Having achieved some success as an interpreter of Western characters on the stage (in such plays as The Squaw Man and The Virginian), William S. Hart arrived in California in the Spring of 1914 with the intention of making a new style of Western motion picture. Hart remembered having seen a second-rate Western in a Cleveland nickelodeon, but he may also have been inspired by the recent success of Cecil B. De Mille’s film version of The Squaw Man. His friend Thomas Ince agreed to put Hart under contract, but since program Westerns were now “a glut on the market,” he could only offer a salary of $75 per week. Ince quickly put Hart into two shorts and two features, films built around a two-gun man like the one Hart had played in The Squaw Man. The shorts were inconsequential, but the features (The Bargain and On the Night Stage) were well produced, with Hart playing against a strong supporting cast. But Ince had nothing more for him to do after this four-month burst of activity, and Hart returned to New York, looking again for work in the theatre. He was unaware that The Bargain had been a fabulous success in previews, and had been sold by Ince to Paramount at a considerable profit. Ince quietly convinced him to return to California, and raised his salary to $125, although Hart was now expected to direct the films as well as act in them. With his new Western star busy on the backlot, Ince held up release of On the Night Stage for seven months, using it as a showcase to officially launch one of the greatest screen stars of the silent era.

Richard e Diane Koszarski