Wilding Picture Productions

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Silent Movie Capital

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Wilding Picture Productions, Inc.
1333-45 W. Argyle Street

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Chicago Tribune, October 21, 1935

Wilding Picture Productions, Inc., makers of commercial talking pictures, announced yesterday that Chicago has been chosen as the firm’s middle western production headquarters. The firm has acquired the old Essanay studio at 1333 Argyle street, which was the production scene in the early days of the industry of the first moving pictures starring such figures as Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery, “Broncho Billy” Anderson, Bryant Washburn, Charlie Chaplin, and others who gained wide fame.

The building will be remodeled and equipped with modern sound picture apparatus and facilities. It will be used for the staging and production of business sound films, of which the wilding firm is the largest maker.

Large Studio Here.
At the present time the company has studios in Hollywood, Detroit, and on Long Island. The Chicago plant, which will be opened about Dec. 1, will be the largest sound film studio outside of Hollywood, with the single exception of the same company’s Long Island studio, the announcement said. The company has established temporary Chicago offices at 624 South Michigan avenue.

The company will bring technicians from Detroit and Hollywood to staff its new studio which, it was announced, will be equipped with the double system recording units of the type used by the major producers of standard films.

“Casts will be recruited in Hollywood, New York, and Chicago,” the company announced, “with preference given to Chicago professionals of proper training.”

Founded in 1915.
The company was founded in 1915 by Norman E. Wilding, who is still its head. It was one of the first concerns in the commercial picture field and has produced sound films for a number of the country’s leading corporations, including the large automobile companies.

The director of the new studio has not been named. L. Mercer Francisco, formerly advertising manager of the Curtis companies of Clinton, Ia., and a former Chicago advertising man, will head the Chicago sales and serv. ice staf. John P. Kneebone, formerly with the Curtis Publishing company, will be in direct charge of sales.

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Chicago Tribune, November 16, 1935

All the dusty old properties that were used a couple of decades ago in production of moving pictures at the Essanay studios, 1333 Argyle street, have been disposed of in the last few days. The studio has been taken over by the Wilding Picture Productions and will be devoted to the making of business films. An old fire engine, a 1910 horse drawn patrol wagon, a prarie schooner and other solid articles were sold for small prices to persons who said they could use them. The scenery and costumes, which cost thousands of dollars in the years when Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery and Broncho Billy Anderson were getting their start toward stardom were burned. The studios, it was announced, will be modernized throughout for the taking of sound films by the Wilding company.

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Chicago Tribune, September 30, 1936

Three men and a young woman, members of a flying motion picture crew, were killed late yesterday afternoon when their airplane crashed and burned alongside the Burlington railroad’s speeding streamlined train, the Zephyr. The spectacular tragedy occurred two miles east of Naperville, 30 miles southwest of Chicago in Du Page county.

The flyers were taking photographs of the train from an altitude estimated at 70 feet and this presumably led to the tragedy. It was believed last night that the plane was thrown into the ground by turbulent air stirred into hurricane force by the passage of the silvery streamliner at approximately 80 miles an hour. The plane struck in a field less than 50 feet from the railroad tracks and in full view of the train’s passengers.

Four Dead Are Identified.
The dead were identified as the following:

MISS WILMA SHUESLER, 24 years old, 1239½ Greenleaf avenue, a movie script writer.
RALPH BIDDY, 36 years old, a veteran motion picture camera man, newsreel photographer and free lance producer. Biddy’s home is in Detroit, but in recent weeks he had been living at 1061 Rosemont avenue here.
HOWARD ADAMS, 27 years old. 6257 Sheridan road, motion picture director. former actor, and radio announc. He moved here from Detroit six months ago.
OSCAR HANOLD, years old, 621J South Keating avenue, the pilot of the plane.

All those killed except Hanold were employes of the Wilding Picture Productions, Inc., of 1345 Argyle street. They had chartered the plane, a red and white Lockheed Vega with a 450 horse power Wasp motor, from the Blue Bird Air service at Chicago airport. IIanold was the chief pilot of this concern.

Girl Insists on Going Along.
Attendants at the airport said the same crew, with the exception of Miss Shuesler, made a series of shots of the Zephyr a week ago in the same plane. Yesterday when Adams and Biddy arrived at the Blue Bird hangar Miss Shuesler insisted on accompanying them. The party took off shortly before 5 p. m.

The plane was next seen circling over the Burlington tracks near the Naperville Country club, apparently awaiting the Zephyr, which was due at that point about 5:20 on its run to Minneapolis.

As the speeding train headed into a curve at the northern boundary of the country club the plane began a dive past the Zephyr on the north side. The pilot’s dive took him to a low altitude. Some witnesses said he was less than 50 feet up when he swept past the Zephyr, made a steep bank, swung around in front of the train, and started eastward along its south side.

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CAMERAMAN KILLED IN PLANE CRASH—Ralph Biddy of Detroit, veteran movie and newsreel cameraman, killed yesterday with three others near Naperville when plane crashed and burst into flames.

LITTLE REMAINS OF PLANE IN WHICH FOUR DIED—A few sightseers inspect fragments of the Lockheed Vega which carried one woman and three men to their deaths near Naperville last evening. It crashed from low altitude and quickly burst into flames. Its occupants had been photographing Burlington railroad’s streamlined train.

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Story of an Eyewitness.
E. E. Webster, 1008 Greenwood street, Wheaton, a real estate broker, and his two sons were standing in a field less than a hundred feet from the tracks.

“As the plane came back level with the train it wabbled violently and then seemed to do a loop the loop,” Webster said. “It hit the ground with the motor full on at the bottom of the loop. We figured the suction of air around the train must have caused it.”

This theory was accepted by pilots and Hanold’s employers, who went at once to the scene. They believed that Hanold lost control of his fast moving plane when he struck the tumbling air currents set up by the train’s passage.

Flames Sweep Wreckage.
Fire immediately burst out in the wreckage, drenched with gasoline from the split fuel tanks: Several persons ran to the scene to drag out the victims, but the fierce heat drove them back. An examination of the débris after the fire disclosed that the engine switches were on and there was no indication on the instrument panel that the pilot had been trying to land. The ship was relicensed and pronounced in perfect condition by federal inspectors less than a week ago.

At the Wilding studios it was explained that the photographs of the Zephyr were to be sold to large motion picture companies for use whenever a picture of a speeding streamliner was needed.

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Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1936

Wilding Picture Productions, Inc., producers of commercial moving pictures, yesterday announced the addition to its staf of Howard R. Smith, editor of Commerce Magazine, organ of the Chicago Association of Commerce.

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Chicago Tribune November 10, 1949

BY LEIGH ATKINSON
There’s many a north sider who ean recall seeing a bunch of Keystone cops from the old Essanay studio hop out of a paddy wagon on Broadway and toss soft pies about to the delight of passers-by and a director and grinding cameraman.

There are some who remember watching cattle thieves get chased by a sherif and Civil war armies marching-all on the plains of Budlong woods. And there are a few who can talk about goings on inside one of America’s first movie studios at 1345 Argyle st. and recall watch- ing such stars as “Bronco Billy” Anderson. Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery, Charlie Chaplin, Ben Turpin, Francis X. Bushman and Edward Arnold perform on Its stages.

It is doubtful, however, that who remember the days when Chicago was the film capital of the world are aware that cameras still grind in the old studio and that many favorite stars of the present day screen make pictures there.

Advertising Films Better
Essanay studio has been the Chicago home of Wilding Picture Pro ductions, Inc., since 1937 and is today one of the biggest motion picture plants outside of Hollywood in the United States. Wilding makes commercial films.

Industries have developed a new school of thought in the fields of and public relations. For instance, if a company some years ago wanted to popularize its name thru a film it usually plugged its product thruout.

For good will purposes a number of industries and firms today are making films which tell stories that bave a moral or historical theme. Advertising in these pictures is often limited to an announcement at the end which states that “this film is a public service sponsored by—.”

Often, motion pictures made at Wilding are full length, Hollywood type productions filmed in color.

Can Duplicate Any Action
Because of the tremendous power needed for operations, the firm has its own powerhouse as well as two generator trucks used to supply elec- tricity to units working on location.

One of Wilding’s most important pieces of equipment is a new $22,000 rear screen process projector and a 26 foot rear projection screen. This equipment and a large mirror permits the company to film almost any kind of action-from a storm at sea to chopping down trees in the north woods-all inside the studio on Argyle st.

Here’s how it’s done. A tobacco company wants a television commercial on film. It wants the picture to show a commentator standing in a tobacco warehouse holding and describing leaves of tobacco. It wants action in the background—workmen moving about.

Sends Location Crews
Wilding sends a crew to a south- ern state where scenes inside a warehouse are filmed. This film is projected from the rear screen projector to the mirror which reflects the image to the screen. The actor stands in front of the screen with the tobacco leaf in hand. Cameras record the actor and the screen and in the finished picture it appears the actor is standing in the warehouse.

President of the corporation which makes sound slide films as well as motion pictures is C. H. Bradfield Jr., who has been head of the firm since the death of the founder, Nor- man E. Wilding. in 1946. Executive vice president is H. Fish. Scene of the modest beginning in 1914 of the corporation which now has studios and offices in a number of cities was Grand Rapids. Mich.

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Chicago Tribune June 22, 1958

The motion picture business is doing all right in Chicago.

Evidence of this may be obtained in the 1958 production schedule of Wilding Picture Productions, Inc., one of the world s largest producers of industrial films.

Wilding estimated it will produce 100 to 125 major business films before year-end. Its output. will be part of some 5,000 such films that the 500 to 600 industrial movie producers thruout the country out this year.

Cost at 130 Millions
The over-all cost of this output will be about 130 million dollars which is only 2 million dollars less than the peak year of 1957 and despite the current business recession.

Probably it s only fitting that Chicago get some recognition in tha movie industry because it was once the world’s film capital.

Some old-timers are around who will say they remember seeing Keystone cops scurry from a paddy wagon on Broadway and toss pies.

Such slap stick productions were made by the old Essanay studio, 1345 Argyle st., which has been Wilding’s home base since 1937. Stars such as “Bronco Billy” Anderson, Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery, Charlie Chaplin, Ben Turpin, Francis X. Bushman, and Edward Arnold performed on the studio’s sets.

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No, this isn’t a Hollywood scene; it’s in no other place but Chicago. Scene is in studios of Wilding Picture Productions, Inc., on Chicago’s north side. Wilding this year will produce 100 to 125 films for businesses, the company said.

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3 Movie Sound Sets
The 2½ acre location provides floor space of 60,000 square feet including three motion picture sound stages. On these stages films have been produced for some of the giants of industry.

Wilding customers have included Ford Motor company, Chrysler corporation, Goodyear Tire and Rubber company; General Electric company, United States Steel corporation, Aluminum Company of America, and Standard Oil company (Indiana).

A recent survey by Wilding concluded that the of industrial films may triple that 130 dollar figure by 1960.

Since 1954 the industry’s volume has doubled and a large part of the increasing use by industry is attributed to the successful use of film in World War II to train men in the armed services.

Cover Many Subjects
Industrial films cover a wide range of subjects, from expounding proper use of the company’s products (aimed at salesmen to aid their sales pitch) to productivity (to get management’s rising costs problems before employees).

Another growing aspect of Wilding’s business lately has been its industrial shows which travel the country and introduce company products.

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Chicago Tribune, March 28, 1967

Bell & Howell company plans to acquire Wilding, Inc., Chicago-based producer of motion pictures and audiovisual communications, it was announced yesterday by Peter G. Peterson, Bell & Howell President, and Robert C. Ausbeck, chairman and president of Wilding.

The announcement followed approval by the boards of both companies of an agreement in principle under which Bell & Howell will acquire Wilding in exchange for stock. The acquisition is subject to approval by Wilding shareholders and a favorable ruling by the internal revenue service.

Wilding shareholders would receive one Bell & Howell common share in exchange for 3.70 common shares of Wilding. Based upon about 438,000 common shares of Wilding outstanding, the transaction at current market values would involve $7,890,000 in the exchange. Wilding, founded in 1911. has become a major supplier of audio-visual communications services. These include production of motion pictures and slidefilms, TV commercials, and business shows.

Sales of Wilding were record $15.258.000 in 1966. Net earnings of $756,000, also a peak, were equal to $1.73 per common share, after adjustment for a 5 per cent stock dividend in February.

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Chicago Tribune, September 23, 1972

By George Lazarus
Bell & Howell Co.’s Wilding, Inc., marketing-communications subsidiary, in an economy move, is closing down its production facility at 1345 W. Argyle Av., The Tribune has learned.

The North Side production house has been Bell & Howell since the firm acquired Wilding in 1967. The production unit had operated under the Wilding name since 1941 and, before that, dating back to 1915, as the old Essanay Studio where many old-time films were made.

A Wilding official said the motion picture facility here will be shifted by yearend to Wilding’s Detroit operation, which includes three units.

He termed this shift a consolidation move since “we’ve got duplicate facilities here and in Detroit.” Wilding now employs 34 at the Argyle Avenue location, and “they will be offered jobs with the Detroit operation or with other Bell & Howell units,” the official said.

A top source in the communications business, however, said only the key staffers of Wilding’s Argyle unit will be offered posts in Detroit and that if they decide not to move, they would have to seek employment elsewhere.

Wilding’s marketing and sales offices were recently moved from the North Side to 333 N. Michigan Av and the firm’s TV production unit, also based on Argyle, will be shifted to the Michigan Avenue address. Bell & Howell also commented yesterday on a recent weakness in its stock. The company said the drop apparently reflects an upcoming research report critical of the accounting methods of its Bell & Howell schools subsidiary.

The stock closed Thursday at $55.75, down $6 for the week. The year’s low is $55.50. The stock, rebounding from a drop of $1.25 Thursday, was up $3.50 at $59.25 yesterday.

The research report reportedly will contain some criticism of certain financial reporting and disclosure practices, criticism that Bell & Howell said it does not consider significant or material with which it does not agree.

“With respect to overall company prospects for the balance of 1972, our earnings continue to be on plan and well ahead of 1971,” B. & H. said. Bell & Howell earned $13,451,000 on sales of $329,520,000 last year.

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White Wonder
Morton Salt
1958

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Partial Filmography

The Monitors (1969)
To Live Again (1963)
White Wonder (1858)
Colorado Holiday (1955)
About Fallout (1955)
Inside Harvester (1952)
Paradise for Buster (1952)
You Can’t Lose (1951)
How We Got What We Have (1950)
Last Date (1950)
The Case of Tommy Tucker (1950)
Roots in the Soil (1949)
Big Tim (1948)
Ascorbic Acid and Scurvy (1947)
Shortest Way Home (1946)
Insomnia (1945)
By Jupiter! (1941)
Uncle Joe (1941)
American Portrait (1940)
Blame It on Love (1940)
Five Grand and a Girl (1940)
More Worlds to Conquer (1940)
Start the Music (1939)
Practical Magic (1937)
World’s Fair (1934)

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Chrysler Corporation presents
“Assembly Lines Of Defense”
Wilding Picture Productions, Inc.

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World’s Fair
Technicolor
October 1933
Wilding Picture Productions