Essanay Studios

The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was a motion picture studio founded on August 10, 1907 in the neighborhood of Uptown, Chicago, IL by George K. Spoor and Broncho Billy Anderson under the name Essanay ("S and A"). It is best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies of 1915. Essanay was originally located at 496 Wells Street (modern numbering: 1300 N. Wells). Essanay's first film, "An Awful Skate, or The Hobo on Rollers," starring Ben Turpin (then the studio janitor), produced for only a couple hundred dollars, grossed several thousand dollars in release. The studio prospered and eventually moved to its more famous address at 1333-45 W. Argyle St. Essanay produced silent film with such stars (and stars of the future) as Ben Turpin, Wallace Beery, Francis X. Bushman, Gloria Swanson, Tom Mix, Ann Little, Helen Dunbar, Lester Cuneo, Virginia Valli, Edward Arnold, and Rod La Rocque. The mainstays of the organization, however, were studio co-owner G. M. Anderson,... full article at wikipedia