Edwin Thanhouser

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Edwin Thanhouser along with his wife, Gertrude Thanhouser and brother-in-law Lloyd Lonergan, founded the Thanhouser Company in 1909 in New Rochelle, New York. From then until he sold his interest in spring 1912 (although he was involved in films released through early 1913, and again from 1915 until the close of business in 1918), he directed the affairs of the company that bore his name.

Edwin Thanhouser was born in Baltimore, Maryland on November 11, 1865. In 1893, he was impressed by Alessandro Salvini, a well known orator and actor, and joined Salvini's traveling company. Edwin Thanhouser traveled around the United States and Eastern Canada with various companies, after which he formed his own stock companies in Atlanta and Milwaukee. In Milwaukee he managed the Academy of Music, which became a very profitable venture.

On February 8, 1900, Edwin Thanhouser married Gertrude Homan, an actress whom he met the preceding summer. Success with the Milwaukee theatre and fortunate speculation in the securities market gave Edwin Thanhouser sufficient capital to lease the Bush Temple Theatre in Chicago, after which transaction his family moved to Chicago in 1907. Edwin Thanhouser and his family moved to New Rochelle, New York, where he leased an old wooden skating rink. His new venture, the Thanhouser Company, released its first commercial film on March 15, 1910.

In 1912, he sold out to a combine headed by Charles J. Hite and retired from the motion picture business, taking his family on a grand tour of Europe, where he remained until World War I broke out in August 1914. He returned to America about the same time that Charles J. Hite was killed in an automobile accident. Edwin Thanhouser resumed his old position as managing head of the company. He did this early in 1915, but as the film industry, its practices, and the tastes of the public had changed since he had last been in films in 1912, Edwin Thanhouser's re-entry did not duplicate the success he had scored in earlier years. He remained until early 1918, when the Thanhouser Film Corporation was liquidated, with several hundred thousand dollars remaining on deposit in various accounts. ^[1]

Edwin Thanhouser kept active in securities investments and enjoyed collecting art; he passed away on March 21, 1956.