Francis Boggs(1870-1911)
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Francis Boggs is an obscure figure in the history of cinema, but an
important one. It was he who brought the movies to Los Angeles in 1909
when he established a permanent L. A. film studio for the Chicago-based
Selig Polyscope Company. In a four-year film career he wrote and
directed nearly 200 one-reel films. Today only three are known to
survive. He was also the first victim of movieland murder. Boggs was an
actor, who toured mining towns in California and finally in Chicago,
where he became associated with former magician and minstrel-show
operator William Nicholas Selig
in filmmaking. He returned to California to shoot the climactic scenes
of
The Count of Monte Cristo (1908)
and ended up playing the lead role as well. He set up Selig's Los
Angeles operation in 1909. In 1911 he was shot and killed by a mentally
disturbed employee (the attack also wounded Selig) and was soon
forgotten, his work eventually crumbling to dust. But Francis Boggs is
as much, if not more, responsible for establishing the American film
industry in California as any of the more well-known film pioneers.
