In Silent Serial Sensations: The Wharton Brothers and The Magic of Early Cinema, literature and film scholar Barbara Tepa Lupack argues, “In the early 1910s, the Wharton brothers established a successful independent production studio in Ithaca, New York, where they created some of the most acclaimed and highest-grossing films of the decade. Those popular serials, which aroused the enthusiasm of audiences worldwide, played a vital role in the evolution of cinema as a mass medium and as a form of entertainment for people of all ages and backgrounds; and they became forerunners of today’s ubiquitous crime and mystery procedurals and sensation-filled commercial blockbusters” (pg. xi).

In their short films, Lupack writes, “The Whartons spoke directly to the concerns of their age and to the interests of their audiences” (pg. 13). These themes included the New Woman and feminism of the early twentieth century, particularly through shorts with women protagonists such as The Exploits of Elaine from 1914-1915 (pg. 84). Works like The Mysteries of Myra (1916) blended sexuality with the occult (pgs. 132-133, 146-147). The Wharton brothers similarly tapped into fears of war and sabotage as Europe erupted into conflict (pgs. 165, 211, 219). Like many films from this period, a great deal of the Wharton’s work was lost to time, so Lupack bases her close readings of the films on any extant clips, the archived scripts, and production photographs.

Filming in New York, the Whartons made extensive use of the varied geography surrounding Ithaca and the Finger Lakes region (pgs. 52, 54, 69). Upstate New York offered further benefits due to its proximity to New York City and New Jersey, then the headquarters of the American film industry (pgs. 22-23). Unfortunately, following World War I, the film industry moved out west to Los Angeles (pg. 227). This, combined with the Whartons’ own financial woes once they went fully independent, ended both their business and the film industry in Ithaca (pg. 237). ( )