Gaston Méliès


Gaston Méliès was a French film director who worked primarily in the United States. He was the brother of the famous film director Georges Méliès.

Biography

Gaston and the third and elder Méliès brother, Henri, ran the family shoe factory in Paris. They landed a contract with the French War Ministry that looked to make them both wealthy. Unfortunately, the price of leather increased sharply, and they were unable to meet their costs. The factory shut down and the Méliès brothers lost their business.
Georges Méliès had produced films in France, which had become popular around the world. Some distributors began infringing Méliès work, especially in the United States. Georges Méliès asked his brother Gaston to go the United States and guard Georges's copyrights.
Gaston Méliès arrived in New York City in 1902, formed the American branch of the Star Film Company, and began distributing his brother's films. By 1903, Gaston began making films himself, mostly documentaries. The films were not successful. In the summer of 1907, Gaston Méliès returned to France take care of some business with Georges. On September 11, 1907, he married Hortense-Louise de Mirmont, an elder sister of Lucien Reulos' wife, who was one of Georges Méliès' first collaborators. The new couple left Paris a few days after their marriage and travelled from Le Havre to New York on the ship La Savoie, where they arrived September 28, 1907.
In need of warmer winters to allow for year-round film production, Méliès moved the Star Film Company to San Antonio, Texas, and leased twenty acres including a two-story house and large barn that became the "Star Film Ranch" movie studio. He acted in two of his movies playing a priest in The Immortal Alamo and The Kiss of Mary Jane.
In April, 1911, Gaston moved the company to Santa Paula, California, following the trend of other movie studios to relocate in California.
In 1912 and 1913 Méliès travelled around Asia Pacific with his family and a film crew of close to 20 people, with whom he filmed in French Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, Tahiti, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia and Japan in search of exotic subjects. During this trip which lasted from July 1912 to May 1913, Gaston Méliès filmed 64 movies, sending the footage back to his son Paul in New York, but this footage was often damaged or unusable. Gaston was no longer able to fulfill Star Film's obligation to Thomas Edison's company. Gaston lost $50,000 and had to cease production. He went to California, sold the American branch of Star Films to Vitagraph Studios, and then returned to Europe. He and his brother Georges never spoke to one another again.
Méliès and his wife moved to Corsica in the winter of 1913. He died in Corsica on April 9, 1915 of "shellfish poisoning." He was buried on April 14, 1915 in Saint-Vincent Cemetery in Montmartre, Paris, in a tomb belonging to his second wife's family, De Mirmont.

Filmography

Unless otherwise referenced, the following information is adapted from the research of Paul Hammond. All films were released by the Star Film Company.

1903–1909

In the table below, "SFC" refers to the numbers used for film listings in the Star Film Company catalogues; Hammond's research identifies the catalogue numbers for the first three of Gaston Méliès's films. Film length is given in meters and feet.
SFCRelease dateTitleLengthNotes
482AAugust 1903The Yacht Race 43m/140 ftFrench title: Une Course de yachts
668AFebruary 1905Inauguration Subjects: President-Elect Roosevelt, Vice-President-Elect Fairbanks and Escort Going to the Capitol45m/146 ftListed as notable by the American Film Institute
1114–1115May 1908The Catholic Centennial Celebration292m/950 ft
—June 1908Pageant, Dedication, FestivalUnknownUK release title: Boston Normal School Pageant
—October 1909The Stolen Wireless289m/915 ft
—November 1909The Red Star Inn307m/1000 ft
—December 1909The Fatal Ball307m/1000 ft

1910–1912

The following films, all one-reelers, were made between 7 April 1910 and 25 July 1912 in Texas and California.
The following are the films made between July 1912 and May 1913 on Méliès's Pacific travels.