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Photograph: Silent Era image collection.

Alan Crosland

Born 10 August 1894 in New York, New York, USA.
Died 16 July 1936 in Hollywood, California, USA, of injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

Married Juanita Fletcher, 1917; son, director Alan Crosland Jr., born 1918; divorced, 1921.
Married Elaine Hammerstein, 1925; divorced, 1930.
Married Natalie Moorhead, 21 December 1930; divorced, 15 July 1935.

Alan Crosland was born in New York City but raised in East Orange, New Jersey. Some of his elementary education was obtained in England and Crosland eventually attended Dartmouth College back in America. One of his earliest jobs was as a writer for The New York Globe newspaper but, with his interests shifting, Crosland left the newspaper, began stage acting, and was fortunate to appear in productions with Shakespearian actress Annie Russell.

Crosland began his motion picture career working for Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated, in 1912 and, after working a number of types of production work, was promoted to film director in 1916. Advancing with the company from short film to feature production, Crosland stayed with Edison through the end of the company’s motion picture production, when Crosland directed the final Edison film, The Unbeliever (1918).

Crosland continued directing for Select Pictures Corporation (1918), Selznick Pictures Corporation (1919 through 1922), Houseman Comedies (1922), Tilford Cinema Corporation (1922 and 1924), Cosmopolitan Pictures Corporation (1922-1923), Goldwyn Pictures Corporation (1923-1924) and Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (1924-1925).

In 1925, Crosland began working for Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated, the studio with which Crosland is most associated with in the silent era. For the studio, Crosland directed the high-profile productions Don Juan (1926), When a Man Loves (1927), The Beloved Rogue (1927) and Old San Francisco (1927).

Crosland’s Warner Brothers assignments included their experiments with the Vitaphone synchronized sound system, beginning with Don Juan and culminating with The Jazz Singer (1927), the film credited with the sound film boom.

Crosland continued directing into the sound era until his premature death at age 41 in an automobile accident.

References: Website-IMDb; Website-Wikipedia.