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:

This is a detail from a 1909 “Birds Eye View of Los Angeles”, by Worthington Gates for the Western Litho. Co., Birdseye View Publishing Company. It was published right at the beginning of the movie industry in Southern California. It shows the Pacific Electric Railroad (P.E.R.R.) passing Echo Park on its way through Edendale to Tropico and Glendale.

Worthington Gates: Birds Eye View of Los Angeles 1909 – Birdseye Publishing Company / Library of Congress

Additional selected illustrations and extracts from this eBook are:

Filming “The Heart of a Race Tout”
Edendale c 1906 – with Edendale Hall, future Selig Polyscope Studio
Selig Polyscope Studio in Edendale late 1909
Mack Sennett Comedies Studios in Edendale 1917
Edendale Line Pacific Electric Car 1923-1929
Sample annotated motion picture listings
Sample [references] with details and links

24 thoughts on “Edendale – The Film Years”

  1. My house at 2545 Elsinore St. was there during this era, one block north of Sunset on Benton Way built by 1908. It is later the house BECK began his recording career in.

    1. Hi, Patricia. That’s fun. That’s only a couple of blocks from 1533 McCollum, where Charles R. Bonadiman, farmer, resided. He was the owner of the adjacent Bonadiman Farm, which was a popular filming locations in the 1910s.

  2. I remember my aunt, Dot Ponedel, who started out in silents and then became a makeup artist, talking about working at the Clara Kimball Young studio in Edendale

    1. That’s fun family history. I didn’t quickly find a reference for Dot or Dorothy Ponedel in the early 20s working in films, although I did find her listed as in bakery and as a saleswoman: https://rescarta.lapl.org/ResCarta-Web/. I find her mentioned multiple times in “Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland”. https://archive.org/details/gethappylifeofju00clar/page/222/mode/2up?q=ponedel. I found that book and many other mentions of Dorothy / Dottie Ponedel through an archive.org search: https://archive.org/search.php?query=ponedel&sin=TXT.

  4. This will definitely get saved for future reference. My first two books made mention of Edendale and it’s role in early film history, and a story about the place I liked made it into a footnote which would seem good to share here (if it will fit): The juxtaposition of fantasy enacted by motion picture producers and the rural character of the land before it became concrete and asphalt suburbs sometimes made for unbelievable scenes witnessed by the unsuspecting passersby. “Among the hills that mark the northern boundary of Los Angeles and separating it from the big ranch lands of the San Fernando Valley is a picturesque settlement called Edendale…. Its elevated outlook to the east and north across the mellow sunlit valley to the snow-mantled peaks of the Sierra Madre and San Bernardino ranges, and its glimpse to the west of the blue waters of the Pacific sparkling beyond the purple hills of Santa Monica, give it a prospect of Arcadian beauty unequaled anywhere this side the ancient Peloponnesus. Its bungalows and gardens, snuggled into the niches of the hillside, lie scattered along the winding trails of the slope.” Into this paradise came a nerve-wracked woman from Chicago at the invitation of her aunt, seeking a sedate resting place. Entranced, she saw in the distance the approach of an old stage coach, like a vision from the frontier past. “Suddenly there was a crack—a rifle shot—followed instantly by the most awful yells, and the next moment a band of Indians in feathers and war paint, and armed with rifles, sprang up from behind the rocks and bushes and surrounded the stage. In an instant the air was alive with the crackle of fire-arms…. The battle was short but sanguinary. The four men and half a dozen Indians soon lay sprawling on the ground.” The woman from Chicago passed out, and when revived by her aunt, a resident of the hamlet, she was told that such sights were regular happening in Edendale, where the motion pictures had established themselves. Anywhere else, and she would have had to pay a nickel to see the firefight in a theatre. The woman from Chicago promptly returned home. (“The Month’s Rodeo; Eden is as Eden Does,” by Clifford Howard, Sunest, November 1911, page 576.)

    1. Hi, Jeff. Thanks very much for the comment and for the story. I’ll certainly include this in my next update – it’s a great story. Mike

  5. Hi Mike,
    I spent my first five years at 2158 Allesandro back when it was a bungalow in a small court (now an apartment building). The years were 1942-1947 while my father worked at Lockheed. A Mrs. Gladys Price lived in the house next door to us who had a son, Jack, and a grand daughter Carol. I recall my years there such as going down the wooden steps down to the platform to catch the Red Line to downtown.
    I have other memories if you are interested.
    Paul Harper
    pth98026@comcast.net

  6. An incredible amount of work, a really valuable addition to Hollywood history. I do have a comment or two, and a few questions that are slightly off topic.

    1. Do you have any info regarding DW Griffiths first trip out here? I have been researching the life of a forgotten vaudeville star Theo Carew. She claimed she first came to Hollywood in 1910 to work with Griffith. Her only tie into film isn’t until 1914 when she made four movies for Lois Weber.

    2. If you even expand your scope, please consider including the Lois Weber studios on Santa Monica Blvd, just east of Vermont. Built around 1924, the studio was active for a few short years. Weber is little remembered today though she was a top film director in her day. There’s a story that the farm owner didn’t want to lease to any Hollywood types but Lois won him over with her views that film could be used to promote the social good.

    3. Trying to figure out street names by comparing maps and directories is very difficult.
    The information is often out of date by the time printed and sometimes maps will just list the common name everyone uses. The most helpful resource for sorting out the mess is “Street Names of Los Angeles” by Bernice Kimball. It’s in the LAPL History dept. Kimball worked for the city and she took on the job of tracking every change in street name.

    Sorry for the long post!

  7. Mike, I have a new email address and a correction to make on my previous reply to you which is shown above on Oct. 22 2021. The correction pertains to Mrs. Price, our neighbor in the 1940s. Her first name was Clara, not Gladys. My email address now is pth98026@tds.net. Thank you for the ability I have to make these corrections. Paul Harper

  9. Paul Harper

    UPDATE Hi Mike,
    I spent my first five years at 2158 Allesandro back when it was a bungalow in a small court (now an apartment building). The years were 1942-1947 while my father worked at Lockheed. A Mrs. Clara Price lived in the house next door to us who had a son, Jack, and a grand daughter Carol. I recall my years there such as going down the wooden steps down to the platform to catch the Red Line to downtown.
    I have other memories if you are interested.
    Paul Harper
    pth98026@tds.net
    October 22, 2021 Reply

    1. Hi, Paul. I apologize for this very, very slow reply. I grew up on the winding section of Lake Shore Avenue, just above Oak Glen Pl. I also recall going down wooden steps to catch the Red Line to the Echo Park Library. Mike

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  13. Hi Mike,
    Are you a fellow JMHS Alum? Might you have encountered anything about a silent film titled “Dirty Face Dan” or similar that would have been filmed in the Edendale era? I would be most indebted if you might have anything on this, as I am working on a family history, and family lore has it that my grandfather, Walter Lee Brock (DOB 1884), had something to do with it being about my father Daniel Brock (DOB 1908). I grew up on the fat hill forming the South edge of Edendale valley in the 1950s.

    Thank you for any help you might offer.

    1. Hi, Henry.

      Yes, I am a JMHS alumnus, summer 1967. I grew up on the winding section Lake Shore Avenue just above Oak Glen Place.

      Regarding Dirty Face Dan:
      IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442127/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

      Produced by Majestic Motion Picture Company, located at 4500 Sunset Blvd. in 1915. From the Los Angeles Directory 1915:
      https://rescarta.lapl.org/ResCarta-Web/jsp/RcWebImageViewer.jsp?doc_id=040428be-8b21-4de1-9b1e-3421068c0f1c%2fLPU00000%2fLL000005%2f00000001

      The motion picture was directed by Chester Franklin, who did act for Keystone / Mack Sennett before moving on to direct at Majestic.

      Unfortunately, I did not yet find any online video version of this motion picture. Like most silent films, it has probably been lost.

      Van Brock listed in the role of Second Assistant, his only film credit in IMDB. I did not quickly find any listings for Walter Lee Brock or Daniel Brock in that same 1915 LA directory, but they might appear in earlier or later directories.

    1. Hi. Thanks for asking. No, 1722 Allesandro was torn down during an expansion of the Keystone studios circa 1915. Per Google maps. Allesandro changed name to Glendale Blvd. between 1921 and 1923. It appears that 1622 Glendale Blvd. no longer exists – its number might have changed to an Alvarado address at some time.

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