The Rolin Film Company Seed Money and When It Ran Out

On 21 Oct 1914 the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Morning Tribune, and Los Angeles Evening Express all reported that a marriage license had just been issued to Harry E. Roach and Helen G. Woodbury.

City records say the marriage took place on 19 October.

The marriage certificate and newspapers described Roach as aged 22 and working in motion pictures.

The documents also said Woodbury was 37. Helen was in fact 47 years old.

The couple were reported to be living in Helen’s home on Van Ness Avenue.

We thus have this timeline:

• 14 Jan 1914: Frederick Woodbury died suddenly in a mine accident.
• 26 May: Frederick’s widow Helen Woodbury, having received $10,000 in life insurance money, was suing for more.
• 23 July: Hal Roach co-founded the Rolin Film Company, stunning his friend Harold Lloyd by having about $2,000 to invest.
• 21 October: Helen Woodbury and Hal Roach married.

Also in that period, on 24 September a “wealthy society woman…walked into the side” of Helen Woodbury’s automobile outside the Mason Opera House (shown above). The Oakland Tribune reported that the woman had suffered “a severe concussion” but was expected to recover. So it was a busy time for Helen.

By the first half of 1915, however, Rolin was coming apart. The company had made several short films, mostly comedies, but couldn’t sell them to any distributor. Its most promising leads, Sawyer and United Film Service, both went out of business that year.

Harold Lloyd got sick of the low wages and went to act for Mack Sennett instead, starting in April. Rolin’s other lead performers also signed elsewhere.

One of the company co-founders, Daniel Linthicum, backed away without investing the additional money he had promised.

The company’s lease on space in the Bradbury Mansion lapsed.

Even Hal Roach himself put Rolin on the back burner, joining the Essanay company as a director. He spent his lunch hours talking about how to make movies with that studio’s star, Charlie Chaplin. As of 21 May 1915, the Los Angeles Record was quoting praise for its “Movie Edition” from “Harry Roach, Director, Essanay Film Mfg. Co.”

TOMORROW: The turnaround.