4 days ago
REVIEW: Hollywood on the Veld, when movie mayhem gripped the City of Gold
Isidore Schlesinger, better known as 'IW', built a studio on a farm called Killarney, where he set out to challenge a place in America that was in its infancy: Hollywood.
In 1913, an American millionaire living on the top floor of Johannesburg's Carlton Hotel had an extraordinary idea: to make films in Johannesburg. And not just any films, but the biggest in the world, grand spectacles with elaborate sets, thousands of extras, and epic storylines.
Isidore Schlesinger arrived in South Africa with almost nothing. He set out to make his fortune selling American goods, telling his parents he'd return either a millionaire or a pauper.
Known as 'IW', Schlesinger built a film studio on a farm called Killarney, with the ambitious goal of rivalling a place that was itself only just emerging—Hollywood, which at the time was still farmland outside Los Angeles, dotted with shacks and barns.
Though movies were still in their infancy in 1913, and despite having no background in entertainment, Schlesinger quickly made his mark on the global film scene.
He launched 'The African Mirror', a newsreel series, and sent crews as far as East Africa to document World War I. His production company was among the first to shoot on location outdoors, while Hollywood was still confining itself to studios and painted backdrops.
Schlesinger's crews filmed across the bushveld, at historic battlefields, Victoria Falls, and the forests of Portuguese East Africa - well beyond the comfort zones of most of his contemporaries. He was deeply passionate about South Africa's landscapes and cinematic potential.
The glamour and ambition of IW's Killarney studio mirrored the mood of early 20th-century Johannesburg, a city in the midst of a heady golden age.
