In
1908, Charles Rosher came to the United States from England as the assistant
to Richard Speaight, official photographer for the British Crown, for an exhibit
for the Eastman School of Photography. He brought with him a Williamson movie
camera to record the event.
He
became friends with a fellow Englishman, David Horsley, who started
the Centaur Film Company in the backyard of his Ideal Billiard
Parlor in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1907.
Horsley
offered Rosher a job as cinematographer. With the legal problems
with Edison, they came west and renamed the company, Nestor Film
Company
Nestor
Film opened it's doors in 1910 establishing the first real studio
in what was to become Hollywood, California. Here's a photo of
the Nestor Film Company in 1911:
The
production in 1911 was 3 films a week, normally one comedy, one
western and one drama. As Nestor grew, in 1912 they used a new
company formed to distribute films of independent studios called
the Sales Company headed by Carl Laemmle.
Here's
a photo of Nestor in 1913.
The
sign on the left says Christie Film Co. Al E. Christie was the
production manager for Nestor and formed his own film company
next door.
They
were part of the merger that produced Universal in 1919. Nestor
produced approximately 1000 films.
Here's
a list of the films that we have on record for Nestor
