The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.
Events
- February 5 - Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.
- March - Oscar Micheaux premieres The Homesteader, the first feature-length race film, starring pioneering African American actress Evelyn Preer, becoming the first African American to produce and direct a motion picture.
- May 13 - D. W. Griffith's first film to be released by United Artists, Broken Blossoms, has its premiere in New York City.
- August 29 - The Miracle Man displayed Lon Chaney's talent for make-up and made him famous as a character actor.
- September 1 - United Artists release their first film, His Majesty, the American starring Douglas Fairbanks.
- September 18 - Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin opens rebuilt as a permanent cinema with the première of Ernst Lubitsch's Madame Dubarry.[1][2]
- October 24 - The Capitol Theatre in New York City becomes one of the largest cinemas in the world with 4,000 seats.
- November 16 - Constance Talmadge becomes a star with the release of A Virtuous Vamp.[3]
- Harold Lloyd begins holding test screenings of his films and modifying them based on audience feedback, a technique which continues in use.
- Tri-Ergon sound-on-film technology is developed by three German inventors, Josef Engl, Hans Vogt (engineer), and Joseph Massole; however, the era of sound films is over 6 years away.
- Ken Hill and Kenny Hill launch Coplin Artists.
Top-grossing films (U.S.)
Notable films released in 1919
U.S.A. unless stated
- Anne of Green Gables, directed by William Desmond Taylor; starring Mary Miles Minter and Paul Kelly
- Ask Father, a Harold Lloyd short
- The Avalanche directed by George Fitzmaurice starring Elsie Ferguson
- Back Stage, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
- The Beetle, directed by Alexander Butler - (GB)
- The Belle of New York, directed by Julius Steger; starring Marion Davies
- The Better 'Ole - (GB)
- Blind Husbands, directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim
- Bolshevism on Trial, directed by Harley Knoles
- The Boy in Blue (Knabe in Blau), directed by F.W. Murnau - (Germany)
- Broken Blossoms, directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess
- Bumping into Broadway, starring Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels
- Captain Kidd's Kids, a Harold Lloyd short
- The Cinema Murder, directed by George D. Baker; starring Marion Davies
- Daddy-Long-Legs, starring Mary Pickford
- Damaged Goods, directed by Alexander Butler - (GB)
- The Dark Star, directed by Allan Dwan; starring Marion Davies and Norman Kerry
- A Day's Pleasure, a Charlie Chaplin short.
- The Delicious Little Devil, starring Mae Murray and Rudolph Valentino
- Different from the Others, directed by Richard Oswald, starring Conrad Veidt - (Germany)
- The Doll, directed by Ernst Lubitsch - (Germany)
- Don't Change Your Husband, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Gloria Swanson
- The Echo of Youth, directed by Ivan Abramson
- The False Faces, directed by Irvin Willat, starring Henry B. Walthall and Lon Chaney
- The First Men in the Moon - (GB)
- From Hand to Mouth, a Harold Lloyd short
- Getting Mary Married, directed by Allan Dwan; starring Marion Davies and Matt Moore
- The Grim Game, starring Harry Houdini
- Hawthorne of the U.S.A. directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
- Heart o' the Hills directed by Sidney Franklin, starring Mary Pickford
- Here Comes the Bride directed by John S. Robertson, starring John Barrymore, Faire Binney
- His Majesty, the American, starring Douglas Fairbanks
- The Homesteader, directed by Oscar Micheaux, starring Evelyn Preer
- Intoxication, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Asta Nielsen (Germany)
- The Jack of Hearts, starring Hoot Gibson
- J'accuse, directed by Abel Gance - (France)
- The Knickerbocker Buckaroo, starring Douglas Fairbanks
- The Life Line, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Wallace Beery
- The Lost Battalion
- Love's Prisoner, starring Olive Thomas
- Madame DuBarry, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings - (Germany)
- Male and Female, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Gloria Swanson and Thomas Meighan
- The Master Mystery, (serial), starring Harry Houdini
- The Miracle Man, starring Thomas Meighan, Lon Chaney and Betty Compson
- The Mistress of the World, directed by Joe May (Weimar Republic)
- My Lady's Garter, directed by Maurice Tourneur
- My Wife, the Movie Star, directed by Ernst Lubitsch (Germany)
- The Oyster Princess (Die Austerprinzessin) - (Germany)
- Ravished Armenia - directed by Oscar Apfel, starring Aurora Mardiganian
- The Roaring Road, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
- Sahara, starring Louise Glaum, written by C. Gardner Sullivan
- The Sentimental Bloke - (Australia)
- Sir Arne's Treasure (Herr Arnes pengar), directed by Mauritz Stiller, starring Richard Lund - (Sweden)
- A Society Exile directed by George Fitzmaurice starring Elsie Ferguson
- Sons of Ingmar (Ingmarssönerna), directed by Victor Sjöström - (Sweden)
- South (documentary of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition), filmed by Frank Hurley - (GB)
- Sunnyside, a Charlie Chaplin short.
- The Test of Honor, directed by John S. Robertson, starring John Barrymore in his first dramatic movie role, and Constance Binney
- True Heart Susie, starring Lillian Gish and Bobby Harron
- The Valley of the Giants, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
- Victory, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Lon Chaney, Seena Owen, Wallace Beery, Jack Holt
- When the Clouds Roll By, starring Douglas Fairbanks
- The White Heather, directed by Maurice Tourneur
- The Wicked Darling, directed by Tod Browning, starring Lon Chaney and Priscilla Dean
- The Witness for the Defense starring Elsie Ferguson and Warner Oland
- Yankee Doodle in Berlin, directed by F. Richard Jones, starring Bothwell Browne, Ford Sterling, Marie Prevost, produced by Mack Sennett
- You're Fired, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid & Wanda Hawley
Animated short film series
Births
- January 1 - Carole Landis, actress (died 1948)
- January 13 - Robert Stack, actor (died 2003)
- January 21 - Jinx Falkenburg, model, actress (died 2003)
- January 23 - Ernie Kovacs, comedian, actor (died 1962)
- January 24 - Coleman Francis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1973)
- February 5
- February 11 - Eva Gabor, actress (died 1995)
- February 18 - Jack Palance, actor (died 2006)
- March 2 - Jennifer Jones, actress (died 2009)
- March 25 - Jeanne Cagney, actress (died 1984)
- March 29 - Eileen Heckart, actress (died 2001)
- April 13 - Howard Keel, actor (died 2004)
- April 18 - Vondell Darr, child actress (died 2012)
- April 18 - Virginia O'Brien, American actress (died 2001)
- May 8 - Lex Barker, actor (died 1973)
- May 23 - Betty Garrett, actress (died 2011)
- June 12 - Uta Hagen, actress (died 2004)
- June 14 - Sam Wanamaker, director, actor (died 1993)
- June 19 - Pauline Kael, film critic (died 2001)
- June 24 - Al Molinaro, actor (died 2015)
- June 29 - Slim Pickens, actor (died 1983)
- July 7 - Jon Pertwee, actor (died 1996)
- July 26 - Virginia Gilmore, actress (died 1986)
- August 2 - Nehemiah Persoff, actor
- August 8 - Dino De Laurentiis, producer (died 2010)
- September 2 - Marge Champion, dancer, actress, choreographer
- September 18 - Diana Lewis, actress (died 1997)
- September 26 - Barbara Britton, actress (died 1980)
- October 5 - Donald Pleasence, actor (died 1995)
- November 4
- November 13
- November 15 - Nova Pilbeam, actress (died 2015)
- November 19 - Alan Young, actor (died 2016)
Deaths
- January 14 - Shelley Hull, 34, American stage & film actor, husband of Josephine Hull, brother of Henry Hull
- January 31 - Nat C. Goodwin, 59, veteran stage star & silent film actor
- February 3 - Mary Moore (actress), 29, Irish actress, sister of Joe, Matt, Owen and Tom Moore A Million a Minute
- February 17 - Vera Kholodnaya, 25, Russian silent film actress, A Corpse Living, The Woman Who Invented Love, Her Sister's Rival, Song of Triumphant Love
- April 9 - Sidney Drew, 55, American stage & film actor A Florida Enchantment
- May 3 - Daniel Gilfether, 70, American actor of stage & screen
- May 21 - Lamar Johnstone, 34, American silent film actor
- November 24 - William Stowell, 34, American silent film star
References
- ↑ Kreimeier, Klaus (1996). The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918–1945. p. 56.
- ↑ Silberman, Marc (1995). German Cinema: Texts in Context. Detroit: Wayne State University. p. 3. ISBN 978-0814325605.
- ↑ "Brief Descriptions and Expanded Essays of National Film Registry Titles". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 27, 2018.
- ↑ Box office at IMDB accessed January 27 2017
- ↑ Birchard, Robert S. (2004), Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood, Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, p. 144,
ISBN 0-8131-2324-0
- ↑ Quigley Publishing Company "The All Time Best Sellers", International Motion Picture Almanac 1937-38 (1938) p 942 accessed January 28 2017
- ↑ Finler, Joel W. (April 2, 1992), The Hollywood Story (Second ed.), Mandarin, p. 472, ISBN 0-7493-0637-8
- ↑ Balio, Tino (2009). United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-23004-3.
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