Location shooting in The Street of Forgotten Men - the Little Church Around the Corner

On May 10th, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival will screen its new restoration of Herbert Brenon's The Street of Forgotten Men - Louise Brooks' little seen first film. More information about that special event can be found HERE. 

This month, and ahead of that special event, I am running a few excerpts from my forthcoming book, The Street of Forgotten Men, from Story to Screen and Beyond, which I expect will be published later this year. This excerpt looks at one of film's location shoots, namely, the historic Little Church Around the Corner.

Production work on The Street of Forgotten Men began on April 6, 1925 and finished around June 6th. The film was largely shot at Paramount’s Astoria Studios on Long Island (located at 3412 36th Street in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens). Shown below is a rare production still from the film. An interior studio ceiling and lighting can be seen, as extras who crowd the street are paying attention to the man with a hat and megaphone standing in the lower center. That man  may well  be director Herbert Brenon. But who, I wonder, is the young woman standing to his right?

Location shooting was done elsewhere on Long Island as well as on the streets of Manhattan, including on Fifth Avenue, and at the landmark Little Church Around the Corner on East 29th. This post focuses on that historic place of worship. (Click here to see the Church's website or its Wikipedia page for more information and images.)

The Church of the Transfiguration, also known as the Little Church Around the Corner (built 1850), was the setting for a scene at the end of The Street of Forgotten Men, where the characters played by Mary Brian and Neil Hamilton are married. (Little Anita Louise is somewhere in the background.) In actuality, the building is an Episcopal church located at 1 East 29th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues on the island of Manhattan in New York City.

Notably, many prominent people from all over the country, including actors associated with both the stage and screen, have visited or been married in this picturesque parish church. Among them is novelist P. G. Wodehouse, who was married there in 1914, and subsequently set most of his fictionalized weddings at the church.

The Little Church Around the Corner got its nickname not long after the Civil War. At the time, actors and other performers were considered morally suspect in some quarters. According to the Church’s website, in 1870, Joseph Jefferson, an actor renowned for his portrayal of Rip Van Winkle, approached the rector of the nearby Church of the Atonement to request a funeral for his friend and fellow actor, George Holland. Upon learning that the deceased was an actor, the rector refused to hold services. Jefferson persisted, and asked if there was a church in the area that would hold a funeral for his friend. The rector responded, “I believe there is a little church around the corner where it might be done.” Jefferson replied, ‘If that be so, God bless the little church around the corner!”

To this day, the church has maintained ties with the theater world. In 1898, stained glass windows were placed in the building memorializing Edwin Booth, who is widely considered the greatest American actor of the 19th century. Since 1923, the Church has served as the national headquarters of the Episcopal Actors' Guild. Over the years such notables as Basil Rathbone, Tallulah Bankhead, Peggy Wood, Joan Fontaine, Rex Harrison, and Charlton Heston have served as officers or council members of the guild. In the 1970s, the Church hosted the Joseph Jefferson Theatre Company, which gave starts to actors such as Armand Assante, Tom Hulce, and Rhea Perlman. In 1986, the Church was featured in an episode of The Equalizer, the television show, as well as in a Woody Allen film, Hannah and Her Sisters. Following his death in 1990, guild member Rex Harrison was memorialized at the church.

In 1967, the Church of the Transfiguration was designated a New York City landmark, and in 1973, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.