Essanay Studios-historic locations (Chicago, Illinois) | film/video production studio/facility

 film/video production studio/facility, historical layer / disappeared object

1333-1345 W.Argyle Street
Active 1907-1920

The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture studio. It is best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies of 1915. The studio was founded in 1907 in Chicago, Illinois, by George K. Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson, originally as the Peerless Film Manufacturing Company. On August 10, 1907, the name was changed to Essanay (“S and A”).

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” (July 1907), featured Ben Turpin, who was then the studio janitor. The film was produced for only a couple hundred dollars and grossed several thousand dollars in release. The studio prospered and in 1908 moved to its more famous address at 1333-45 W. Argyle St in the Uptown area of Chicago.

essanaystudios.org/