00:00:09.440 - 00:00:49.550

Oh, this train is being robbed. It is the most famous robbery of the 20th century. And the shove it gave to a budding art form has affected all our lives. Hm. Uh huh. The train robber throwing the

00:00:49.550 - 00:01:05.140

man over the side of the wood car is a small time vaudeville actor named Max Aaronson from Little Rock, Arkansas. The train is roaring over a spur line of the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad near Paterson, New Jersey Legend has it that the dummy landed in the

00:01:05.140 - 00:01:29.460

path of an oncoming trolley car, nearly wrecking it. The movie was the Great Train robbery. It was made by the Edison Studios in 19 3 and directed by Edwin S. Porter. The Great Train robbery was an immediate triumph, and because of its success, Aronson decided to

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become rich by making movies. So he changed his name to GM Anderson and became famous as Bronco Billy Anderson. Mhm. Now this is a picture postcard of Niles, California, Ah, Western town just over the hills and a little east of San Francisco Bay. Niles was quiet

00:01:59.090 - 00:02:19.710

enough in 19 8, when Anderson burst upon the scene with him was an incredible revenue of actors, cameramen, riel, cowboys with real guns and a taste for liquor. Pretty girls, baseball players, comedians, championship boxers and almost anyone else who wanted to tag along. Yeah, For eight

00:02:19.710 - 00:02:56.280

years, Niles reeled while the S N, a film manufacturing company, cranked out one and two riel movies starring Wallace Beery, True Boardman, Ben Turpin, Shep the Cali, Edna Provide since Charlie Chaplin and, of course, Bronco Billy himself. By the end of the 19th century,

00:02:56.280 - 00:03:18.390

most Americans were convinced that science had reached the altar Man might even fly. In the fall of 18 89 1 of Thomas Edison's assistants, William Dixon, began to develop the motion picture. By 18 93 the doors of hundreds of conetta scope parlors were thrown open. The

00:03:18.390 - 00:03:47.720

American public crowded in to pay a penny to see pictures that actually move Sandow, the Strongman, Little Egypt, Queen of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This shocking display brought forth the first censorship of the infant medium. Edison saw money in the project when his competition began

00:03:47.720 - 00:04:13.460

to project pictures on a screen, he hurried a projector of his own into production. If the peepshow conetta scope was popular, projected films caused sensation. Movie goers sat and watched anything just so long as it moves, while films like these were being made by the hundreds.

00:04:13.470 - 00:04:29.070

And Edison director Edwin S. Porter hired a down and out actor named Max Aronson, who recalls, I went and went in and they were all sitting around eating, and Porter says, Well, young man, what can I do for you? E said. Well, you could give me

00:04:29.070 - 00:04:45.510

a doughnut and a cup of coffee so we sit down and help yourself. He wanted to show the fire department rushing down the street. So he said, Anderson, you got on. Ask the fire department down the dock there, raced down the street and I said to

00:04:45.510 - 00:04:57.820

the captain, I said, You will you come out and running down the street? We we want to take a picture of What do you mean show coming out and running down the street? You want to take a picture of it? Yeah, we want to take a

00:04:57.820 - 00:05:11.710

picture. So how good the fire department is you get out of here is, you know, close those $400 every time we take them out. So I went back. I told Porter. I said, set him up. They're coming and he saw all set up for it. I

00:05:11.710 - 00:05:56.230

went in and I turned the oh so that when they come and the reporter got the picture of it was tremendous. That's the first pictures that I made with that. Yeah, yeah, Uh huh. Reporter's instinct told him that movies which told stories were better

00:05:56.230 - 00:06:12.850

than those that did. So he decided to tell a story. This is how it happened. Well, we're all sitting around there one day, and the pictures were dying out in the theaters, didn't use them anymore chasers. And he says, I think everything's all through in pictures

00:06:14.010 - 00:06:26.800

and then some chapter. He said, You know, Porter, I was in a sketch. We called it the Great Train Robbery, and we actually put it in a play. It was so good. And I said, supporters, that's what we should do. Make a picture called the Great

00:06:26.800 - 00:06:39.790

Train Robbery as the old parties to know what it would cost about. I should find out going and see to the powers that be. So it wasn't he had a talk with Waters that was the head of the Edison company. Time we wouldn't do it is

00:06:39.790 - 00:06:55.590

it would cost too much. And he said, How much would it cost? And part of that, I don't know if you figure out what it will cost and the party went back and he said, Well, would cost about $800. They finally let us make it, and

00:06:55.590 - 00:07:09.160

that's where we went out. We got a company because it went over New Jersey and makes the great train robbery. It wasn't made of the Western porter, he says. Can you write Anderson And says Reid, I was born on the horse and raising a saddle He

00:07:09.160 - 00:07:24.230

said, Well, then you one of the robbers. And so when we went out to the the the horses at the stable and I went to mount the horse, some shop says, Hey, but please don't want him from that side. What's the difference? He says. You'll find

00:07:24.230 - 00:07:40.010

out. So I climbed on the horse and I hadn't gone but 100 ft for he threw me all. And Porter said, I thought you said you could ride Anderson. I said what I did You were born on the horse, he said. I was born or not

00:07:40.010 - 00:08:04.030

on this horse, so that's what he he said. Well, you play different parts. Aronson changed his name to Gilbert M. Anderson and left Edison Studios and went to Chicago. There he knocked around, making a few films for several companies. Anderson then met George Case Pour, the

00:08:04.030 - 00:08:23.450

proprietor of a vaudeville circuit who rented out films after they had run in his theaters together, using the initials of their names S and A, They formed the S and a film manufacturing company in 19 7. Their trademark was the Indian head from the penny, and

00:08:23.450 - 00:08:40.700

it became famous all over the world. Anderson, still excited about the idea of the Western setting for his story films, headed for Colorado and from there to the San Francisco Bay area. He made a film or two in Sandra Fell, then looking for more rugged country.

00:08:40.910 - 00:09:05.060

Settled in nine mhm When S. N. A set up for business. Niles was a pleasant, quiet place, and it wasn't any small time hick town, either. Here is the main street, the state Bank, a good school industry, a newspaper and, of course, and Odd Fellows Hall

00:09:05.840 - 00:09:25.590

at either end of town. There was lots of open space and up in the hills, the wilderness of Niles Canyon just right for gold mining stage coach holdups, claim jumping, posse riding, train robberies and other Western activity. Imagine the effect of the S and a gang

00:09:25.590 - 00:09:45.250

on the town. The fast cars that roared up First Street dynamite blasts and mine shaft outlaws. Horses thundering past the default smoke pots belching in the woods dummies flung off the barn roof. Niles loved the movie making part of it. But after work, the uproar continued.

00:09:45.660 - 00:10:03.670

Cowpokes were riel, and so was the ammunition they used to shoot out the light bulbs processes of cowboys That s n a, brought from Colorado and Montana. Used to gallop the whole length of the town, hollering and shooting it up. They converged on bars and saloons

00:10:03.680 - 00:10:25.650

when they got drunk. They acted just like the Cowboys did in the movies, only rougher. Um, because he never really learned to ride well or shoot. Bronco Billy invented the double broncos riding double Was Bill Kato a tough hombre from Los Bomber. Well, he was this

00:10:25.650 - 00:10:40.990

An excellent writer used the double the first to read into the things that I couldn't do the things that I've prayed. I might get hurt if I got hurt and be normal. Picture made their run. I got to be able to write. I didn't use many

00:10:41.000 - 00:10:55.870

doubles and Bill Kato remembers, but that changed it out of from one horse of the other. If you make a slip, you go under. The only time I was injured was I went over a cliff with a bronc. I was breaking for Anderson. I was playing

00:10:55.870 - 00:11:09.790

the sheriff and I think he crowded me off of this new grade of a soft and I hit that in my horse. Feet sunk in and he went over and he went down about 75 ft end over end me and saddle. But I wasn't even scratched,

00:11:09.790 - 00:11:24.800

but it Boogerd me up. I was laid up for about three weeks months, but he paid my salary all the time. I was gone. He was a fine man for me to work for. I liked him very much. Yeah, Billy's shooting double was known only as

00:11:24.810 - 00:11:44.050

Texas George. He was just out of camera range in this sequence, doing the shooting with his six gun. George could pick the flies off the lager beer signs in the bar room of the Hotel Wesley. Most of the rowdy element lived at the West, the more

00:11:44.050 - 00:12:00.210

sedate in the married folks like the Todds through Boardman and his wife and Mr and Mrs Ben Turpin lived here at the new Hotel Belvoir. Later, this row of cottages was built on Second Street, behind the new studios and the married couples, and the nice girls

00:12:00.220 - 00:12:19.420

lived there. Bronco Billy, however, lived in splendor in San Francisco. Here he could be close to the bright lights, the fancy restaurants, Theo, elegant chorus girls who were promised starring roles and who accompanied him everywhere. Anderson commuted from the city to the studio at Niles in

00:12:19.420 - 00:12:34.290

a white Thomas Flyer touring car chauffeur driven. You could hear it coming a half a mile away when they weren't shooting up the town or racing around in fast cars. The S and a crew high jinked in the streets of Nile. Here is a photo of

00:12:34.290 - 00:12:52.750

an impromptu parade gathered at the depot to greet Vic Hotel, one of the comedians. As he returned from his honeymoon, the local girls were always being given the rush by the fast talking actors, or else the town bucks were courting the pretty chorus girls Bronco Billy

00:12:52.750 - 00:13:12.740

found in San Francisco as if things weren't lively enough. Bronco was an avid sports fan and surrounded himself with athletes of all sorts. This unusual snapshot shows some of the lightweight boxers who played bit parts between bouts of boxing and party. Al Herman Spider Roach, later

00:13:12.740 - 00:13:32.870

boxing coach at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, read Watson, who ruined a promising career and died a drug addict. And in the center Pat Rooney, Broncos chauffeur who also acted bit park between parties, the boxing matches, the wild rides, girls baseball games and just plain

00:13:32.870 - 00:13:53.140

hell raising. The wonder is that so many hundreds of films were made, but they were. Oliver's barn looked like this in 19 7. Two years later, it had been transformed into the first permanent motion picture studio on the West Coast. The films were developed and edited

00:13:53.250 - 00:14:11.600

in a dark room installed in a 70 ft long Pullman car parked on a freight siding. These temporary facilities were followed by this elaborate studio, unlike many of the still primitive studios in Chicago and new York. There were klieg lights, a scene, shop, dressing rooms, a

00:14:11.600 - 00:14:34.690

projection room, costume and prop rooms. All this months before de Mille made the first feature in Hollywood. Anderson later recalled how the character of Bronco Billy was born. The Western Pictures in a Brasilia didn't catch on, and I realized it should be built around the character.

00:14:34.960 - 00:14:54.990

When I read that story of probability and the Baby by Peter Beck, I I said, That's the trick. Build them around A character called Bronco Billy Bronco. Billy got his plots from everywhere. I wrote some him, and I got him out of magazines, he argues. In

00:14:54.990 - 00:15:19.310

magazine was a Good Western Story magazine. I never paid for any story about the magazine. They tried to get my money back for that, too. They never complained. I just obtained from a story from the Organs magazine. I gave him some publicity, right? The picture that

00:15:19.310 - 00:15:38.480

Anderson presented of the West was fair, not too romantic, but not too painfully realistic either. It certainly was not a slick and glamorous West. At any rate, men schemed and they were weak. Women were preyed upon and needed protecting. Towns were run by rotten government and

00:15:38.480 - 00:16:00.170

crooked sheriffs. But Bronco Billy remained true to his code and usually did a good deed or two along the way. This was the first Siri's starring the same characters, but each movie was independent of the others. Bronco Billy's fans could never be sure which side of

00:16:00.170 - 00:16:25.370

the law he was on, and Billy frequently was in trouble with the law. But one element remained fairly constant. Billy always reformed and frequently got out and out Salvation. The Bible figures heavily in many of the films. The character of Bronco Billy as it developed by

00:16:25.370 - 00:17:00.830

Anderson was fascinating in its variety. And steadfast Bronco could be killed off, Married off, disappear over the hills, waving goodbye with his hat. But he would always be back next week. Noble is ever always true. Well, uh huh, right. Sometime in late 1912 or early 1913,

00:17:00.910 - 00:18:44.670

Anderson wrote, directed and starred in. Why Bronco Billy left Bear County with this film, Almost everything in the vocabulary of the western was complete. Yeah. Uh huh, Yeah, yeah, people.

00:19:14.640 - 00:19:31.470

Unfortunately, this is the only existing print of Bear County and the crucial scene of the girl giving a Bible to Bronco Billy is missing, but here you can see him walking away thoughtfully examining his gift. It will figure importantly in the coming action, as it usually

00:19:31.470 - 00:22:32.290

did when Billy ran onto a Bible being. Yeah, mhm. Yeah. In the winter of 1914, Anderson heard about a new comedian who was rapidly becoming popular in a Siris of Keystone comedy. His name was

00:22:32.300 - 00:22:50.240

Charles Chaplin. Spore had never heard of him but gave Anderson permission to hire him. Mack Sennett, who had Chaplain under contract, was worried about raids on his star and closed his lot to everyone but regular employees. Anderson, the story goes, put on his cowboy costume, posed

00:22:50.240 - 00:23:24.350

as an extra and talk chaplain into coming to S N. A. At the unbelievable salary of $1250 a week. He turned out to be worth every cent of it cool on January 2nd 1915 s and they announced that it now had the A B CS of

00:23:24.360 - 00:23:49.100

Entertainment GM Anderson, Francis X. Bushman and Charlie Chaplin. S N A. Had hit the top. Chaplin made his first film at the Chicago studio, but Chicago, Winters and Charlie did not agree. So he left for Niles. Of the 14 films that Chaplin made for S and

00:23:49.100 - 00:24:24.170

a five were made it Niles between January and April of 1915, right. These scenes from a night out feature Ben Turpin brought from Chicago, his magnificently crossed eyes became a landmark in movie comedy. Publicity releases claimed that they were insured for $1 million. Ensure that is

00:24:24.340 - 00:24:49.560

against Uncrossed. The champion was started in late February, yet used some of Bronco Billy's boxers as extras, and Bronco Billy appeared himself as a member of the ringside crowd. It was his only appearance in a Chaplin film. In all of the transitional Essanay films, Chaplain kept

00:24:49.570 - 00:25:10.730

inventing new bits of business, new routines, little touches here and there that were to be seen again, polished and flawless. In his later film, it was almost as if he were trying his wings there in Niles. Much too Anderson chagrin. Charlie was the only man in

00:25:10.730 - 00:25:27.070

charge of a Chaplin film. He worked in his own manner and handpicked the crew to work with him, Anderson remembered. I took joy back there. You know, the work in studio in Chicago, but he wouldn't do it. He didn't like to be told what to do.

00:25:27.080 - 00:25:45.580

Charlie wanted to think of things and go themselves. And he didn't like the camera man we had there and he didn't like fellow painted the scenery, didn't like this. Anything like that. Eso way went on back. Denials. Charlie made his own pictures. He directed himself and

00:25:45.580 - 00:26:02.850

he he conceived them and he wrote them and he did everything. I took Charlie about, Oh, about a week to make a film. He was very so making. It took me about three days to make a one relearn about five days to make a two reeler

00:26:05.910 - 00:26:24.360

in the park was made in late February at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Chaplain never forgot the training that he had in slapstick and visual comedy from Mack Sennett, but new elements began to appear. Satire. Irony, unusual in film comedies, became important ingredient as these. That's

00:26:24.360 - 00:26:44.400

great actors. They look good. Well, that's what you wanted. Pretty in the photograph. Well provides didn't do much acting. Shortage just covers the sweetheart he covered. For years, Edna was just enough bigger than Charlie to set off his slight frame, and her blonde boxing nous emphasized

00:26:44.410 - 00:27:04.020

his dark, fragile quality. Chaplain groomed her carefully, taught her to become the perfect foil for his antics. She was always able to react to him with the perfect mixture of surprise and amusement. She never overacted, and she supplied charm and romance to the film. Edna remained

00:27:04.020 - 00:27:23.140

with chaplain for the next nine years. Together they made 35 films. She never had a contract. At the end of their career together, he rewarded Edna by starting her in his only tragedy, Ah, woman of Paris. Until her death a few years ago, Edna per violence

00:27:23.140 - 00:27:49.630

remained on chaplains pension role. Even after his first marriage. Their names were often linked together romantically by gossip columnist and Edna never married. In March, Chapman started work on the film that is recognized as his first real masterpiece, tramp. While at Keystone, Charlie did not have

00:27:49.630 - 00:28:15.120

complete freedom to do as he wished. Senate kept control of each film, but with S N. A chaplain was free to create. The Keystone comedies had been shot in a day or two. The Tramp took three weeks to make an unheard of shooting schedule. Chaplain worked

00:28:15.130 - 00:28:40.460

carefully, refining each sequence, introducing a pathos that was completely new to comedy. In this brilliant film, the ideas that have been forming in Charlie's mind crystallized for the first time, and The Little Tramp, immortal and universal to all men walk down a dusty road near nine.

00:28:41.740 - 00:29:15.760

Yeah, this walk became one of the greatest moments in all screen history. If you have lots of cowboy costumes and props and a Western street for a setting and you want to make comedies three economical result could only be

00:29:15.770 - 00:29:42.320

Western comedy. These scenes are from Scales of Love. Yeah, Yeah! 1913 Essanay was one of the leading motion picture companies in the country. It's studios in Chicago were filled with top stars featured in sophisticated but gripping drama set against glittering high society background. Spore was anxious

00:29:42.320 - 00:30:00.440

for the Nile's studios to vary its product, so he asked Anderson to produce some slapstick comedies to compete with the very successful Keystone comedies being made by Senate. The result to Siri's, each featuring a character of Snake Bill Slim or Alkali Ice. The comedies have now

00:30:00.440 - 00:30:26.970

disappeared, and these scenes are from a rare print. The only one of these films thought still to be in existence Mhm, 1913. It was easy to see that Biograph films were different for most others. Most of the audience probably didn't know why. At least they couldn't

00:30:26.970 - 00:30:46.430

have told why. The reason, though, was David Wark Griffith. This Griffith Western, the battle of elder Bush Gulch is considered his grapes. Griffith had been directing films with intensity, grandeur, poetry and a mastery of film action like Nothing Ever Seen before. He built suspense by cutting

00:30:46.430 - 00:31:03.820

from one piece of action to another. He also used cutting from scene to scene to establish contrasts and frames of reference. He used the flashback. He even spent valuable time and film on shots that simply set atmosphere and move. He broke scenes into many shots, and

00:31:03.820 - 00:31:22.380

a single piece of action might be seen from many points of view. Griffith loved great panoramas of countryside and used them effectively in the few westerns that he made. Watch how he builds almost unbearable tension in the Indian raid sequence from the battle of elder Bush

00:31:22.390 - 00:32:22.960

Gulf Yeah, E After Griffith, nothing was ever the same about the time that Bronco Billy was getting a little tired of his Western roll. A new star appear William S. Hart wasa cowboy. He could ride magnificently and

00:32:22.960 - 00:32:37.930

shoot it out with blazing style. What is most important? He knew the West he had ridden with trail herds. He knew the misery of frontier towns, the tragedy of casual death. He had slept under the stars and he had felt the grid of dust on his

00:32:37.940 - 00:33:00.570

teeth as he rode across the prairies. William S. Hart was real. The westerns he made were really too. After his very first film, he was an unmistakable star. Heart wrote and directed his own films, as did Anderson. But there was a vast difference. The heart Westerns

00:33:00.580 - 00:33:46.050

had a raw, almost documentary quality about them that was urgent and exciting. All other westerns look tame and staging in comparison. Yet there was also poetry and regard for human emotions and feelings that made the films tender and compassion. Yeah, yeah.

00:33:49.440 - 00:34:09.970

William s. Hart expanded Anderson's idea of the Western cowboy star technique and style. He derived from Griffin and with his own sense of the West, created a character and a Siris of Westerns that have never been surpassed. But movie audiences were advancing rapids. Their taste was

00:34:09.980 - 00:34:25.490

being shaped by the work of new film marks, and they were not as content to be entertained by the same old money making formulas as Bronco Billy thought they should be. Anderson was isolated there in Niles Canyon. Apart from the exciting things that were happening to

00:34:25.490 - 00:34:43.810

the movies and other places, he continued to turn out one of his westerns each week or so. He was not really a creative artist, but an innovator, even an inventor, a good showman. Basically, he repeated the same formula, the same character, the same situations, over and

00:34:43.810 - 00:35:17.270

over again, with just enough variation to keep the audience is interesting. Yeah, Anderson board by Bronco Billy tried new characters. He loved playing the role of a gentleman thief, and this film after Midnight is one of his forays into that role. It is remarkable for the

00:35:17.270 - 00:36:02.550

bold use of dark and light, mhm, mhm. The drama and suspense depend on the visual elements, the circle of life from the flashlight, the hidden burglar in the dark alco illuminated only by shafts of light from the other room. Mhm, probably the best

00:36:02.560 - 00:36:28.200

film Anderson made in 1915 was a strange combination of the Nile's western and the Chicago High Society melodrama. Naked Hands is still a remarkably effective movie. Bronco Billy's wife, Edith, meets wealthy stockbroker Arthur Stanton while Billy works at his gold mine. She is tired of their

00:36:28.200 - 00:37:37.240

jury life. And on the very day that Billy strikes gold, Edith runs away to San Francisco with the evil Stanton. Mhm, mhm laden with gifts. Billy Russia's home on Lee to discover his wife has become the mistress of a married man. Mhm. Mhm, right?

00:37:39.630 - 00:39:05.750

Mhm, right. Bronco Billy lives as a lonely millionaire. Two years later, Stanton tired of Edith, discards her in favor of a new play thing. Yeah. Then Bronco Billy meets Stanton unexpectedly. Mhm. Yeah. Oh, mhm.

00:39:07.720 - 00:40:21.940

Okay, back. Mhm. Yeah. Wow. Edith lost in despair decides to end her shame with a bullet. All right. Yeah. Do Yeah, Yeah. Bronco Billy heartbroken races to the hospital for a last glimpse of his beloved.

00:41:04.490 - 00:43:04.930

Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. Copy fast. Yeah, Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In many of his films, Anderson used a child as a catalyst for

00:43:04.930 - 00:43:55.230

the resolution of the plot. Rarely was he able to use one, though, with as ironic twist as he did here. Uh huh. Yeah. By the fall of 1915 things had changed considerably. But Anderson didn't care if the movies were passing him by. He had a wonderful

00:43:55.230 - 00:44:14.650

time in Niles. Some days they worked, and some days they didn't. The local showgirls were very agreeable, and high living was more fun than hard writing. The hot, dusty days of movie making up in the canyon became more difficult to schedule. No one ever knew if

00:44:14.660 - 00:44:37.590

Bronco would arrive for work that day or not. In Chicago, Spore grew concerned. Money was being spent like water out there and Niles, and it wasn't being spent making movie, he said. A manager out to get things back into shape, Kato recalls. The day a time

00:44:37.590 - 00:44:57.290

clock was installed. You know, we had to punch a clock. Everybody would make a dash for that clock. You know, if I hit it first, I'd punch for everybody. And if somebody else, they'd punch for everybody. Sometimes we miss somebody. Pat Rooney came in there drunk

00:44:57.290 - 00:45:18.270

one morning, pulled out his six shooter and shot it full of holes. We didn't have to punch it for a few days, he had a hell of a time over there. At that moment, Charlie Chaplin decided to leave for Hollywood to finish out his contract. Niles

00:45:18.270 - 00:45:35.720

was too far away from the bright lights of San Francisco to suit him. When he left, Chaplin took his leading Lady, Edna, provide his cameramen, Raleigh, Teodoro and everyone else at the Nile studio that he likes. George Spore was stunned. No one at Niles really cared.

00:45:36.190 - 00:46:00.060

Chaplin had not been popular. He did not mix with the regulars, and he would not let anyone touch his film, which offended the rest of the crew. When he left Niles, the old Devil may care attitude came back, and everyone did as he pleased. I thought

00:46:00.060 - 00:46:19.570

they was pretty decent, sort of a bunch. He used to give a dancer like New Year's or Christmas or some holidays. While we'd break in on that and shoot things up. We never did hurt anybody. We'd have a probably one drunk once in a while or

00:46:19.570 - 00:46:43.710

you get drunken start raising hell. But the rest of the boys would catch him before he done any damage and put him to bed or our mushing up a little bit quiet him down, you know? Yeah, it was no way to run a movie studio. In

00:46:43.710 - 00:47:08.450

February of 1916, a telegram arrived from Chicago ordering the studio's closed shooting stopped where it waas. The film being made was never completed for a few weeks. Everyone hung around, hoping work might resume, but it did. Spore was tired of Anderson's carousing and extravagance. The studios

00:47:08.460 - 00:47:40.500

were closed for good old timers in Niles. Remember the huge studio standing empty all through the twenties? Kids broke into the film balls and set the reels of highly flammable film on fire. Then they rolled the blazing reels down the street. Windows were smashed. Equipment, rusted

00:47:40.510 - 00:48:01.330

doors sang. Bronco Billy was all but forgotten. In the early thirties, the building was sold and demolished. The cottage is still stands. For years, you could see the hoof prints of Bronco Billy's horse Pinto in the concrete driveway next to where the studio stood, but now

00:48:01.560 - 00:48:28.420

they are gone, too. Of the hundreds of films made by S and A at Niles, less than a dozen remain. In those days, the owners of movie theaters bought the film directly from the company or rented it from a film exchange. Studios did not circulate movie

00:48:28.420 - 00:48:48.690

prince or preserve negatives as they do now. When a film had lost its novelty or had been shown in every local theater, the print was thrown away or burned for the chemicals in silver, which could be recovered. It is a wonder that any have survived work

00:49:04.720 - 00:49:43.990

the Western would have developed if GM Anderson had not come along. Other studios made westerns, and they were popular. But Bronco Billy first realized the fantastic attraction that the Western holds for the American public. All right, yeah, there is a love of the West in most,

00:49:44.670 - 00:50:01.570

the sight of a man riding free over the plains, unhampered by the responsibilities most of us have unworried by our everyday worries calls out to us the certain triumph of justice over Rome. The ability of a man to take his own destiny into his own two

00:50:01.570 - 00:50:20.970

hands appeals to our helplessness in the world too complex to comprehend, much less solve its problems with one bold deed. Anderson sense this. He felt the appeal of the good bad man, the man who drinks red eyes straight in the saloon, but who could be touched

00:50:20.980 - 00:50:36.190

by a little child, a man who can read the Bible while waiting to rob the state, a bad man who will take more guilt onto his shoulders to help the innocents or to make life better for those whose lives he touches. All of this, Anderson put

00:50:36.190 - 00:51:05.870

into the character of Bronco Billy and helped in the creation of an American folk hero, the movie Cowboy. In 1958 Hollywood finally remembered the cowboy it had for gotten star of the first Western picture ever made great claims. After that, he made over 300 West ladies

00:51:05.870 - 00:51:37.320

and gentlemen on behalf before the Western Stars. Down through the years, we honor the first man who ever do an audience by drawing his gun. Bronco Billy Anderson, the boat for special thing. I wish you would. I want to thank everybody is responsible

00:51:37.320 - 00:52:07.490

for giving me this unforgettable for war. GM Anderson did not realize at the time, but Bronco Billy was better than he knew. There is still some of him in every cowboy hero that has ever thrilled you by writing across the screen brave alone and free. Yeah,

00:52:13.350 - 00:52:14.270

yeah,