Norman Studios of Jacksonville's silent film era is now on National Register of Historic Places

Norman Studios of Jacksonville's silent film era is now on National Register of Historic Places

Jacksonville’s Norman Studios, where filmmaker Richard Norman made silent films featuring African-American performers in the 1920s, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner announced Tuesday.

Located on Arlington Road, the five-building studio complex was first operated by Eagle Film Studios during Jacksonville’s brief heyday during the first two decades of the 20th century as a flourishing movie production center. But after John W. Martin was elected mayor of Jacksonville in 1917 on an anti-film campaign, most movie companies left Jacksonville. Norman, a white filmmaker born in Middleburg, acquired the studio where he both lived and made most of his movies.

The coming of the sound era ended Norman’s career making movies for black audiences. Only one of the nine features he made is known to have survived. “The Flying Ace,” set during World War I and released in 1926, has been restored by the Library of Congress. Full Story By The Florida Times Union: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-02-10/story/norman-studios-jacksonvilles-silent-film-era-now-national-register.

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