For the Love of the Beautiful

In 1929, Nelson's family had a biographical sketch and photo included in the National Cyclopedia of American Biography.  I will not quote the entire entry, but a few of the passages are worth highlighting.

Foreseeing that motion pictures would become a permanency and a world success, in 1909 he founded the Independent Feature Film Co. in Cleveland, O., and devoted himself to its management until 1914.

Obviously a bit of hyperbole, but he should be given some credit for taking the risk of starting his working life in a relatively new business.  There are a couple of errors in the passage, however.  The Evans family was still living in Columbus in 1909.  The best evidence I have at the moment suggests that he started his film exchange business sometime between 1910 and 1912, and in Los Angeles, not Cleveland.  As seen in the previous post, the name of his first business was The American Feature Film Co.  It wasn't until early 1914 that he changed the name to the Independent Feature Film Co, after joining forces with a couple of former theatre owners.  At that point, he did move to Cleveland and the ended his film exchange business in late 1914.  But whoever wrote the biography can be forgiven, as they were probably relying on memory.

His artistic ability and his love of the beautiful prompted him to found the Evans Studio at Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif., and through his original art studies of the celebrated stars of the moving picture world gained for himself widespread recognition.  This studio, one of the largest and best equipped in the world, represented the greatest diversity of lights and shadows, and his inventive genius in constructing artistic settings and light effects gave his work peculiar originality and value.

I'm tempted to call this more hyperbole, but this is more of a case of taking pride in your son's accomplishments.  Further proof of that pride can be found in the next sentence.

Following his death the Nelson Evans studios were operated in the founder's memory, the profits being devoted to the establishment of a fund for charitable purposes, to be expended each year at Christmas time in a manner to be designated by the executors of his estate.

One thing has been clear throughout my research: Charles and Mary Evans were very devoted to their son.  Whether this was due to Nelson being in poor health or just doting on their only surviving son, they were always close by.

And here's the photo that accompanies the biography.

Dayton Flood Disaster- 1913

The Great Flood of 1913 is forgotten by most of the world and probably little known in the areas affected by the disaster.  While the destruction began in Nebraska, where over 100 people were killed by several powerful tornadoes, Ohio suffered the most, with over 500 dead, hundreds more missing, and property damage of at least several billion in today's dollar.  A majority of the deaths and damage was in one city: Dayton.

After an estimated 10 inches of rain fell in a few days, levees around the city failed and flooded the city under upwards of 20 feet of water.  This was on March 25th, a Tuesday.  By the 27th,  relief trains were able to enter the area.  On these trains came several film crews, among them an Essany group, who were in the region recording the damage from the Nebraska tornadoes from a few days earlier, and another from Toledo, the American Feature Film Company, headed by Nelson Evans.

The American Feature Film Company was not a film producer, but an exchange.  It seems odd for a company that dealt exclusively in the distribution of foreign feature films (more on the business in a later post) to produce a one reel picture on a local event, but Evans was an astute businessman and knew what exhibitors and the public wanted.

In the April 1913 issue of Moving Picture World, Evans tells of making the film Dayton Flood Disaster.  They arrived in the city on the 27th as the water was receding.  Because of that, no film crew was able to capture footage of rescues; Evans warns exhibitors that any film showing rescues are fakes (one film available on YouTube does indeed show people being rescued, but it is clearly from a different source than the footage in the film showing the aftermath of the flooding).  Evans also touted the editing of his film, stating that he had "cut out all superfluous matter in the film, and that every foot will be interesting and full of action."  Also in the same issue is a full page ad for the film.

Does the film still exist?  Possibly.  A few years ago someone in northwest Ohio found one of the films on the flood in their attic.  Considering it was found in or near Toledo, it is possible that it is Evans' film.  Unfortunately, the copy on YouTube is missing it's title.  In any case, if it is not his film, it at least gives an idea of what the film would have been like.  (And I apologize for subjecting anyone to the ineptitude of the person who made this copy.  Be warned that viewing this will be occasionally frustrating and may lead you to yell at your computer screen.)

Go West Young Man

Sitting here, mid-way through another Ohio winter, it's not too difficult to understand why the Evans family would want to pack up and move to California.  Looking at the available information, it would seem that climate may have been a deciding factor in sending them westward.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the family was listed on the 1910 census as living in the Hartman Hotel in downtown Columbus.  At first glance, it seems unusual that they would have moved from a very nice neighborhood and into a hotel.  However, the Hartman was not just a hotel, it was also a sanitarium.  Was it possible that one of the family was in poor health?  And if so, which one?

A possible answer might be found in an unusual situation.  I discovered just this morning that Nelson and his mother are also listed in the 1910 census in Los Angeles.  It's unlikely that they headed to California leaving a sick father behind at the sanitarium, so it's a safe bet that either Nelson or his mother was sent to LA to convalesce.  Based on the fact that he died young, Nelson would seem the logical choice.

However Nelson didn't stay in Los Angeles very long.  He does appear to have started his first film exchange business, the American Feature Film Company, there, as it is mentioned in the Oct- Dec 1912 issue of The Moving Picture World under the Doings at Los Angeles column.  But, perhaps feeling better after 3 years in the California sunshine, he headed back to Ohio with his father, continuing his exchange business in Toledo and then Cleveland.  The return to Ohio only lasted a couple of years, ending with him moving back to LA by the beginning of 1915 and staying there for the rest of his short life.  

Is it an Evans?

One of the more frustrating aspects of researching a photographer is coming upon photographs that seem like their work, but are unsigned or unattributed.  In going through the many magazines found on the extremely valuable Media History Digital Library website (mediahistoryproject.org), it's not uncommon to find such a photo that makes me wonder if it could be an Evans.  Every photographer has a certain style, but it is clear from looking at the work of the many Hollywood photographers of the day that they borrowed ideas freely from one another.  It's next to impossible to say who was taking from whom, but some of the studios that produced work that was most like Evans were the Hoover Art Studio, Hartsook Studio and Northland Studio.  I could probably go on and on (and may in a later post), but my point today is that it doesn't make my research any easier.

A good example of an 'is it an Evans' photo is (like the previous post) one I have in my Louise Fazenda collection.

Unfortunately, the right third of the photo is missing, most likely taking with it the photographer's signature.  The back has nothing but a snarky remark about it being suitable for a "How the Stars Recline" series.  It is, however, stylistically similar to 2 other photos in my collection, one of Louise Glaum and another of Ms. Fazenda (maybe Evans was working on a "How Louise's Recline" series).

     
You can see the similarities, but it's not necessarily enough to say with any certainty that it is an Evans.  If I were to name another possibility, it would probably be Albert Witzel, but I've yet to come across anything quite the same coming out of his studio.  For now, I am tentatively identifying it as an Evans, but would not be surprised in the least to find out it is the work of another studio.

UPDATE 8/3/15: A complete copy of the photo has appeared on EBay and it is indeed a Witzel photograph.

Golden Gate Photo Co.

As mentioned in my previous post, the Golden Gate Photo Co. was the original name of Evans' photography business.  The only references I've found so far are from the announcements of the opening of his studio.  Presumably, most of his early work (i.e. before 1917) would have been for newspapers and magazines, and therefore probably uncredited for the most part, so identifying any picture as one from Golden Gate is difficult at best.  However, there is one photo that I can credit to the Golden Gate Photo Co.  It was easy to find, since it was already in my photo collection.

When I first came upon the Golden Gate/Evans connection, I remembered this picture.  I purchased this photo of Louise Fazenda about a year before my interest in Evans began. 

There's no signature on the front, so nothing there to suggest that it's an Evans photo.  However, the back of the photo is more informative.

There's a few things of interest here.  Besides the Golden Gate Photo Co. stamp, there is a stamp for Triangle-Keystone.  Not surprising, of course, since that was Ms. Fazenda's studio at the time.  However, is it possible that this photo eventually lead to the famous Bathing Beauty pictures that Evans produces soon after?  Stylistically, this one is much different (and better, in my opinion), but it does make one wonder.

Another thing to notice is the handwriting.  The 'E' next to the Golden Gate stamp is almost certainly in Evans' own hand, as it closely matches what I've seen in documents that he has signed, as well as the signatures seen on his later photographs.  If that is the case, he probably wrote Ms. Fazenda's name as well, which for someone who collects both Louise Fazenda and Nelson Evans photos is kind of neat.

The Evans Studio

The Golden Gate Photo Co. of Los Angeles, is about to erect a new studio at Hollywood devoted to motion picture, portrait, publicity, reproduction and commercial purposes, specializing on light effects.  Nelson F. Evans will be business manager.  The Motion Picture World  Sept 13, 1916.

In late 1916, Nelson Evans announced the creation of his new studio, under the name Golden Gate Photo Co., in several trade publications, including The Motion Picture World and Motography.  The studio was located at 6039 Hollywood Blvd, just east of Gower Street.  It's not known when he changed the name from Golden Gate to Evans Studio, but in a letter to Keystone Studio from early March 1917, Evans is requesting that all future correspondence be addressed to Evans Studio rather than Golden Gate.  Interestingly, he also states in the letter that the Golden Gate Photo Co. is the name he is using for "our publicity and news department", but it's unknown if and when the older name ceased to be used altogether.

Several Evans portraits were taken in front of the second floor window at the front of the building, facing south.  This allowed Evans to occasionally use the sun as a light source, adding depth to the photograph.  Other photos show that there was a checkerboard floor in at least one section of the studio.

It's unknown when the studio was torn down, but the lot is currently in use as a parking lot on the west side of the Museum of Death. 

This is one of 2 photographs of the Evans Studio that appear in John Kobal's Hollywood: The Years of Innocence.  The 6 windows on the second floor are the ones seen in many portraits, including this one of Teddy Sampson and Rosemary Theby.  Also notice the use of the sun to backlight Ms. Theby's hair.