
Scofield
Sention *
Shepard
Skerne
Slawson
Smith
Squire
Staib
Stark
Steele *
Stuart
Swab
Sweeting
Swingler
Thomas
Thompson
Tunstall
Vaughan
Walker *
Wall
Waters
Watford
Wembourne
Wheelock
Wheelwright
Willey
Wilton
Wood
Wooley
Young
Zimmerman


The World War I Diary of Private Rabb Forest Mobley

by Mike Forster
Copyright 2020 Mike Forster

In the late 1980s, my wife found a notepad of lined paper on a sidewalk in Menlo Park, California.  The notepad was misplaced in our home for a decade, rediscovered in 2001, packed again into a box, and found again in 2017.  The notepad appears to be the diary of an American World War I doughboy, from June 28th through October 3, 1918.

I had more time available after my retirement, a lifelong interest in history, and enjoyment in researching unusual situations.  So, I decided to investigate to determine the author, and to see if I could find a family member that would like to have this memento. The investigation concluded that the diary’s author was one Private Rabb Forest Mobley.  Using Ancestry.com, I was able to locate Rabb Mobley’s grandchildren, and returned the diary to one of them.

This diary was not just the story of great battles and heroism.  I felt as if I were walking alongside the Private Mobley as he experienced day-to-day life in the army, crossing the Atlantic and in the French theater.

But the diary also reminds us that our World War I American Expeditionary Force of front-line troops were heroes.  They risked their lives just crossing the Atlantic, with encounters with German submarines that could have sunk them at any moment.  They could be killed at any moment by enemy artillery shells hitting their encampments.  And despite the risks, they carried through on their missions, such as repairing railroads.  These missions might seem mundane compared with front-line fighting, but just as necessary for victory.

World War I – Rabb Forest Mobley – by Mike Forster – 2020 07 31Download

United States Coin Design Families and Collector’s Guide

by Mike Forster

Coins give us a sublime and tangible connection to history and an artistic expression of the ideals and values of their periods.  Like art, a collector need not attempt a “complete” collection of denominations and designs – a representative example of each of various major design families or individual designs can be quite enjoyable, satisfying and informative.

This volume with its timeline is targeted to beginning and novice coin collectors to promote the enjoyment and appreciation of US coin design history, but hopefully experienced collectors will also gain new insights. 

Version 1.1 13 April 2021

US Coin Design Families – Mike Forster – v1.1Download