George Melford — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸
Among the “Who’s who” of film pioneer days, George Melford was emphatically one of the same. He and Kalem were inseparable names in the West, for he was all of it at the Glendale, California, studio.
He doped his stories, herded his army of one property man and sometimes an assistant, all over the lot; helped on the sets, and then directed the super one-reeler, at one and the same time supervising himself and the whole shooting match.
He still is at it, although now he is making George Melford Productions for Paramount. Statisticians declare that Melford has never missed a working day on the “lot” from the time that picture masterpieces consisted of a run by the town fire department, with various scenes of the excited populace in pursuit thereof.
He began as a leading man with Kalem after seven years’ stage experience. Sid Olcott was the director. Although a native of Rochester, N. Y., and a graduate from McGill University, Melford deemed that higher education should go with higher salaries, and made his start along lines of easiest resistance.
He must have made good, because they soon handed him a megaphone, which he never has relinquished since. Going to California, he chose a small, noiseless town for his studio and rolled off the one-reelers with the precision of a milkman on his rounds.
He made such productions as “The Boer War,” “Shannon of the Sixth” and “The Invisible Empire.” He ran the war film into five reels because it went more than two, and he saw no way of backing up. The firm had a fit over the cost, but cleaned up. It was one of the first five-reelers to go over the top.
Among his earlier productions for Paramount were: “The Young Romance.” with Mabel Taliaferro; “A Gentleman of Leisure,” with Wallace Eddinger; “The Woman,” with Lois Meredith and Theodore Roberts; “Stolen Goods,” with Blanche Sweet; “The Puppet Crown,” with Ina Claire and Carlyle Blackwell, the latter his old Kalem star; “The Marriage of Kitty,” with Fannie Ward, and “The Explorer,” with Lou Tellegen.
Mr. Melford’s late productions number among them “Behold My Wife,” “The Jucklings,” “The Faith Healer,” “A Wise Fool,” “The Great Impersonation,” “The Sheik,” “Moran of the Lady Letty,” “The Woman Who Walked Alone,” “Ebb Tide” and Java Head. His most recent picture is “You Can’t Fool Your Wife.”
Mr. Melford is an indefatigable worker and his only known fad is picture making.
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Dorothy Dalton has the story and action of her next feature explained to her by George Melford, her director.
Portrait by Melbourne Spurr • Los Angeles
Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)