NILES ESSANAY SILENT FILM MUSEUM INC
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Mission Statement
Our organization provides a variety of educational opportunities to persons of all ages that includes family entertainment at very low prices, museum displays, a research center for the study of local history and film history, and tours. The museum also acts as stewards of our past, preserving films and other artifacts for future generations. Our Saturday night silent film showings with live music are an extremely successful program where the public enjoys early movies in an authentic setting that re-creates the movie going experience of the early 20th century. See also our on-line postings of seminars and early films on our website www.nilesfilmmuseum.org In 2020, our organization was deeded the 1913 building housing the museum. Due to Covid, the theater area was temporarily not used but we are now open again. We are currently raising funds to restore and renovate the building as it is a very unusual and rare example of an early multiuse building designed with retail space, apartment rental, as well as the movie theater space. We want the building to survive for another 110 years.
About This Cause
The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum is a combination living history museum and research center. The museum is dedicated to the study, education, exhibition, and appreciation of film from the silent era and how that relates to local history and Bay Area history. The Essanay Film Company built a studio in 1912 in what is now the Niles historic district of Fremont. In the four years that the studio made over 350 films, including "The Tramp" and "The Champion". These two films made Charlie Chaplin an international star and were shown all over the world. Gilbert "Broncho Billy" Anderson, one of the co-founders of Essanay, was famous in the early 20th century as the first movie cowboy hero. The Museum is housed in a historic theater that opened in November 1913 such that our shows of silent film with live music re-create the early 20th century small town film experience. Originally, Anderson, Chaplin and other studio personnel joined the local townsfolk watching their movies as well as competitors' movies in this theater. During the Covid down time, we put a collection of newly restored films, seminars and recorded talks on line on our YouTube channel. We are now showing films again in the original theater area. Please visit our website (www.nilesfilmmuseum.org) for our film exhibition schedule. The Museum also has displays that tell the story of film making in Niles and of the equipmennt (cameras, film editors, and projectors) from the silent era of film making. Docent led tours are available every weekend. We also do student and senior group tours on request. In addition, the Museum has a library available for public use on site that includes films, books, original trade journals, photographs, and other documents and memorabilia pertaining to both local history and silent film history. Film preservation and film history research are part of the Museum's activities. Museum film historian David Kiehn's research into the well-known but under identified film "A Trip Down Market Street" was told in one of Morley Safer's favorite 60 Minutes episodes. He discovered that the film was made four days before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which resulted in the film being added to the National Film Preservation Foundation's list of historically significant films. In late 2021, the Ringling Brothers Circus Parade film of 1902 was added to the Library of Congress list of important films, also due to David's research. The Museum has applied its expertise to use our older cameras to make a silent film using the old techniques and equipment. The Museum has ongoing projects to catalog existing and incoming collections, develop a master film catalog, and preserve films, photographs and posters, and provides volunteer opportunities. Please see our list for additional projects.