Image: Moving Picture World, February 26, 1910
Respectability Arrived Early
Movie making started early in Montecito, California. By 1910, filmmakers were using the mansions and formal gardens of the estates here. The earliest movie made here that I've been able to find in my research was The Roman, released on February 14, 1910.
The movie starred Hobart Bosworth, a famous stage actor whose presence helped to bolster movies' reputation. "Many stage players looked down on the movies and were afraid that they would hurt their standing in legitimate theater by working in 'galloping tintypes,' but the thinking began to change when popular stage actor Hobart Bosworth appeared in The Roman." – Silent-Era Filmmaking in Santa Barbara, Robert S. Birchard, 2007
No copies are known to survive.