Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Oakland Park's Studio City ... SOFLA attempts at film industry in the 1920s


Proposed Screen Talent Studios 1922
Florida State Archives

During the 1920s, the film industry flourished in Hollywood, California while South Florida land sales boomed. Some thought movies and Florida would make a good match. In 1922 Miami-based Barkdull Investment Company advertised lots in the Fort Lauderdale Herald (October 3, 1922) for a development that would house Screen Talent Studios. A ten-acre piece of land was purportedly bought for $3,000,000  (not verified) where a “Greenwich Village” was to house a production crew. Many residential lots sold for $50 each but the movie studio didn’t materialize in Oakland Park, now bordered by Fort Lauderdale. South Florida may have rivaled Hollywood in film making … or maybe not.





Tags: film industry Florida, Florida film industry research, early film makers in Florida, film, Fort Lauderdale history, Oakland Park history