- Francis Boggs
Infobox actor
name = Francis Boggs
imagesize = 148px
caption = deletable image-caption
birthdate =March 1870
birthplace =Santa Rosa, California
deathdate =October 27 ,1911
deathplace =Los Angeles, California
othername =
occupation =Film director
yearsactive = 1907 - 1911
imdb = 0091767Francis W. Boggs (
March 1870 –October 27 ,1911 ) was a stage actor and pioneersilent film director. He was one of the first to direct a film in Hollywood.Biography
He was born in Santa Rosa,
California to George W. Boggs and Alabama McMeans. While in his teens he began acting with the Alcazar stock company in San Francisco and toured the American southwest. In 1900, he moved to Los Angeles but in 1902 went toChicago where he continued to work in theatre. There, he metWilliam Selig and in 1907 Boggs became involved with the making of motion pictures at Selig's Polyscope studios in Chicago. With cameraman and jack of all trades,Thomas Persons , Boggs made one of his earliest films, "The Count of Monte Cristo". He completed the interior shots at the Chicago studio but shot the scenes ofEdmond Dantès emerging from the sea at the beach near Los Angeles.In Chicago in 1908 he made "
The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays " which had its writer,L. Frank Baum present a slide show and films as a live travelogue presentation of his OZ story. In March 1909, he returned to the west coast where he filmed "In the Sultan’s Power ", one of the first motion pictures completely made in Los Angeles. He left Los Angeles in April to go on location in Yosemite and Oakland in California and the Hood River Valley inOregon . In October, Boggs returned to Los Angeles and rented a small bungalow in the Edendale district as a permanent base from which he operated a west coast satellite studio for Selig. Other East Coast studios soon began filming on the west coast to take advantage of its moderate climate. Among people Boggs started in thefilm industry were actor-directorHobart Bosworth , actor-directorRobert Z. Leonard , cowboy starArt Acord , and actresses Betty Harte and Bessie Eyton. He also gave Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle his first movie work, 1909's "Ben's Kid ", and did four short films with him.He was shot to death by Frank Minematsu, a
Japan ese janitor and caretaker, who went berserk, onOctober 27 ,1911 . [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Nippon Killer Blandly Smiles. Japanese Caretaker of Moving Picture Studio, Who Killed Manager of Concern Because He "Knew He Was Bad Man" Is Bound Over Charged. |url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/348208812.html?dids=348208812:348208812&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Nov+09%2C+1911&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=NIPPON+KILLER+BLANDLY+SMILES.&pqatl=google |quote=Frank Minnimatsu, the Japanese janitor who shot and killed Francis Boggs, manager of the moving picture company which has a studio in Edendale, was given a preliminary examination before Police Judge Rose yesterday and held for trial in the Superior Court. |work=Los Angeles Times |date=November 9 ,1911 |accessdate=2008-07-16 ] Studio owner William Selig tried to wrestle the gun away from the man and he too was shot, wounded in the arm. Ironically, that same day in 1911,David Horsley andAl Christie set up theirNestor Studios in Hollywood sounding the death knell for Edendale as the film production center of Los Angeles. Within two years more than a dozen film companies would follow Boggs' example and establish facilities in and around Los Angeles.Legacy
As Hollywood and the film industry underwent an explosive period of growth, over the years Frank Boggs' significant contribution to the establishing of what would become the Hollywood film industry was all but forgotten.
References
External links
*
Persondata
NAME= Boggs, Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Film director
DATE OF BIRTH= 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH=Santa Rosa, California USA
DATE OF DEATH=October 27 ,1911
PLACE OF DEATH=Los Angeles, California USA
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.