Clarence G. Badger — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸

Badger, one of the leading directors in motion pictures, handled a megaphone for the first time under a most unusual circumstance.

Mr. Badger was born in San Francisco, but shortly after his tenth birthday, following the death of his father, his mother took him to Boston where nearly all his relatives lived. He received his education in the famous Hub City.

His first venture after leaving school was that of a writer for the Youth’s Companion. He was one of the editors of that publication and while serving in this capacity, studied newspaper art work, a line of endeavor that he followed for some years after he left that position.

Mr. Badger soon discovered that in him had been born a love for travel, and he gratified it. He worked as an artist and reporter on some of the largest newspapers in the country and on some of the smallest. It was ever his intention to go to the Pacific Coast and eventually he reached that destination. Here, as in the East, he followed newspaper work and among others he worked on the Herald in Eureka, Calif.

After he had sold two or three screen stories he was offered a job as a member of the scenario staff at the Lubin studio [Siegmund Lubin] and he lost no time in accepting. He also did screen writing for Universal and later became affiliated with Keystone.

At a later time he was on the Vitagraph scenario staff and following the completion of a story called “Lost in Mid-Ocean,” one of Keystone’s “Broadway features,” he was told to “get a cast together, grab a megaphone and direct the picture.”

“Well, I got a cast together and I borrowed a megaphone and I’ve been directing pictures ever since,” Mr. Badger declared.

He then assumed charge of Gloria Swanson’s picture work and was responsible for bringing her into screen prominence. At about the same time he brought Bobby Vernon to fame and soon afterward made a series of pictures with the now famous dog, Teddy.

Mr. Badger’s most recent directorial work was Quincy Adams Sawyer for Metro. He is filming his second picture for this organization, a screen version of Willard Mack’s sketch, “Your Friend and Mine.”

He directed Will Rogers in fifteen productions.

Mr. Badger is married and lives in the Heights of Laurel Canyon overlooking Hollywood.

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(Left) Clarence Badger (center of group) seems to keep his company of temperamental stars in good humor.

(Above) He took three cameras to this location to film one of the big scenes of Quincy Adams Sawyer, as there was too much risk involved in taking it more than once.

Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)