Who Am I? September 2020

I was born in Little Rock, AR. My parents were born in NYC though my paternal grandparents came from Prussia and my maternal grandparents were from Czarist Russia. My dad was a traveling salesman. I grew up in AR and MO. For a short time I thought I about learning how to buy and sell cotton for a living; but instead, at 18, I moved to NYC to seek my fortune.

NYC was a mighty tough town even at the turn of the 20th century and I first worked as a newspaper vendor. Someone gave me a tip to head over to the Edison Company where I worked first as a janitor but later on I began posing for moving pictures there when they began shooting one-reelers. Thereafter, I got some gigs in vaudeville and theatre to make ends meet. Now, I’m fixin’ to tell you how my career really took off!

My leap into pictures, if you can call it ‘a leap’, was when I got several roles in a 13 minute heist film aboard some rolling stock in Middlesex County, N.J. That very early flicker actually had a plot and told a narrative. Years later it was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. I knew, after shooting that picture, that my future would lead me to writing, directing, starring and producing my own horse operas.

Truth be told, my initial debut on a horse wasn’t very auspicious. I mounted the poor beast on the wrong side and promptly fell off! Few who saw my early films would ever guess that I wasn’t born ridin’, shootin,’ whoopin’ and a hollerin’; however, before long, I was doing all of those things. I wore studded chaps and shiny spurs and walked with a swagger. I busted broncos, roped and rounded up stray longhorns that had wandered off from the herd. I also corralled many a bad hombre and brought a bunch of ‘em to justice. I was a darn good scrapper and was mighty handy with a six￾shooter too. Some would later write that I was the first movie hero. For sure, I was the first cowpoke hero! 

My first movies were shot along the Palisades near Fort Lee, N.J. After a spell, I moseyed out to Chicago to found a studio with my new ‘pardner’. Before too long, we drifted out to CA to shoot on location. I daresay we turned out between 2 and 5 two-reelers per week. In total, I reckon we produced practically 400 of ‘em before 1920! 

I was awarded an ‘Honorary Academy Award’ as a motion picture pioneer. You can also find me in the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Heck, I’m even got me my own star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame!

That’s me, the mangy-looking desperado in the photo below.

(1a)What was my birth name? (1b)What was my sobriquet?  (1c)There are 2 versions of how I acquired my nickname. Name one of them. (2a)What stage name did I write and act under? (2b)What were the names of my dad and mom? (2c)What was the title of that 13 minute silent early 20th century heist film that I made? (3a)What was the name of my ‘pardner’ in Chicago? (3b)What studio did we found together? As an aside, our studio was eventually taken over by Warner Brothers. (3c) What was the address of that studio in Chicago? Today there is a park named after me near the former site of that studio. (4a)What is the exact address of my star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? (4b)I was honored by having my image on a U.S. postage stamp. When was that stamp issued? What denomination appears on that stamp? And, finally, from what film of mine was that image reproduced?