Congrats you're probably bankrupt AND dead from TB. See for example, Star Film Company:
The American branch of the company was managed by Méliès' older brother
Gaston Méliès and produced
films in
New York City,
San Antonio,
Texas and
Santa Paula, California. Its most significant film was
The Immortal Alamo (1911).
[4]
Georges Méliès had produced films in France, which had become popular around the world. Some
distributors began
infringing Méliès' work, especially in the
United States. Méliès asked his brother Gaston to go to the United States and guard Méliès
copyrights.
Gaston arrived in New York City and began distributing his brother's films. By 1903, Gaston began making films himself, mostly
documentaries. The films were not successful. The company moved to San Antonio looking for warmer winters and leased twenty acres including a two-story house and large barn that became the "Star Film Ranch"
movie studio.
[4] Star Film Company was the earliest non-Texas production company to operate in Texas.
[5]
The studio had actors
Edith Storey,
Francis Ford, and
William Clifford under contract along with writer
Anne Nichols. The studio also hired local
ranchers and
cowboys to give its
Westerns genuine character. The films were normally one reel in length with an average running time of fifteen minutes. Of the seventy films made in San Antonio, only three are known to have survived.
[4]
Star Film moved to
California in April 1911. Gaston originally planned to relocate to
Santa Barbara but chose
Santa Paula instead, perhaps because the scenery was better, or perhaps because it was less expensive. In Santa Paula, he built stages across from a resort called Sulphur Mountain Springs, where the troupe rented rooms. Financially, things started going wrong for Gaston. His popular stars, Edith Storey and William Clifford moved to other companies. His California films were not as profitable as the Texas films had been. In November 1911, Gaston met with
Vitagraph Studios in New York and sold fifty percent of his company, including his brothers negatives and distribution rights.
[6]
On July 24, 1912, Gaston, his wife and a crew of fourteen left for a Pacific and Asian voyage to make movies in exotic locales. Documentaries and dramas were filmed at various locations such as
Tahiti,
Bora Bora,
New Zealand,
Rarotonga,
Australia,
Java,
Cambodia,
Japan, and others. The footage was sent to New York for processing, but much of the footage arrived damaged because of the harsh conditions in which the negatives were shot or mishandling in transit. What was released met with an unappreciative audience and bad reviews in the trade press.
[6]
Gaston stopped the tour in 1913 and settled in
Corsica, where he died two years later. Gaston's son Paul sold what was left of the company to
General Film Company in 1917. It was believed that "bad blood" developed between the Méliès brothers, but recent research indicates that despite losses in the American branch, Georges received all payments he was entitled to.
[6]
