Meet Edwin Thanhouser | Citizen Archivist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Edwin Thanhouser and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Edwin, what do you want people to remember about you?
My grandparents were pioneers in the early motion picture industry producing and releasing over 1,000 silent films from the Thanhouser Studio from 1910 to 1917. I have spent the past 30+ years researching the studio history and finding over 260 surviving films from the studio. I have established a 501(c)(3) non-profit to memorialize the studio history and distributed DVDs and online copies of the films from the studio via the website www.thanhouser.org. I have presented academic papers at multiple conferences and continue to stay engaged in the academic community to promote the history of the Thanhouser Studio, its founders, and actors and actresses who make the studio one of the pioneers in the industry.

My legacy will be centered around my passion to resurrect the studio history and examples of its output.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I spent 40 years in the high tech industry, most recently retiring from Intel Corporation in 2011 after 28 years working in engineering and marketing. I was now able to devote my skills learned at Intel to do further research and document the Thanhouser Studio history in a documentary film that was released in 2014. This one-hour documentary took three years to produce and was featured at the opening night at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy. This effort inspired me to pursue documentary filmmaking as a post-retirement career. While continuing to research and release more Thanhouser produced films on DVD and online, I produced several award-winning documentary films on diverse subjects that included motorcycle sidecar racing and the restoration of a world war II B-17 bomber to flying condition.

I’ve learned over the past decade that story telling is a delicate art. Everyone has a story to tell, and that to tell their story you have to establish a relationship with the principles to learn how to tell their story in the most compelling way that people will want to watch.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live in Portland, Oregon in the beautiful Northwest. Given a week long trip, I would first have them explore Portland’s local food scene, especially our food carts for which the city is famous. The Hawthorne Asylum Food Carts are our favorite offering over 20 different food choices from sushi to craft beer to barbecue. There is also the Oregon Historical Society and the Portland Art Museum downtown as well as the historic Hollywood Movie Theatre, built in 1926 at the height of the silent movie industry. The theatre now shows first run features as well as silent classics (Including Thanhouser films) with live musical accompaniment.

Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast is a wonderful day trip from Portland that offers spectacular views of Haystack Rock, curios shopping, and a lovely beach ideal for kite flying. Lunch at Mo’s seafood restaurant for clam chowder and fried shrimp are perfect before the one-hour drive back to Portland.

Following a tour of Portland and the coast, we would depart for Central Oregon on the east side of the cascade mountains. Traveling over Mt. Hood, a quick lunch stop at the historic Timberline Lodge, build in the 1930s by the WPA. It has a grand view of the Willamette Valley and surrounding cascade peaks. Then, proceeding to Bend Oregon to experience some of the beautiful outdoor hiking, caving, and off-road motorcycle riding. The Todd Lake trail is one of our favorites, and nearby Boyd Cave is an easily accessible lava tube worth visiting. If you’re into off road motorcycle, there are hundreds of single and dual track trails to explore. In the winter, Mt. Bachelor offers some of the finest snow skiing in the northwest.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
When I started this journey in the late 1980s, my mentor was Paul Spehr at the Library of Congress. I had no experience in the history of early film or navigating my way around archives that might hold films produced by my grandparents. Paul was constantly guiding me and offering encouragement. We remained good friends for decades until his passing in 2020. He is missed by all who worked or knew him, a generous man.

Website: https://www.thanhouser.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nthanhou/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thanhouser/

Twitter: @nthanhou

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thanhouser

Image Credits
Personal Photo Credit: Evan Schneider