A Stranger from Somewhere (1916)

Interesting facts

A Stranger from Somewhere is a 1916 silent film directed by William Worthington. Universal's Bluebird Photoplays division produced and distributed the film. The movie featured Franklyn Farnum, Agnes Vernon, Barney Furey, and Claire McDowell. The screenplay was written by F. McGrew Willis and Walter Woods, who were credited under the pseudonym Willis Woods.

Production

In the book, "American Cinema's Transitional Era," the authors point out, The years between 1908 and 1917 witnessed what may have been the most significant transformation in American film history. During this "transitional era," widespread changes affected film form and film genres, filmmaking practices and industry structure, exhibition sites, and audience demographics. One aspect of this transition was the longer duration of films.

Laemmle would continue to buck this trend while slowly increasing his output of features.

In 1914, Laemmle published an essay titled - Doom of long Features Predicted. In 1915, Laemmle ran an advertisement extolling Bluebird films while adding the following vocabulary on the top of the ad.

Universal released ninety-one feature films in 1916 including fifty-four Bluebird films.

Franklyn Farnum (1878 - 1961) was born William Franklyn Smith on June 5, 1878, in Boston, Massachusetts. The 38 year-old actor would play the dual roles of Sam Brockton and Dippy Lewis. William Smith became a vaudevillian at age twelve and started acting on the stage in 1903. Early in his career, he decided William Smith was not a proper stage name.

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