Long before Hollywood the film industry was invented in Chicago: Essanay Studios, Charlie Chaplin

Dave Plier

WGN Radio’s Dave Plier shares his interview with author and historian Adam Selzer to talk about the fascinating yet little-known story of how Chicago served as the unlikely capital of American film production in the years before the rise of Hollywood (1907–1913), the rise and fall of the major Chicago movie studios in the mid-silent era (principally Essanay and Selig Polyscope), and the colorful, larger-than-life historical figures, including Thomas Edison, Charlie Chaplin, Oscar Micheaux, and Orson Welles.

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/4503619/4503619_2024-03-08-231519.128.mp3

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