Description

Lunch and Learn 'The First Movie Studio in Texas: Gaston Méliès’ Star Film Ranch 1910-1911' Join Professor Kathy Fuller-Seeley from the UT Department of Radio-Television-Film on Wednesday, April 22 at noon as she discusses the first movie studio in Texas via zoom. Gaston Méliès, a French film maker and producer, gambled that narrative western melodramas and comedies shot in an authentic setting would attract nickel theatergoers. He thus established the Star Film Ranch studio in San Antonio, choosing cinema’s earliest cameraman “Daddy” Paley for his experience, and hiring gifted young film actors, along with a half-dozen local cowboys. The company’s 70 action-filled comedies and melodramas of southwestern ranch life eventually won critical praise, large audiences, and substantial profits. E-mail tricia.blakistone@austin.utexas.edu for a link to this zoom talk.