The Centaur Company, situated in Bayonne, NJ., was the first independent movie business created in 1909 by a successful bicycle shop/pool parlor owner and his brother. The company owned an improvised movie camera (to go around the Edison patents), which they used to film outdoors while its Bayonne, N.J. shop developed and edited the movies.
Because Centaur filmed all its movies outside and didn't operate an interior studio, the owners became frustrated by a lack of consistent sunshine required for exterior shooting. Looking towards California, the company discovered the quaint small village of Hollywood, CA., where Biograph Studio's D. W. Griffith had visited and filmed several movies the previous year. Centaur found a tavern in Hollywood that would be perfect to convert into a movie studio. The Blondeau Tavern became the first permanent motion picture studio in Hollywood. Centaur changed its name to Nestor Motion Picture Company after it bought the tavern, on today's corner of Sunset Blvd. and Gower St. Soon after Nestor built the first movie stage in Hollywood behind the converted building.
The Hollywood studio would film all the company's movies in and around the area and ship the unedited shot celluloid to its Bayonne, NJ, facility to be processed into a final picture and then distributed to theaters. Other movie studios would soon follow Nestor Company's lead and establish their film companies in the Hollywood neighborhood. The following year Nestor Company would merge with the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, soon to be known as Universal Pictures. "Her Indian Hero" was the first movie to be filmed and produced by he Nestor Company, making it a first in Hollywood's illustrious cinematic history. Jack Conway, who co-directed and is a co-star in the movie, would go on to have quite a productive career behind the lens, especially for MGM. The studio loved his direction since he was always under budget and his films always produced a tidy profit. He directed such films as "A Tale of Two Cities (1935)," "Libeled Lady (1936)," and "Boomtown (1940)" with Clark Gable.
Because Centaur filmed all its movies outside and didn't operate an interior studio, the owners became frustrated by a lack of consistent sunshine required for exterior shooting. Looking towards California, the company discovered the quaint small village of Hollywood, CA., where Biograph Studio's D. W. Griffith had visited and filmed several movies the previous year. Centaur found a tavern in Hollywood that would be perfect to convert into a movie studio. The Blondeau Tavern became the first permanent motion picture studio in Hollywood. Centaur changed its name to Nestor Motion Picture Company after it bought the tavern, on today's corner of Sunset Blvd. and Gower St. Soon after Nestor built the first movie stage in Hollywood behind the converted building.
The Hollywood studio would film all the company's movies in and around the area and ship the unedited shot celluloid to its Bayonne, NJ, facility to be processed into a final picture and then distributed to theaters. Other movie studios would soon follow Nestor Company's lead and establish their film companies in the Hollywood neighborhood. The following year Nestor Company would merge with the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, soon to be known as Universal Pictures. "Her Indian Hero" was the first movie to be filmed and produced by he Nestor Company, making it a first in Hollywood's illustrious cinematic history. Jack Conway, who co-directed and is a co-star in the movie, would go on to have quite a productive career behind the lens, especially for MGM. The studio loved his direction since he was always under budget and his films always produced a tidy profit. He directed such films as "A Tale of Two Cities (1935)," "Libeled Lady (1936)," and "Boomtown (1940)" with Clark Gable.