Wharton Studio History

The Wharton, Inc. Studio was a thriving motion picture studio in Ithaca, NY, from 1915 to 1920. Created by filmmaking brothers Theodore "Ted" Wharton and Leopold "Leo" Wharton, the studio, located in Renwick Park (now Stewart Park) along the shores of Cayuga Lake, produced hundreds of films and serials starring some of the best known actors of the day -- Irene Castle, Lionel Barrymore, Pearl White, and a 19-year old Oliver Hardy. Drawn by Ithaca's melding of the rustic and the urban, the Wharton brothers found infinite potential for dramatic backdrops in the area's gorges, waterfalls, college campus (Cornell University), the lake, woods, and a bustling downtown. The Whartons wrote, directed, produced and distributed films such as The Great White Trail, A Romance of the Air, and The Lottery Man, as well as the popular serials The Romance of Elaine, The Exploits of Elaine, The Mysteries of Myra, and Beatrice Fairfax, across the country, to Canada and the world.

This was the silent era: there was no spoken dialogue, so title cards or intertitles provided brief descriptions of a plot point or dialogue, but the movies were not really silent. At one of the seven movie theaters in downtown Ithaca in the 19 teens and 1920s, a moviegoer would watch a film with live musical accompaniment, typically from a piano or organ.

The Whartons embraced Ithaca and the City embraced them back. The Wharton Studio hired locals as cinematographers, production designers, costumers, and extras; and the denizens of the area were eager to go to Renwick Park to watch movies being made and devoured all the stories in the Ithaca Journal about the comings and goings of the stars.

An Influenza epidemic in 1918 caused the Studio some financial trouble and it never recovered. Perhaps Ithaca's quirky weather also began to weigh on the Whartons. By late 1919, the Wharton sub-let the Studio to Grossman Pictures who made one film called A Million Dollar Reward, before Cayuga Pictures, a state-funded production company took over the building and made a film called If Women Only Knew before closing up shop. The Whartons opened a small office downtown but left Ithaca for good in 1920 -- Ted Wharton to California and Leo to Texas. Sadly the brothers were estranged and never worked together again.

Theodore and Leopold Wharton and their Wharton, Inc. Studio left an indelible mark on Ithaca and the region, and the industry as a whole. They are considered the fathers of the serial; undoubtedly pioneers in what was an emerging art form and industry.

For more about the Wharton brothers and their studio, we recommend historian Barbara Tepa Lupack's Silent Serial Sensations: The Whartons and the Magic of Early Cinema (Cornell University Press 2020).