Opening Scene 1; Biography

This is my first blog and I wish to introduce myself. My "leading lady" starring in the photograph is my wife, Elena. I am an undergraduate U. S. History Major (Senior) student at California State University East Bay. History has always been a fascinating subject for me. I like to travel and have visited over 75 countries with Elena over the past several years. So, it makes perfect sense for me to understand and know what I'm looking at in the places I visit around the globe. Most importantly studying History helps me to understand the various cultures enveloping the people I meet and interact with during my travels and at home.

In addition I utilize historical research in my work as an expert witness and legal consultant to attorneys regarding insurance matters. I hold four professional insurance and financial planning designations, and have been involved in the financial services industry in various capacities for 34 years. Please click on "My Web Page" and enter my name in the "search members" section for more information on what I do as a consultant on the Forensic Expert Witness Association website.

After several years successfully developing my insurance and financial planning practice, I decided to go back to school and complete my Bachelor's degree, majoring in American/California History. My goal is to graduate June 2011, to utilize and integrate new knowlege into my research work I do as a legal consultant. To that end, I am currently enrolled in a History research class that explores topics relating to events that occured in the San Francisco Bay Area. The specific geographic location of my research will be centered in Castro Valley(Hayward), California, but other related local areas will be examined also.

During the next ten weeks, I will be posting the results of my research on this blog site. The topic I have chosen is early movie making and the start of the movie industry here in this area. Everyone thinks of Hollywood as the "epicenter", but the movie industry really started here around the early 20th century. Only later, Southern California was selected as the ideal spot as an entertainment and movie making center. Many of Hollywood's early movie stars lived and practiced their craft in Northern California first. Charley Chaplin filmed his most famous movie,"The Little Tramp" at Essenay Studios located in Niles,(now Fremont)California as an example.

In the coming weeks I will explore the actual locations of local movie studios, the equipment used and the inventor behind that equipment(Thomas Edison). He invented a lot more than just the light bulb! I wish to explore and identify the early actors,directors,studio locations,and the films that were created here. It will be interesting to see the financial impact the film industry had on the local economy, as well as the entire state during this early film producing period.

I will explore what other residents and industries were directly and indirectly affected and how they participated in the movie industry's growth. Lastly I will examine the after effects of why the movie industry relocated to Southern California. Other topics will include how unions and studio workers fitted in to the scheme of things and their impact on the movie industry as well. I hope to find people to visit with that can remember "how it was" and relate to me their impressions of a very unique time in California's growth during the early twentieth century and beyond.

Please feel free to post any comments or suggestions of where I might look for additional resources and information relating to this fascinating subject of creating California's dreams through the eye of a camera. Lights! Camera! Action!