New York Morning Telegraph 1918

Hollywood in the Silent Film Era
from a weekly column in the

New York Morning Telegraph
1914-1922

1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922
1918
January 6, 1918
January 13, 1918
January 20, 1918
January 27, 1918
February 3, 1918
February 10, 1918
February 17, 1918
February 24, 1918
March 3, 1918
March 10, 1918
March 17, 1918
March 24, 1918
March 31, 1918
April 7, 1918
April 14, 1918
April 21, 1918
April 28, 1918
May 5, 1918
May 12, 1918
May 19, 1918
May 26, 1918
June 2, 1918
June 9, 1918
June 16, 1918
June 23, 1918
June 30, 1918
July 7, 1918
July 14, 1918
July 21, 1918
July 28, 1918
August 4, 1918
August 11, 1918
August 18, 1918
August 25, 1918
September 1, 1918
September 8, 1918
September 15, 1918
September 22, 1918
September 29, 1918
October 6, 1918
October 13, 1918
October 6, 1918
October 20, 1918
November 3, 1918
November 10, 1918
November 17, 1918
(Here the weekly column was suspended, until a new correspondent was found to replace Edward V. Durling.)

Select the issue from the column at the left.

During the silent film era, the New York Morning Telegraph had more coverage of the film industry than any other daily New York newspaper; its coverage included a weekly column of movie news from Los Angeles, initially titled "Pacific Coast News." As the film industry in Hollywood expanded, that column also grew in size. Many of the "news items" came directly from publicity agents, but they still provide a useful historic glimpse into Hollywood's growing silent film industry. Major Hollywood news stories would have been given separate articles instead of a mention inside this column. The columnists of "Pacific Coast News" included Edward V. Durling, Clem Pope, Margaret Ettinger, and Frances Agnew.

During the 1980s, when I was seeking information on the film career of William Desmond Taylor, I cast my research net through a good number of newspapers, fan magazines, and movie trade publications. Since Taylor was directing in Southern California, I was surprised to find so many items on Taylor in the New York Morning Telegraph, which I had examined on microfilm obtained through interlibrary loan. Those columns of "Pacific Coast News" had so much information, and were so useful to me, that I photocopied them for future silent film references. Now, instead of just gathering dust in my garage, I have scanned those 1914-1922 "Pacific Coast News" columns for the web, so that anyone who is interested in silent film history will have access to the material. I did not photocopy the columns beyond February 1922, and the column was occasionally missing from the microfilm source material.

Obviously, this material would be more useful if it were turned into word-searchable text instead of images.

With the increasing availability of large amounts of free web space (such as Google), all available contemporary publications on silent film should be scanned and made freely available online, and I encourage people with copies of other contemporary silent film material to do so. In any event, I hope some of you will find useful information in these columns from the New York Morning Telegraph.

Bruce Long
bruce@asu.edu