Frank Powell

• Birth Name — Francis William Powell • Born — 8 May 1877 • Birthplace — Hamilton, Ontario • Died — unknown • Occupation — Actor-Director-Producer-Screenwriter • Years Active — c. 1897-1920s • Spouses — Eleanor G. Hicks (m. 1907-div. 1914) Emma H. Miller (m. 1915-div. 1923) • Children — Frank Baden Powell (son, 1910-1974)

Frank Powell was born in 1877 in Hamilton, Canada, the child of Elizabeth and Francis Powell. According to the 1920 edition of the Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Journal, he received part of his education in Cleveland, Ohio, although that publication provides no other information about his schooling or reveals whether his interest in theatre began in that city. However, a 1916 notice in the trade paper Variety does confirm Powell's close and early connection to Cleveland. In an April 26 news item titled "Frank Powell Resting", the widely read publication announces that the 38-year-old director was traveling to Cleveland, "his boyhood home", for a vacation. What is known about Powell's 12-year stage career is that he worked with playwright Kirke La Shelle and performed in at least two major Broadway productions. In 1904 he performed in the play Tit for Tat at the Savoy Theatre, and the next year he both acted in and served as a director for Augustus Thomas's comedy The Education of Mr. Pipp. He then relocated for several years to England, where he directed productions for actress Ellen Terry before returning to North America. In its October 15, 1915 issue, the Austin Statesman and Tribune provides details about the course of Powell's initial stagework with Terry, background that he shared with the newspaper in an interview:

• Illustration — Advertisement for Frank Powell Productions in The Moving Picture World, July 1916 In late 1916, Powell established his own production company and later set up filming and post-production facilities in San Antonio, Texas. One of the films he produced that year was Charity?, which was billed as a "sociological photo-drama" that portrayed the appalling conditions in some New York orphanages. However, after being screened to a private audience, who objected to what they viewed as gross exaggerations in the film, Powell's company decided to make changes to the original print. At the time, the governor of New York, Charles S. Whitman, had commissioned a report on the conditions in private child-caring institutions, so the film may have appeared to be an opportunity to exploit and cash in on those public concerns. Powell continued to direct films even as he expanded his work as a producer and continued the development of his production facilities in Texas under the name Sunset Pictures Corporation. In 1919 he directed there The Unbroken Promise, a Western starring his wife at the time, Jane Miller. He also continued his work as a "scenarist" or screenwriter, writing a number of scripts for British productions in the early 1920s, including A Soul's Awakening (1921). During the same period, Powell directed some of his last films: a 1921 two-reel short for Paramount and Mack Sennett Comedies, Astray from the Steerage, and a 1922 five-reel crime drama, On Her Honor, starring Marjorie Rambeau as a detective. Powell's work on longer films like On Her Honor continued to impress some reviewers, such as Mary Kelly of The Moving Picture World. In her assessment of that film, Kelly compliments its tone and pacing, describing Powell's direction as "a dignified and restrained treatment of the experiences of a lady detective".

Powell's career after 1922 becomes more difficult to trace from available references. His ongoing membership in the Motion Picture Directors Association suggests that he had relocated to Los Angeles, California and was residing there by that year. Although the MPDA continued to be headquartered in New York City, Powell's membership for 1922-1923 is listed as being at the organization's growing West Coast "Lodge" in Hollywood. A film listing in the Exhibitors Herald also places him in Los Angeles in 1923. In its April issue, the trade journal credits Frank Powell as director for a six-reel Western titled Rancher and produced by Phil Goldstone Productions, a Los Angeles company associated with lower-quality releases or "B films". The American Film Institute and other current film references and repositories credit George Elliot with directing Goldstone's 1923 Western, which is cited by a slightly different title, The Ranchers. Since no further news items or reviews in 1923 refer to Frank Powell and his connection to the Western, he may not have been able to complete the project or perhaps Goldstone replaced him with Elliot for some other reason.

Powell was married at least twice. In June 1907 in Amherst, Nova Scotia, he wed Iowa native Eleanor G. Hicks, an actress he met while working for the Lyceum Stock Company in New York. He and Eleanor had one son, Frank Baden Powell, who was born in Iowa on June 26, 1910. The couple divorced in 1914, the year before Powell's marriage to Emma H. Miller, another actress who professionally used the name Jane Miller. He and Miller married in Jersey City, New Jersey on October 14, 1915, a few months after Powell cast her in three films he directed that year, first in a starring role in From the Valley of the Missing and then as a supporting player in The Devil's Daughter and The Witch. They remained together for eight years, although they separated temporarily on several occasions before finally divorcing in June 1923. Among the reasons cited by Miller for divorcing Powell were their disputes over his poker playing and lifestyle stresses caused by his deteriorating financial circumstances. Powell and Miller during their marriage lived in Bayside, New York. On October 30, 1915—just two weeks after the couple wed—The Moving Picture World reports that Powell had bought a "large estate" there and speculates that the impressive Long Island property would be used by the director not only as his residence but also as a venue for filming some of his future screen projects:

The date, exact location, and cause of Powell's death remain uncertain due to the lack of conclusive documentation. The presence of various Frank Powells in historical records in different states, conflicting information in federal indexes, and the ongoing need to find a corroborating obituary in a newspaper or trade publication leave many questions regarding Powell's final years and death unanswered.

• The Friend of the Family (1909) • In the Watches of the Night (1909) • The Mended Lute (1909) • With Her Card (1909) • A Corner in Wheat (1909) • His Duty (1909) • In Old California (1910) • The Impalement (1910) • The Newlyweds (1910) • The Man (1910) • The Rocky Road (1910) • The Rose of Surrey (1913), as Edmund Grey

• The Kid (1910) • May and December (1910) • Never Again (1910) • A Gold Necklace (1910) • The Lucky Toothache (1910) • Jane Shore (1911) • Puppets of Fate (1912) • His Last Dollar (1914) • Anna Rose (1914) • The Corsair (1914) • Officer 666 (1914) • The Stain (1914) • The Taint (1914) • A Fool There Was (1915) • Children of the Ghetto (1915) • From the Valley of the Missing (1915) • The Devil's Daughter (1915) • Princess Romanoff (1915) • A Woman's Past (1915) • Charity? (1916) • The Chain Invisible (1916) • The Fourth Estate (1916) • The Scarlet Oath (1916) • The Witch (1916) • Mary Moreland (1917) • The Dazzling Miss Davison (1917) • The Final Payment (1917) • The Mirror (1917) • Hedda Gabler (1917) • The Debt (1917) • Mrs. Balfame (1917) • Motherhood (1917) • Heart of the Sunset (1918) • You Never Know Your Luck (1919) • The Unbroken Promise (1919) • The Forfeit (1919) • Astray from the Steerage (1921) • On Her Honor (1922) • Rancher or Ranchers (1923)

• Charity (1916) • Motherhood (1917) • The Dazzling Miss Davison (1917) • Hedda Gabler (1917) • Mrs. Balfame (1917) • Mary Moreland (1917) • The Forfeit (1919)

Frank Powell is recorded as theatre director, actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer.