Often overlooked in cinema history are the local “hometown” movie films that were produced by itinerant film producers for exhibition in local theaters in rural areas, like Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio. In 1923, Wooster was visited by the itinerant movie maker Donald O. Newland.
During the 1920s until his death, Newland traveled throughout the United States to small towns making films that employed local citizens as stars and actors. He filmed simple two-reeler comedies that utilized the same standard script he took from place to place and customized each film according to its location, and that’s how the movie, Wooster’s Hero, was made.
Operating as the Consolidated Film Producing Co. of Los Angeles, California, he was generally commissioned by local newspapers to produce the films, which always contained the role of a reporter and a prominent look at how the local newspaper was produced. Contests were frequently held in each community to determine who the “leading lady” would be and that formula was the one employed in Wooster as evidenced by the local “Popular Girl Contest” that was sponsored by the Wooster Daily in March of 1923. The winner of the contest was promised the leading lady role in a local movie comedy being produced by Newland.
According to Newland’s Wikipedia page, “Filming usually took place in no more than three days, with Newland directing a cameraman and one or two crew members. A standard bit of action was to stage a head-on car crash on a city street using “trick photography;” two cars would be placed bumper to bumper and a smoke bomb released under the radiators. The cars would then be backed away from each other and the film, when developed, was reversed, to make it appear to show a head-on collision.
Developing and editing took another couple of days, and within a week of Newland’s arrival in town, the Hero film would be shown to the community at a local movie theater.”
It is believed that only one print of each of Newland’s films was made. Some have survived and enjoyed revivals in the communities in which they were shot. Unfortunately, the film Wooster’s Hero, does not seem to have survived as no copy has ever been brought to public attention since it’s premiere in 1923.
Currently only four of these “Hero” films are known to still exist. These are: Janesville’s Hero (1926); Belvidere’s Hero (1926); Huntingdon’s Hero (April 1934); and Tyrone’s Hero (May 1934). Adding the film, Towanda’s Queen, only a total of five Newland films survive to this day.
Interested in what other films were made in Wayne County, Ohio? Check out the Motion Picture Filmography of Wayne County, Ohio wiki page for more info.
