Harold Marvin Shaw (also cited in some records as Henry Marvin Shaw; November 3, 1877January 30, 1926) was an American stage performer, film actor, screenwriter, and director during the silent era."California Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", certified death certificate 200-2500 of "Henry Marvin Shaw", signed 2 February 1926, Los Angeles, Bureau of Vital Statistics, California Board of Health, microform of original certificate; California State Archives, Sacramento. FamilySearch archives (hereinafter cited as FamSearch), Salt Lake City, Utah. A native of Tennessee, he worked in theatrical plays and vaudeville for 16 years before he began acting in motion pictures for Edison Studios in New York City in 1910 and then started regularly directing shorts there two years later. Shaw next served briefly as a director for Independent Moving Pictures (IMP) in New York before moving to England in May 1913 to be "chief producer" for the newly established London Film Company."United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925" (M1490), subset 1906—1925; digital image of original 12 April 1916 application of Harold M. Shaw recorded at United States embassy in London for travel to South Africa; U.S. Department of State, Washington D.C.; archives, FamSearch. During World War I, he relocated to South Africa, where in 1916 he directed the film De Voortrekkers in cooperation with African Film Productions, Limited. Shaw also established his own production company while in South Africa, completing there two more releases, The Rose of Rhodesia in 1918 and the comedy Thoroughbreds All in 1919. After directing films once again in England under contract with Stoll Pictures, he finally returned to the United States in 1922 and later directed several screen projects for Metro Pictures in California before his death in Los Angeles in 1926. During his 15-year film career, Shaw worked on more than 125 films either as a director, actor, or screenwriter.
Early life and stage career
Born in Brownsville, Tennessee in 1877, Harold was the child of Oliver A. Shaw of Kentucky and his first wife, Zula Waggoner, who was also a native of Kentucky."Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950"; O. A. Shaw and Zula Waggoner, 27 July 1875, Crockett County, Tennessee, United States; digital copy of original document in Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville; FHL microfilm 1,007,383. FamSearch.Delaware, Church Records, 1707-1939", Myrtle Chapman to Harold M. Shaw, 29 October 1900, Wilmington, New Castle, Delaware; digital image of original marriage register; Shaw's parents are cited in record. FamSearch. By 1886, young Harold had relocated with his family to northern California, to the Oakland area in Alameda County, where his father worked as a telegraph operator and by the early 1900s as an automobile "tyre" salesman."Twelfth Census of the United States: 1900", image of original enumeration page, 2 June 1900, Brooklyn Township, Alameda County, California, showing household of Oliver A. Shaw; United States Census Bureau, Washington, D.C. FamSearch. Harold received his public education in Oakland, became interested in theatre productions there in his teenage years, and started acting professionally on stage in 1894."Motography's Gallery of Picture Players" (Harold Shaw) Motography (Chicago), 7 December 1912, p. 425. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA (hereinafter cited I.A.). Retrieved 6 August 2021. Over the next 16 years he traveled extensively performing with various stock companies and in vaudeville. By 1898 he had already established himself as a "high-class" and "genteel" entertainer, as one generally recognized in the print media as among "the dramatic favorites" of vaudeville audiences. The Kentucky Irish American, for example, the local newspaper in Louisville, informs its readers in its August 20, 1898 issue about Shaw's upcoming performances at the city's Buckingham Theater:
Shaw's years of popular and critical success on the vaudeville stage led to more and more offers for leading roles in touring productions as well as supporting roles in the "legitimate" theatre, including Broadway productions. He performed in 1904 on Broadway in the romantic drama Olympe, which was presented at the Knickerbocker Theatre in January and February. In that play he performed in the supporting role of "Bompain", a hairdresser."The Week at the Theatres", cast listing for Olympe and profile of play, The New York Times, 17 January 1904, p. 21. ProQuest Historical Newspapers (hereinafter cited "ProQuest"), Ann Arbor, Michigan; subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library. During that time, Shaw's experience and continuing successes in all forms of stage production convinced him to form his own traveling group, Harold M. Shaw and Company, a venture that generated enough personal wealth for him that in San Francisco in August 1906 he bought a building on a two-acre site at 1303 East 14th Street and made plans to renovate the structure and convert it into a private hotel."AROUND THE BAY/Actor Becomes Boniface", The San Francisco Call, 24 August 1906, p. 3, col. 3. ChronAm. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
Films By 1910, Shaw decided to expand his entertainment career into acting in motion pictures or, as they were often called in the early silent era, "photoplays". His first screen work was in shorts for Edison Studios, all filmed at the company's main production facility in the Bronx in New York City and on location elsewhere in the city or at nearby sites in New Jersey. While some modern film references include a pair of 1909 Edison releases in Shaw's filmographies, none of those references cite period sources or documents preserved in film archives that confirm he actually performed in those two productions. A profile of Shaw included in a 1912 issue of The Edison Kinetogram states that Shaw by then had been "appearing in our productions by special arrangement, for the past two years"."Harold M Shaw", The Edison Kinetogram, 15 February 1912, p. 16. Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Orange, New Jersey. Google Books. Retrieved 16 August 2021. The studio newsletter also notes that it was not until January 1912 when such special arrangements ended and the experienced performer became an official member of the Edison Stock Company, the studio's select lineup of full-time actors. Up to that point, during 1910 and 1911, Shaw continued to split his time between his projects for Edison and continuing his stage work in New York and in other locations across the country.
Trade publications and other records, including a surviving print of the 1910 Edison film The Attack on the Mill, confirm Shaw's work at the studio that year. The 11-minute melodrama, which is set during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, was originally released in the United States on August 12, 1910. Later, when Edison distributed theatrical prints to Europe, those in the Netherlands included Dutch intertitles and were advertised and screened under a different title, De Grootmoedige molenaar ("The Generous Miller"). One of those Dutch prints is preserved today in the Netherlands, in the archives of the Eye Film Institute."The Attack on the Mill", film copy from EYE Filmmuseum (The Netherlands), archives of the European Film Gateway. The Dutch copy of this film dates to 1911, although the United States release was in August 1910. Retrieved 15 August 2021. In the film's opening sequence, Shaw, who is in heavy "old-man's" makeup and attired in a padded light-colored trench coat, dominates the foreground action.
Edison, like other studios in those early days of the silent period, produced films at seemingly breakneck speed, often completing productions in a matter of days and at times in a single day. Shaw's acting work in both uncredited and credited role was therefore equally prolific after joining Edison. He acted much more frequently in studio productions during the latter half of 1911, and in November that year was credited for his role in Edison's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1888 novel The Black Arrow."The Black Arrow", The Moving Picture World (New York, N.Y.), 4 November 1911, p. 352. I.A. Retrieved August 6, 2021. In that period, he performed in a wide range of other screenplays. He portrayed, as a few examples, the title character's uncle in the light comedy Mary's Masquerade; starred in the historical drama The Death of Nathan Hale; played the title character in The Kid from the Klondike; was a major supporting player in The Reform Candidate; co-starred with Mary Fuller in The Modern Dianas; co-starred in an adaptation of British author Charles Reade's 1866 novel Foul Play; portrayed a Continental officer in How Mrs. Murray Saved the American Army; played a central character in The Awakening of John Bond, a story highlighting urban poverty and the scourge of tuberculosis; and starred in the holiday drama Santa Claus and the Clubman."Edison Films", The Moving Picture World, 23 September 1911, p. 907. I.A. Retrieved 7 August 2021."Edison Films/'The Kid from the Klondike'", The Moving Picture World, 21 October 1911, p. 184. I.A. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
Directing at Edison, for the World's Best Film Company, and at IMP, 19121913 In 1912, Shaw continued to act in Edison productions like The Corsican Brothers, The Bachelor's Waterloo, The Nurse, Tony's Oath of Vengeance, The Patent Housekeeper, A Man in the Making, and other assorted dramas and comedies, although the studio by mid-summer of that year elevated him to the full-time position of director."The Corsican Brothers", Edison Kinetogram, 1 February 1912, p. 8; "The Nurse", 15 February 1912 issue, p. 6; "Harold M Shaw", 15 February 1912, p. 16; "Tony's Oath of Vengeance", 1 March 1912, p. 3; "The Patent Housekeeper", 1 March 1912, p. 10; "A Man in the Making", 15 June 1912, p. 3. Google Books. Retrieved 15 August 2021. In the September 1, 1912 issue of its semimonthly newsletter The Edison Kinetogram, the company formally announced its recent promotion of Shaw:
The film-industry journal Motography also reported about Shaw's promotion, noting that at a special "photoplay dinner" held on September 7 for studio personnel at New York's Coney Island, he was introduced as a speaker at that event and as a "director of Edison films"."Photoplay Dinner a Success", Motography, 28 September 1912, p. 248. I.A. Retrieved 8 August 2021. Some of the additional films he directed during the remainder of 1912 include A Question of Seconds, A Fresh Air Romance, A Romance of the Rails, The Governor, Hearts and Diamonds, The Grandfather, Mary in Stage Land, The Girl from the Country, and The Crime of Carelessness. However, Shaw's most acclaimed directorial work from that period is The Land Beyond the Sunset, a "'social conscience"' film released by Edison in October 1912.Bennett, Carl. "The Land Beyond the Sunset", Silent Era Company, 1999-2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.Eagan, Daniel (2011). "Five Films About Faith", Smithsonian Magazine, 15 December 2011. Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.), online "reprint". Retrieved 16 August 2021. The film presents the tragic contemporary tale of a New York newsboy, who lives in dire poverty with his abusive grandmother and ends with the boy drifting out to sea in a small boat, desperately searching and likely dying in a doomed attempt to find a better, more humane life beyond the horizon. In recognition of the motion picture's importance to the United States' motion picture heritage, the Library of Congress in December 2000 selected The Land Beyond the Sunset for addition to the National Film Registry, a collection of films that are deemed "'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'"."Librarian of Congress Names 25 More Films to National Film Registry", 27 December 2000, Office of Communications, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Retrieved 14 August 2021.