Arthur Hotaling

{{short description|American film director (1873–1938)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Arthur Hotaling

| image = Arthur Hotaling by Don Barclay 1918.jpg

| caption = Sketch of Hotaling "explaining the gentle art of throwing a custard pie"

| birth_date = February 3, 1873

| birth_place = New York City

| death_date = July 13, 1938

| death_place = California, USA

| years_active = 1910–1928

| occupation = Film director

}}

Arthur Douglas Hotaling (February 3, 1873 – July 13, 1938) was an American film director, producer and writer. He directed 113 films between 1910 and 1928, including the 1914 film Outwitting Dad, which featured the onscreen debut of Oliver Hardy.

Hotaling was born in New York City. He would later go to work for the Lubin Manufacturing Company.{{Cite book |last=Eckhardt |first=Joseph P. |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Peddler_of_Dreams/JfMKAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Arthur%20hotaling%20mae%20hotely&dq=Arthur%20hotaling%20mae%20hotely&printsec=frontcover |title=Peddler of Dreams: Siegmund Lubin and the Creation of the Motion Picture Industry, 1896-1916 : an Exhibition |last2=Kowall |first2=Linda |date=1984 |publisher=National Museum of American Jewish History |pages=11 |language=en}} Hotaling and Siegmund Lubin were reportedly very close, with Hotaling considered Lubin's "boy wonder".{{Cite book |last=Eckhardt |first=Joseph P. |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_King_of_the_Movies/54QeRLRM3jwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Arthur%20hotaling%20mae%20hotely&pg=PA92&printsec=frontcover |title=The King of the Movies: Film Pioneer Siegmund Lubin |date=1997 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |isbn=978-0-8386-3728-9 |pages=92 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Woal |first=Linda |date=1994 |title=When a Dime Could Buy a Dream: Siegmund Lubin and the Birth of Motion Picture Exhibition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3814962 |journal=Film History |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=152–165 |issn=0892-2160}} In 1912, Hotaling brought a company of actors to Jacksonville, Florida, where he established a film studio for Lublin.{{Cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Richard Alan |date=1983 |title=Palm Trees, Public Relations, and Promoters: Boosting Southeast Florida as a Motion Picture Empire, 1910-1930 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30140680 |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=383–403 |issn=0015-4113}} During his time with the Lubin Company, he saw it develop from a one-man studio to a multimillion dollar company.{{Cite book |last=Eckhardt |first=Joseph P. |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_King_of_the_Movies/54QeRLRM3jwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Arthur%20Hotaling&pg=PA202&printsec=frontcover |title=The King of the Movies: Film Pioneer Siegmund Lubin |date=1997 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |isbn=978-0-8386-3728-9 |pages=201-202 |language=en}} Hotaling would work with Lublin for 18 years.

File:Mae Hotely in Motion Picture Acting.jpg

In August 1902, Hotaling married Maye Shearor who became the silent film actress Mae Hotely, her stage name was a play on his name.{{Cite book |last=Lowe |first=Denise |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/An_Encyclopedic_Dictionary_of_Women_in_E/oGS2AgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Arthur%20hotaling%20mae%20hotely&pg=PA282&printsec=frontcover |title=An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930 |date=2014-01-27 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-71897-0 |pages=282 |language=en}} She appeared in some of his films and acted in some of them.{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Blair |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/American_Silent_Film_Comedies/05IuEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover&bsq=mae%20hotely |title=American Silent Film Comedies: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Persons, Studios and Terminology |date=2024-10-15 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0980-5 |pages=112, 208 |language=en}} The couple later divorced.

Hotaling died in California from a heart attack.

Contemporary film historians analyzing Hotaling's work have found racist ideology in many of his Florida films, where they utilize stereotypes featuring minstrels and mammys.{{Cite journal |last=Morton |first=David |date=2023-04-03 |title=The moving image as an instrument of oppression and resistance in Jim Crow Era Jacksonville, Florida, 1907–1917 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2023.2209941 |journal=Early Popular Visual Culture |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=223–247 |doi=10.1080/17460654.2023.2209941 |issn=1746-0654}}{{Cite journal |last=Mason |first=Clitha |date=2017 |title=Queering The Mammy: New Queer Cinema's Version of an American Institution in Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/blackcamera.8.2.03 |journal=Black Camera |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=50–74 |doi=10.2979/blackcamera.8.2.03 |issn=1536-3155}}{{Cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Richard Alan |date=1980-10-01 |title=Movie Mecca of the South |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01956051.1980.10661872 |journal=Journal of Popular Film and Television |language=EN |doi=10.1080/01956051.1980.10661872 |issn=0195-6051}}