Niles was its own town before it became part of Fremont. KQED says its sunny weather and easy train access to San Francisco and Chicago drew the Essanay Film Manufacturing Co. The studio was run in part by Gilbert “Broncho Billy” Anderson, the first Western movie cowboy star. Museum historian David Kiehn told KQED that Anderson settled on Niles in 1912 after three years of searching. Essanay made more than 350 films there over the next four years and was “the most successful silent film company in the Bay Area,” Kiehn said.
Chaplin in Niles
Kiehn told KQED that Essanay lured a young Charlie Chaplin away from Keystone, where he earned $150 a week. Essanay paid $1,250 a week plus a $10,000 signing bonus. Chaplin didn’t much like Niles, KQED says, but he made five films there that made him a star. One was The Tramp, and its final scene, with the brokenhearted tramp walking off down the road, was shot in Niles Canyon. Film historian Marc Wanamaker told KQED that Essanay gave Chaplin creative control: “This was the beginning of Chaplin as we know him.” Chaplin soon went back to Southern California.
The museum
Wikipedia says the museum is in the Edison Theater, a century-old nickelodeon half a block from the former Essanay studio site, and that it holds about 10,000 silent films. Kiehn told KQED in 2019 that the museum had shown films every Saturday night since Jan. 22, 2005, with live piano. Wikipedia notes that Kiehn showed the famous A Trip Down Market Street film was shot just days before the 1906 earthquake, research featured on 60 Minutes. The museum also helped Google produce its 2011 Chaplin birthday Doodle. Check the museum’s website for the current screening schedule.
For a ride through the canyon where The Tramp ended, see our Niles Canyon Railway guide.