New Hampshire's Lake Sunapee was once home to a now nearly forgotten silent-film star, Billy B. Van(born William Webster Van de Grift; August 3, 1870 – November 16, 1950). More than a century ago, Billy B. Van built the Equity Motion Picture Company in Georges Mills, New Hampshire, on the shores of Lake Sunapee. There, he built a casino, a theater, and what may have been Northern New England’s earliest motion-picture studio.  Van produced several silent comedies at his empire— but almost nothing survives from this surprising heyday of early filmmaking.

Billy B. Van's life in the movies is only one chapter in an entire lifetime in the entertainment industry- from his well-documented days as an acclaimed actor in minstrel shows, vaudeville and Broadway, spanning to his career as a recording artist, filmmaker, businessman and motivational speaker. Billy B. Van was truly a show-business entrepreneur cut from the same cloth as the stars of today. 

The search is now underway to find and preserve his silent comedies so that they can once again be seen, shared, and enjoyed—both by residents of the place Van loved and called home and by silent-film enthusiasts everywhere.

This site presents a list of his known films, and a timeline of his brief, yet prolific film career- all built on research culled from literally thousands of pages of film industry trade-press of the day. It is intended as a resource for those interested in Billy B. Van in particular, or silent film in general, as well as a research tool for those who may have leads on locating and preserving these unique local historical artifacts. 

Visitors can also listen to phonograph recordings of Van’s vaudeville routines and watch two of his recently rediscovered films. A third, “Van-ar-chy,” will be unveiled for the first time in more than a century during a special screening on November 1 at the historic Newport Opera House in Newport, New Hampshire- the very town in which much of the film was made.