 | |
| Industry | Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1896 |
| Defunct | 1918 |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Products | Motion pictures |
| Owner | William Selig |
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois.[1] The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring Tom Mix, Harold Lloyd, Colleen Moore, and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Selig Polyscope also established Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles.[2]
Ending film production in 1918, the business, which had become known for its film production animals, became an animal and prop supplier to other studios and a zoo and amusement park attraction in East Los Angeles. The amusement park and zoo went into decline during the Great Depression in the 1930s.[3]
In 1947, William Selig and several other early movie producers and directors shared a special Academy Honorary Award to acknowledge their role in building the film industry.[4]
- ^ "Editorial Association in the Limelight: Newspapermen of Sioux Falls Feature Film Taken at Famous Selig Works, Chicago." Sioux Falls, South Dakota: The Daily Argus-Leader, August 17, 1912, p. 6 (subscription required).
- ^ "Frontier Sports Full of Thrills Clever Exhibitions by Horsemen in Varied Feats Keep Crowd of Five Thousand Excited" and "Prescott a Fine Place for Film Making." Prescott, Arizona: Weekly Journal-Miner, July 9, 1913, p. 2 (subscription required).
- ^ "Lincolnheightsla.com". lincolnheightsla.com. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
- ^ "The 20th Academy Awards Memorable Moments". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 27 August 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2021.