Boer War Comes to Brooklyn

In the early days of silent films, before movie companies moved to Southern California, New York was the nation’s film capital. War movies were one of the most popular genres and in this photo George Melford directs “The Boer War” in Brooklyn.

This photograph was used as a promotional photo for “The Boer War” around its release March 31, 1914. Vitagraph Studios, which built its first studio in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn in 1905, made “The Boer War” and many other silent black-and-white films. At its peak, Vitagraph churned out eight films a week on its Brooklyn back lot.

The Boer War was fought between British forces and two Boer states in South Africa, lasting from 1899 to 1902. “The Boer War” film was released when audiences craved war movies showing soldiers, bullets, explosions and carnage. In 1914 alone, a movie fan could watch “Battle of Waterloo,” “The Battling British,” “The War of Wars,” “War Is Hell,” “The Warfare in the Skies,” “Napoleon,” “The Last Volunteer” and The World’s War,” to name a few.

“A glance at the posters displayed in Fourteenth Street on the east side in front of the motion-picture playhouse convinces one that ware is the one current attraction which needs no arranged publicity,” The Times wrote in September 1914.