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Frank Powell
Frank Powell
Frank Powell
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Francis William Powell (May 8, 1877 – unknown) was a Canadian-born American stage and silent film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter who worked predominantly in the United States.[5][6] He is also credited with "discovering" Theda Bara and casting her in a starring role in the 1915 release A Fool There Was. Her performance in that production, under Powell's direction, quickly earned Bara widespread fame as the film industry's most popular evil seductress or on-screen "vamp".[7]

Key Information

Early life and stage career

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Frank Powell was born in 1877 in Hamilton, Canada, the child of Elizabeth and Francis Powell.[1][5] According to the 1920 edition of the Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Journal, he received part of his education in Cleveland, Ohio, although that publication provides no other information about his schooling or reveals whether his interest in theatre began in that city.[8] However, a 1916 notice in the trade paper Variety does confirm Powell's close and early connection to Cleveland. In an April 26 news item titled "Frank Powell Resting", the widely read publication announces that the 38-year-old director was traveling to Cleveland, "his boyhood home", for a vacation.[9] What is known about Powell's 12-year stage career is that he worked with playwright Kirke La Shelle and performed in at least two major Broadway productions. In 1904 he performed in the play Tit for Tat at the Savoy Theatre, and the next year he both acted in and served as a director for Augustus Thomas's comedy The Education of Mr. Pipp.[8][10][11] He then relocated for several years to England, where he directed productions for actress Ellen Terry before returning to North America.[8][12] In its October 15, 1915 issue, the Austin Statesman and Tribune provides details about the course of Powell's initial stagework with Terry, background that he shared with the newspaper in an interview:

Mr. Powell's stage career started as a stage director for the Frohman production "The Education of Mr. Pipp." He went to England with this play [in 1905], and while there attracted the attention of Ellen Terry, who engaged him to produce some of her most famous successes. He remained with Ellen Terry three years when he became interested in the production of great historical spectacular film dramas. In this work his knowledge of the classical drama and of massive stage classics stood him in good stead. He had become a master of types, costumes, architecture and picturesque backgrounds. In England, he produced such lavish spectacles as "Jane Shore," "Robin Hood" and "King Henry VIII." On his return to New York he produced "The Ghost," "The Corsican" and "The Stain", the latter an American political drama.[13]

Film

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In New York in 1909, Powell expanded his career into the rapidly expanding motion picture industry, working initially as an actor and scriptwriter at Biograph Studios. There he also co-directed his first film with D.W. Griffith and demonstrated an adeptness at directing comedies.[12] After directing 63 short films for Biograph, Powell in 1914 journeyed again to Europe, where he joined Pathé Frères as a producer of historical and romantic dramas.[12] Ill health required him to curtail his work for a while, but he used the opportunity to travel around Europe and increase his knowledge of acting types and of costumes and landscapes in various countries.[12] On his return to the United States, Powell in April 1912 was engaged by Powers Motion Pictures, and after being with that company for less than a year, he worked briefly again for Biograph before rejoining Pathé as a director of special features.[12][14] For the 1914 Pathé film The Taint, he bought a steam locomotive and then destroyed it in a dramatically staged derailment. The stunt did not go as planned. It was reported that the "wild" unmanned engine jumped the tracks and "narrowly missed hitting the platform on which Mr. Powell and his camera were stationed." Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.[15][16]

Later, as a freelancer, Powell directed the first film made by George Kleine's production company. He was then hired near the end of 1914 by Fox Film Corporation, where he directed two highly popular films starring Theda Bara. The first one, A Fool There Was, was released in January 1915 and made the young actress an international star and gave her the nickname "The Vamp".[17] Often credited with "discovering" Bara, he had cast Bara six months earlier in a very minor role in her onscreen debut for the Pathé drama The Stain. In his 1926 reference A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture Through 1925, film historian Terry Ramsaye describes Powell's initial casting and promotion of Bara:

Powell (seated front, white hat) with Theda Bara (long hair, left of Powell) in Florida to film The Devil's Daughter (1915)

While Powell was making The Stain one Miss Theodosia Goodman, of some stage experience under the name De Coppet, applied for a part. Powell was impressed. The next day he took her with the company to work in exteriors at the Petit Trianon, Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island. Powell pondered deeply. He put her into the background away from the camera. He did not want her recognized and classified as a mere extra. When the casting of A Fool There Was began...Powell...presented the unknown Miss De Coppet. He evolved for her the name Theda Bara under which she was to attain world fame, "Theda" being an obvious contraction of Theodosia, while "Bara" was derived from a relative's name of Barranger.[7]

In addition to working again with Bara on the 1915 Fox five-reeler The Devil's Daughter, Powell directed Mary Pickford in 16 films, as well as other early stars such as Florence Lawrence, Robert Harron, Kate Bruce, Blanche Sweet, Donald Crisp, Henry B. Walthall, and Mabel Normand.

Frank Powell Productions

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Advertisement for Frank Powell Productions in The Moving Picture World, July 1916

In late 1916, Powell established his own production company and later set up filming and post-production facilities in San Antonio, Texas. One of the films he produced that year was Charity?, which was billed as a "sociological photo-drama" that portrayed the appalling conditions in some New York orphanages.[18][19] However, after being screened to a private audience, who objected to what they viewed as gross exaggerations in the film, Powell's company decided to make changes to the original print. At the time, the governor of New York, Charles S. Whitman, had commissioned a report on the conditions in private child-caring institutions, so the film may have appeared to be an opportunity to exploit and cash in on those public concerns.[20]

Powell continued to direct films even as he expanded his work as a producer and continued the development of his production facilities in Texas under the name Sunset Pictures Corporation.[21] In 1919 he directed there The Unbroken Promise, a Western starring his wife at the time, Jane Miller.[21] He also continued his work as a "scenarist" or screenwriter, writing a number of scripts for British productions in the early 1920s, including A Soul's Awakening (1921). During the same period, Powell directed some of his last films: a 1921 two-reel short for Paramount and Mack Sennett Comedies, Astray from the Steerage, and a 1922 five-reel crime drama, On Her Honor, starring Marjorie Rambeau as a detective.[22][23][24] Powell's work on longer films like On Her Honor continued to impress some reviewers, such as Mary Kelly of The Moving Picture World. In her assessment of that film, Kelly compliments its tone and pacing, describing Powell's direction as "a dignified and restrained treatment of the experiences of a lady detective".[24]

Later career

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Powell's career after 1922 becomes more difficult to trace from available references. His ongoing membership in the Motion Picture Directors Association suggests that he had relocated to Los Angeles, California and was residing there by that year. Although the MPDA continued to be headquartered in New York City, Powell's membership for 1922-1923 is listed as being at the organization's growing West Coast "Lodge" in Hollywood.[25] A film listing in the Exhibitors Herald also places him in Los Angeles in 1923. In its April issue, the trade journal credits Frank Powell as director for a six-reel Western titled Rancher and produced by Phil Goldstone Productions, a Los Angeles company associated with lower-quality releases or "B films".[26] The American Film Institute and other current film references and repositories credit George Elliot with directing Goldstone's 1923 Western, which is cited by a slightly different title, The Ranchers. Since no further news items or reviews in 1923 refer to Frank Powell and his connection to the Western, he may not have been able to complete the project or perhaps Goldstone replaced him with Elliot for some other reason.

Personal life

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Powell was married at least twice. In June 1907 in Amherst, Nova Scotia, he wed Iowa native Eleanor G. Hicks, an actress he met while working for the Lyceum Stock Company in New York.[27][28] He and Eleanor had one son, Frank Baden Powell, who was born in Iowa on June 26, 1910.[4][29] The couple divorced in 1914, the year before Powell's marriage to Emma H. Miller, another actress who professionally used the name Jane Miller.[2][30] He and Miller married in Jersey City, New Jersey on October 14, 1915, a few months after Powell cast her in three films he directed that year, first in a starring role in From the Valley of the Missing and then as a supporting player in The Devil's Daughter and The Witch.[30] They remained together for eight years, although they separated temporarily on several occasions before finally divorcing in June 1923.[31] Among the reasons cited by Miller for divorcing Powell were their disputes over his poker playing and lifestyle stresses caused by his deteriorating financial circumstances.[31]

Powell and Miller during their marriage lived in Bayside, New York. On October 30, 1915—just two weeks after the couple wed—The Moving Picture World reports that Powell had bought a "large estate" there and speculates that the impressive Long Island property would be used by the director not only as his residence but also as a venue for filming some of his future screen projects:

Frank Powell, director of photoplays for Fox Film Corporation and known throughout the world as the producer of "A Fool There Was," and other noted film successes, has purchased for an unknown amount, the famous Teller Estate on Bradish Avenue, Bayside Park, Bayside, Long Island. The estate includes a twelve-room house and spacious grounds that are noted for their natural beauty and they will no doubt be utilized by Mr. Powell in many of the feature films he has in course of production. Mr. Powell is remodeling and furnishing the house and under his artistic direction should make his place one of the most noted in Bayside.[32]

Death

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The date, exact location, and cause of Powell's death remain uncertain due to the lack of conclusive documentation. The presence of various Frank Powells in historical records in different states, conflicting information in federal indexes, and the ongoing need to find a corroborating obituary in a newspaper or trade publication leave many questions regarding Powell's final years and death unanswered.

Selected filmography

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Actor

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  • The Friend of the Family' (1909)
  • In the Watches of the Night' (1909)
  • The Mended Lute (1909)
  • With Her Card (1909)
  • A Corner in Wheat (1909)
  • His Duty (1909)
  • In Old California (1910)
  • The Impalement (1910)
  • The Newlyweds (1910)
  • The Man (1910)
  • The Rocky Road (1910)
  • The Rose of Surrey (1913), as Edmund Grey

Director

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Producer

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  • Charity (1916)[34]
  • Motherhood (1917)
  • The Dazzling Miss Davison (1917)
  • Hedda Gabler (1917)
  • Mrs. Balfame (1917)
  • Mary Moreland (1917)
  • The Forfeit (1919)

Screenwriter

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See also

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References and notes

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[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Frank Powell

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Frank Powell is a Canadian-born American silent film director, actor, producer, and screenwriter known for his contributions to early American cinema, including his work as a protégé of D.W. Griffith at the Biograph Company and for directing Theda Bara in her breakout role in A Fool There Was (1915). Born on May 8, 1877, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Powell began his film career as an actor in short films directed by Griffith, appearing in notable Biograph productions such as A Corner in Wheat (1909), where he played the greedy wheat baron. He soon moved into directing, helming numerous one-reel shorts for Biograph between 1910 and 1915, several of which featured a young Mary Pickford in her earliest screen roles, including All on Account of the Milk (1910) and Muggsy Becomes a Hero (1910). In 1915, Powell joined the Fox Film Corporation and directed A Fool There Was, a landmark film that established Theda Bara as cinema's first major "vamp" and became his most commercially successful work. He later pursued independent production, founding the Frank Powell Producing Corporation to make features for Mutual and the Sunset Pictures Corporation in Texas, but his output declined sharply after the late 1910s, with no further film credits recorded after the early 1920s. His date and place of death remain unknown to historians.

Early life and stage career

Birth and early years

Frank Powell was born Francis William Powell on May 8, 1877, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He received part of his education in Cleveland, Ohio, described as his boyhood home in contemporary accounts. His relocation with his family to the United States during his youth marked the beginning of his life in America, setting the stage for his later entry into the performing arts. Little additional detail is documented about his childhood activities or schooling beyond this relocation and education in Ohio.

Stage career

Frank Powell pursued a professional stage career of approximately 12 years before entering the film industry, working variously as an actor, stage director, and producer. He collaborated with playwright and producer Kirke La Shelle, serving as stage director under him for three years. He made Broadway appearances as an actor in the farce Tit for Tat at the Savoy Theatre in 1904. The following year, he performed as an actor in the Augustus Thomas comedy The Education of Mr. Pipp, which ran from February to April 1905 and was produced by Kirke La Shelle and Daniel V. Arthur; he also functioned as stage director during this engagement with Thomas. Powell later relocated to England, where he served as stage director and producer for actress Ellen Terry for three years, mounting historical spectacles such as Jane Shore, Robin Hood, and King Henry VIII. He also served as stage manager for specific productions including Captain Brassbound's Conversion and Henry of Lancaster in 1907.

Film career

Biograph Studios (1909–1911)

Frank Powell entered the film industry in 1909 at Biograph Studios in New York City, where he began working as an actor and scriptwriter under the mentorship of D.W. Griffith. His previous stage experience facilitated his rapid transition to motion pictures, allowing him to quickly adapt to the new medium's demands. One of his most notable acting roles came in D.W. Griffith's A Corner in Wheat (1909), in which Powell portrayed the greedy Wheat King, a ruthless speculator who ultimately suffocates beneath an avalanche of grain in a dramatic poetic justice scene. Powell soon moved into directing, helming numerous one-reel shorts for Biograph. He directed many light comedies during his tenure at the studio from 1909 to 1911, several of which showcased the company's evolving storytelling techniques. During this period, Powell collaborated with several prominent early film performers who were part of Biograph's stock company, including Mary Pickford in a portion of her Biograph appearances, as well as Florence Lawrence, Blanche Sweet, Mabel Normand, Robert Harron, Donald Crisp, Henry B. Walthall, and Kate Bruce. These associations helped establish Powell as a capable director capable of guiding actors in the concise, expressive style required for short-form silent cinema.

Pathé and transition to features (1911–1914)

In 1911, Frank Powell traveled to Europe and joined Pathé Frères in London, where he produced historical and romantic dramas. His tenure was curtailed by ill health, leading him to resign and embark on a tour of Europe to recover, during which he briefly worked for Pathé in Paris and visited film studios across France, Germany, and other countries, studying European acting techniques, costumes, and locations. After returning to the United States in 1912, Powell had a brief affiliation with the Powers Motion Picture Company, followed by a short tenure at Thanhouser in early 1913 (where he left without producing any confirmed films), before rejoining Pathé, this time as a director of special features in its American division. By 1914, working for Pathé in New Jersey, he transitioned to directing feature-length productions. These included His Last Dollar (1914), Officer 666 (1914), The Stain (1914), and The Taint (1914). In The Stain (1914), Powell cast Theodosia Goodman (later known as Theda Bara) in a small role as a gang moll. This minor part marked her film debut and set the stage for her breakthrough lead in A Fool There Was the following year. For The Taint (1914), a melodrama released in November, Powell staged a dramatic climax by purchasing a modern steam locomotive and deliberately derailing it on camera. The stunt went awry when the engine rushed over an embankment and narrowly missed the platform where Powell and the cameraman were positioned, as well as the camera placed beside the tracks, though no serious injuries occurred. Contemporary reports highlighted the spectacular wreck as a highlight of the film.

Fox Film Corporation and Theda Bara (1914–1915)

In late 1914, Frank Powell joined the Fox Film Corporation, where he soon took a central role in shaping the studio's early feature productions. He directed the 1915 film A Fool There Was, casting Theodosia Goodman in the lead role under the newly invented stage name Theda Bara. The picture, based on Porter Emerson Browne's play and drawing inspiration from Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Vampire," presented Bara as a seductive and destructive woman who lures a respectable man to ruin, thereby popularizing the "vamp" archetype in American cinema. The film proved a major commercial and cultural success, establishing Bara as an international star and one of the first major sex symbols of the silent era. Although Bara had previously appeared in a minor role in The Stain (1914) at Pathé, her work with Powell at Fox marked her true breakthrough. Powell directed her again in The Devil's Daughter (1915), continuing to build on the vamp persona that had proven so successful. Throughout 1915, Powell helmed several additional Fox productions, including Princess Romanoff (1915), Children of the Ghetto (1915), From the Valley of the Missing (1915), and A Woman's Past (1915). He is widely credited with promoting Theda Bara and helping to define her screen image during this formative period at the studio.

Independent productions (1916–1923)

In late 1916, Frank Powell founded Frank Powell Productions, Incorporated, marking his shift to independent filmmaking following his success at Fox. The company produced feature-length dramas, initially distributed on a State Rights basis and later acquired by Mutual Film Corporation for wider release. His debut production under the banner was the 1916 drama Charity (also known as Charity?), directed by Powell and starring Linda Arvidson, Creighton Hale, and Sheldon Lewis in a story centered on orphanage conditions and family dynamics. The film was rereleased by Mutual in 1918 and reedited with new intertitles in 1920. Between 1916 and 1917, Powell directed a series of features for his company, including The Chain Invisible (1916), The Fourth Estate (1916), The Scarlet Oath (1916), The Witch (1916), Mary Moreland (1917), The Dazzling Miss Davison (1917), Hedda Gabler (1917), Mrs. Balfame (1917), and Motherhood (1917). These projects often drew from literary or stage sources and featured notable actors of the era, reflecting Powell's continued focus on dramatic narratives. In 1919, Powell established Sunset Pictures Corporation in San Antonio, Texas, serving as vice-president and director-general. The short-lived company produced three features before ceasing operations. Among his later independent or freelance credits are Heart of the Sunset (1918), You Never Know Your Luck (1919), The Unbroken Promise (1919), The Forfeit (1919), Astray from the Steerage (1921), and On Her Honor (1922). Powell also contributed scripts to British productions, including A Soul's Awakening (1922). Powell's industry activity declined after World War I, with his last traceable credit around 1923, including a disputed association with The Ranchers (also known as Rancher) per AFI records. His independent phase thus represented a brief but productive period of self-directed feature production before his gradual exit from filmmaking.

Personal life

Marriages and family

Frank Powell was married twice, both times to actresses whose careers overlapped with his own in stage and early film work. His first marriage was to Eleanor G. Hicks, an actress and Iowa native, on June 5, 1907. They had one son, Frank Barden Powell, born around 1910 in Iowa. The marriage ended in divorce in 1914. In 1917, Hicks secured an increase in her alimony payments from Powell following court proceedings. On October 14, 1915, Powell married actress Emma H. Miller, who performed under the professional name Jane Miller. This second marriage ended in divorce.

Residences and later years

During his second marriage, Frank Powell owned the former Teller Estate in Bayside, Long Island, New York, which he purchased in October 1915. By around 1922–1923, Powell had relocated to Los Angeles, as indicated by his inclusion in the Motion Picture Directors Association Los Angeles Lodge roster. No verified records of his activities, residence, or death exist after 1923. His date and place of death remain unknown.
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