Early Days of Film Production Are Recalled by Billy B. Van

From New England Edition NEWPORT, N. H.— Billy B. Van, one of the country’s first film comedians, now a pine soap manufacturer and unofficial mayor here, recalled recently how the nearby community of Georges Mills muffed an opportunity to become a film-producing center because the staid oldtimers objected to actresses in grass skirts and thought film folk were plain nuts.

’Thirty-three years ago this summer. Van related, the Equity Motion Picture Co., later amalgamated with MGM, produced two silent pictures at Georges Mills, and then, after residents claimed the industry had “opened the portals of hell” to the lake resort community, the company abandoned its large, newly constructed studio and moved to Hollywood.

Van himself was a member of that company and others Included the famous Beaumont sisters. Rose and Nelle; Fatty Heirs, predecessor to Fatty Arbuckle in the slapstick comedy days, and extras recruited from the home town folks, including Lee Collins, then 10 years old, who has since become a prominent theatrical producer. After the company went to Hollywood its roster also boasted such names as Harold Lloyd, “Gentleman Jim” Corbett, Hal Roach and Fatty Arbuckle. Van later appeared in a few productions filmed at the Thomas A. Edison Studios in West Orange, N. J., and New York City, and then quit the films entirely to become a top stage comedian on Broadway.

Altogether more than 75 actors, actresses, cameramen and studio technicians descended on Georges Mills in that summer back in 1915 and made two complete productions, a thriller, “The Zulu Nightmare,” and a pie-tossing slapstick comedy, “The Lucky Hobo.” The company was quartered at what is now Russell’s inn and at several homes in the community. The eight girls in the company were seen about the village in grass skirts, just as they appeared in the films, and their appearance, together with the sight of heavy makeup on the faces of both the actors and actresses, was too much for the community and brought the now famous “portals of hell” complaint.

Discouraged by local resentment, the company decided to quit the community, which they had regarded as an ideal natural setting on Lake Sunapee, with its picturesque islands, the beautiful surrounding mountains, and the abundance of snow for winter scenes.

’The studio stage and dressing rooms were torn down, but the Friars clubhouse that the company used now serves as a residence in the center of the town. After a movement to rename Georges Mills as “Van Harbor” in his honor had failed. Comedian Van razed a huge casino which at that time had the best dance floor in New Hampshire, sold all his property in the village and moved to Newport.

Recalling the film folks’ cool reception at Georges Mills, Van said: “The fine old people there thought all actors were lunatics and they were sure I was crazy. They just didn’t understand what the motion picture company was trying to accomplish. I wish I had the opportunity to do it over again. I might be able to make them understand now. ‘ He probably would, too, because, in addition to being a successful soap manufacturer, he represents leading corporations in lectures throughout the United States on “Human Relations.”


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