The First Hollywood
Florida and the Golden Age of Silent Filmmaking
Florida Book Awards, Gold Medal for Florida Nonfiction
Inside the filmmaking industry in Jacksonville before the rise of Hollywood
Jacksonville, Florida, was the center of the infant film industry. Devastated by fire in 1901, rebuilt in a wide variety of architectural styles, sharing the same geographic and meteorological DNA as southern California, the city was an ideal location for northern film production companies looking to relocate.
In 1908, New York-based Kalem Studios sent its first crew to Jacksonville. By 1914, fifteen major companies—including Fox and Metro Pictures—had set up shop there. Oliver Hardy, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, and the Barrymores all made movies in the Florida sunshine. In total, nearly 300 films, including the first Technicolor picture ever made, were completed in Jacksonville by 1928.
But the city couldn’t escape its past. Even as upstart Hollywood boosters sought to discredit Jacksonville, the city’s influence diminished from a combination of political upheaval, simmering racial tensions, disease, and World War I. Shawn Bean uses first-person accounts, filmmaker biographies, newspaper reports, and city and museum archives to bring to light a little-known aspect of film history. Filled with intrigue, backroom shenanigans, and missed opportunities, The First Hollywood is just the kind of drama we’ve come to expect from the big screen.
“Explores the burst of Florida film production that occurred at the dawn of the cinema, much of it in the Jacksonville area. . . . Bean is a lively writer.”—Orlando Magazine
“A richly researched and entertaining look at the days when film crews ran amok through Jacksonville’s streets.”—Florida Times-Union
“Full of Hollywood-style drama.”—Tampa Bay Magazine
“Very well written. . . . Brings together a great deal of important and interesting information.”—Tampa Bay History
“An important source on this neglected period of cinema history.”—Journal of Southern History
"A compelling story of the rise and fall of Jacksonville, Florida, as a major motion picture studio rival to Hollywood. Along the way you’ll meet visionaries, film pioneers, and famous names, as well as grifters and con men."—Richard Alan Nelson, author of Lights! Camera! Florida!"Although nonfiction, at times it reads like a fast-paced novel, telling the story of how it was Jacksonville—not Hollywood—that served as this country’s first film capital. A fascinating read."—Patrick D. Smith, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-nominated author, Florida Artists Hall of Fame inductee
Shawn C. Bean is head of creative at Firecrown. Twice named Writer of the Year by the Florida Magazine Association, he is a former music and theater reviewer for the Miami New Times and former senior editor of Florida Travel + Life.
