New York Morning Telegraph 1919

Hollywood in the Silent Film Era
from a weekly column in the

New York Morning Telegraph
1914-1922

1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922

February 2, 1919
February 9, 1919
February 16, 1919
February 23, 1919
March 2, 1919
March 9, 1919
March 16, 1919
March 23, 1919
April 13, 1919
April 20, 1919
April 27, 1919
May 4, 1919
May 11, 1919
May 18, 1919
May 25, 1919
June 8, 1919
June 22, 1919
July 6, 1919
July 13, 1919
July 27, 1919
August 3, 1919
August 10, 1919
August 24, 1919
August 31, 1919
September 7, 1919
September 14, 1919
September 21, 1919
September 28, 1919
October 5, 1919
October 12, 1919
October 19, 1919
October 26, 1919
November 2, 1919
November 9, 1919
November 16, 1919
November 23, 1919
November 30, 1919
December 7, 1919
December 14, 1919
December 21, 1919
December 28, 1919

During the silent film era, the New York Morning Telegraph had more coverage of the film industry than any other daily New York newspaper; its coverage included a weekly column of movie news from Los Angeles, initially titled "Pacific Coast News." As the film industry in Hollywood expanded, that column also grew in size. Many of the "news items" came directly from publicity agents, but they still provide a useful historic glimpse into Hollywood's growing silent film industry. Major Hollywood news stories would have been given separate articles instead of a mention inside this column. The columnists of "Pacific Coast News" included Edward V. Durling, Clem Pope, Margaret Ettinger, and Frances Agnew.

During the 1980s, when I was seeking information on the film career of William Desmond Taylor, I cast my research net through a good number of newspapers, fan magazines, and movie trade publications. Since Taylor was directing in Southern California, I was surprised to find so many items on Taylor in the New York Morning Telegraph, which I had examined on microfilm obtained through interlibrary loan. Those columns of "Pacific Coast News" had so much information, and were so useful to me, that I photocopied them for future silent film references. Now, instead of just gathering dust in my garage, I have scanned those 1914-1922 "Pacific Coast News" columns for the web, so that anyone who is interested in silent film history will have access to the material. I did not photocopy the columns beyond February 1922, and the column was occasionally missing from the microfilm source material.

Obviously, this material would be more useful if it were turned into word-searchable text instead of images.

With the increasing availability of large amounts of free web space such as the Internet Archive, all available contemporary publications on silent film should be scanned and made freely available online, and I encourage people with copies of other contemporary silent film material to do so. In any event, I hope some of you will find useful information in these columns from the New York Morning Telegraph.

Bruce Long