George K. Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson founded Essanay in Chicago in 1907 — the name is the founders’ initials, “S and A,” spelled out. Anderson made himself the star, playing “Broncho Billy” in hundreds of Western shorts and inventing the movie cowboy hero in the process. Essanay grew into one of the leading American studios of the early 1910s, a member of the Edison-led Motion Picture Patents trust, with a Chicago plant and a West Coast unit. Its highest moment came in 1915, when it signed Charlie Chaplin away from Keystone for $1,250 a week. He made fourteen films there, including “The Tramp,” the short where the character found its pathos. For one year Essanay had the most famous performer in the world.
It could not keep him, and that was the pattern. Chaplin left after a year for an even larger contract at Mutual; Anderson sold his share; the trust that had protected the early studios was being dismantled by antitrust suits and outflanked by independents in California. The film industry was moving to Hollywood, and a Chicago studio built on patent-pool protection and a single cowboy star had no second act. Essanay was folded into V-L-S-E, a distribution combine, which was in turn absorbed by Vitagraph; production stopped around 1918. The brand simply ended — no revival, no catalog spun out into a modern company. The studio building on West Argyle Street still stands and is a Chicago landmark, its terracotta still carrying the Essanay name and the Indian-head logo, which is now the only place the company exists.
Worth remembering
- One of the leading American studios of the 1910s; its cowboy star Gilbert 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, a co-founder, made hundreds of Western shorts and was the screen's first cowboy hero.
- Charlie Chaplin spent 1915 at Essanay, making 14 films including 'The Tramp' for $1,250 a week, then left for a richer Mutual contract — the loss of stars like him hollowed the studio before it folded into the V-L-S-E/Vitagraph combine by 1918.
Gallery
Sources
- Essanay was founded in 1907 by George K. Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson; the name 'Essanay' comes from the founders' initials 'S and A'. Anderson starred as 'Broncho Billy' in hundreds of Western shorts. Encyclopædia Britannica
- Charlie Chaplin worked at Essanay in 1915, making 14 films including 'The Tramp'; Essanay lured him from Keystone with a $1,250-a-week salary, but he left after a year for Mutual. Wikipedia
- Essanay ceased production around 1918 after merging into the V-L-S-E distribution combine that was folded into Vitagraph; the Chicago studio building on Argyle Street survives and is a Chicago landmark. City of Chicago
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.