It may be hard to imagine a time before smartphones and streaming services made moving images accessible at any time of the day or night. But the film industry is relatively recent. Film equipment was developed at the end of the 1890s and movie theaters did not yet exist. As Bob Mondello has explained for NPR, “Before the Nickelodeon opened in 1905, people had heard the sound of film running through a projector, but they'd heard it in vaudeville houses, sandwiched in between the juggler and the comedy act, ghostly shadows flickering on a white sheet draped over a pole. Patrons could barely make out the images of a couple dancing to an orchestra no one could hear, or a man sneezing. But the mere fact that they moved was kind of a miracle then. Only later did it occur to anyone to use these shadows to tell a story.”

Hollywood Comes to the Tri-Valley

Movie theaters soon expanded across America, drawing eager fans by showing thrilling adventures at affordable prices. As an article in the January 3, 1913 issue of the Mill Valley Record newspaper explained, “There are motion pictures everywhere–theatres, dance halls, lodges, churches, schools, banquet rooms, sanitariums, asylums, on board ship, on railroad trains, in private homes, on the housetops and on the streets, in fact, anywhere and everywhere a curtain can be hung. Every city has its full quota of ‘nickelodeums' and a fair allotment of the more pretentious picture theatres.”

In the early 1900s, producing movies was a young industry, silent films used cutting-edge technology, and the Tri-Valley’s warm and sunny weather made it an attractive location for productions made outside of Hollywood. One newspaper account claimed that in 1908. Essanay was built in nearby Niles, which is now a part of Fremont. That makes it California's oldest film studio. Like any industry, early filmmaking had challenges, as the Mill Valley Record reported.

“Over at Niles, where the Essanay Western stock company has their headquarters, dwells a good-hearted Irishman whom they have nicknamed ‘On-the-Porch’ Jerry. Jerry was a section foreman for the Southern Pacific for a number of years in that locality. One day after a rain, the picture company was making a scene on the railroad tracks. The villain was just tieing the heroine across the rails and the camera was clicking merrily along, when Jerry with a basket of mushrooms on his arm came up over the embankment, about twenty yards away. ‘Hey, ye divvil,’ shouted Jerry, ‘what do yez be doin' wid dat girrul?’ A train whistling around the bend at that instant prevented the picture men from hearing him. Now Jerry had been long enough in the railroad game to know that in case of a pinch it’s act first and think afterwards. Jerry had no intention of allowing that girl to be mangled by that oncoming train; not if a hundred villains stood in the way. He dropped his basket of mushrooms and sprinted over the intervening distance like a college freshman, flung the villain to one side, and, despite the protests of the picture men, untied the heroine and dragged her out of danger. Then came the explanations. Now Jerry won’t even go to the picture show.”

Many others did go to the pictures, as movies were called, to see their favorite screen stars. Wildly popular at the time were Bronco Billy westerns shot in the East Bay and produced at Essanay Studio between 1908 and 1915. Charlie Chaplin and Gloria Swanson were among the legendary Hollywood stars who worked at Essanay.

Mary Pickford was an especially popular star. Audiences flocked to see her in “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” when it was released in September 1917. Though the film was set in New England, exterior scenes were shot on location in Pleasanton. Rumors spread that local children were paid $2 per day as extras, good wages for the time.

It is unknown how location scouts for the film decided to use Pleasanton, according to historian Ken MacLennan, Curator for Pleasanton’s Museum on Main and author of Pleasanton, California: A Brief History. But the decision made sense. Pleasanton had an appealing downtown, and the city did not look like a stereotypical California area filled with palm trees and colonial-style architecture. “The scouts must have looked around and thought they could make Pleasanton look like pretty much anywhere in the United States,” he says.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, for example, was set along the Mississippi River. In 1917, the book was the basis for a movie called “Tom Sawyer" starring Mary Pickford’s brother, Jack, and also shot in Pleasanton. Other early film stars who made movies using Pleasanton locations include Buster Keaton, Lillian Gish, and Tom Mix. Abbot and Costello's "It Ain't Hay" was filmed at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in 1942.

Industry Shift

MacLennan estimates that some 20 films include locations shot in Pleasanton between 1917 and 1927. The early advantages of shooting in Pleasanton included the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific rail lines, which made it easy to transport actors, crews, and equipment between Los Angeles and the East Bay. But those advantages evaporated in 1927, with the release of the first so-called talking picture, “The Jazz Singer,” according to MacLennan. The train lines became a liability because of the sound of train traffic. Productions primarily moved to indoor sound stages, and outdoor locations were often shot in the greater Los Angeles area, which was more convenient and affordable than traveling elsewhere.

In the 1980s and 1990s, some independent films were shot in the Tri-Valley, MacLennan notes. Derek Zemrak was the writer and a producer on “Ice Scream,” a horror film released in 1997. The movie included locations in Dublin and Pleasanton. More recently, the Tri-Valley Film Office has served as the hub for film permitting, location scouting, and other related services. At Visit Tri-Valley, Certified Film Liaison Justin Bower works hard to promote the Tri-Valley as an ideal destination for all types of film, television, and still production.

Over the years, he has worked with many student filmmakers, film companies shooting commercials, and other entities creating videos, commercials, films, and TV programs. In late 2023 and 2024, for example, Bower assisted the producers of The Great Christmas Light Fight, an ABC TV competition show, while Tri-Valley residents participated in the contest.

The Tri-Valley offers many benefits to TV, film, and commercial productions, note Bower. “Filmmakers don't need to spend top dollar going up to Napa to get that picturesque setting,” he says. “If they are looking for a beautiful landscape with vineyards, we have that here in Livermore, and the hotel spots for their crew. We can make sure that their stay and their permitting goes smoothly.”

The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, located in Fremont, is a wonderful resource for fans of silent films and movie lovers of all sorts. The museum and its store are open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 pm. “The 100-seat nickelodeon theater screens silent films every Saturday night with live accompaniment,” according to officials, who note that “there is a Laurel & Hardy / Little Rascals Talkie Matinee on the second Sunday of the month.” Other events are held as well.

When it comes to the Tri-Valley and movie history, “this story is still developing,” says MacLennan. “There's still research to be done. There's still things to find out. History isn't done. There's always room to dig for more.”

By its nature, the script for the future of filmmaking in the Tri-Valley remains unwritten. No one can predict how technology, entertainment, and the region’s innovation hub may interact to create future film classics. But Bower can promise to help anyone aiming to make their mark artistically or commercially within the region.

“We are very budget friendly, we are very face-to-face,” he notes. Industry professionals dealing with the Tri-Valley Film Office “are not going to deal with an automatic voice machine or bounce-back emails. We're here to help get your film project done on time.”

For more information about the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, please visit www.nilesfilmmuseum.org.

For more information about Pleasanton’s Museum on Main, please visit www.museumonmain.org.

For more information about the Tri-Valley Film Office, please visit www.visittrivalley.com/filmoffice.