The Black Maria, built in 1893 by Thomas Alva Edison, near his laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, was the world’s first film studio. Films were shot there for Edison’s peepshow-style kinetoscope viewer.
The ending was the brainstorm of the director originally assigned to the film, Robert Florey (later replaced by James Whale). Florey’s apartment was located over a Van De Kamp Bakery, whose trademark was a windmill.
The X in Francis X. Bushman’s name stood for Xavier.
Universal Studios mogul Carl Laemmle was the manager of the Oshkosh, Wisconsin, branch of Continental Clothing, a clothing retailer. In 1906, after losing his job in an argument with his boss, he opened a movie theater in Chicago. He soon became a film distributor and, in 1912, founded Universal. According to one account, he got…
Desreta Jackson, who played Celie as a child in The Color Purple (1985).
Misty Rowe played Marilyn Monroe in the screen biography Goodbye, Norma Jean (1975). The title refers to Monroe’s real name, Norma Jean Baker.