Bluebird Photoplays

{{Short description|American film production company}}

{{More citations needed|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Bluebird Photoplays

| logo = BlueBirdPhotoplaysLogo1917.jpg

| logo_caption = Logo from BlueBird Magazine Ad

| trade_name = Bluebird Photoplays

| industry = Film

| predecessor = Independent Moving Pictures

| founded =

| founder =

| defunct = Branding ceased in the 1920s

| fate = Universal Branding abandoned

| successor = Universal

| hq_location_city ={{Unbulleted list|California|New Jersey}}

| hq_location_country = United States

| num_locations = 2

| area_served = Worldwide

| products = Motion pictures

| owner = Universal Film Manufacturing Company

| parent = Universal Film Manufacturing Company

}}

Bluebird Photoplays (Bluebird Photoplays of New York, Inc. and Bluebird Photoplays of New England, Inc.{{cite book |author1=United States Board of Tax Appeals |title=Reports of the U.S. Board of Tax Appeals, Volume 11 |date=16 May 1928 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9zJdLowValMC&pg=PA1277 |access-date=11 April 2022 |language=en}}) was an American film production company that filmed at Universal Pictures studios in California and New Jersey, and distributed its films via Universal Pictures during the silent film era. It had a $500,000 studio in New Jersey.{{cite book |title=The Moving Picture World |date=1916 |publisher=World Photographic Publishing Company |page=402 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=saMbAQAAMAAJ&dq=bluebird+photoplays&pg=PA402 |access-date=11 April 2022 |language=en |chapter=M. H. Hoffman talks on Bluebird }}

"It was a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and employed Universal stars (and starlets) and used Universal’s facilities but the pictures were marketed independently from Carl Laemmle’s umbrella company."—Anke Brouwers{{cite web |last1=Brouwers |first1=Anke |title=Only Whoop Dee Do Songs. Bluebird Photoplays Light(en) Up the Cinema Ritrovato — Photogénie |url=https://cinea.be/only-whoop-dee-do-songs-bluebird-photoplays-lighten-up-the-cinema-ritrovato/ |website=Cinea |access-date=11 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411030904/https://cinea.be/only-whoop-dee-do-songs-bluebird-photoplays-lighten-up-the-cinema-ritrovato/ |archive-date=11 April 2022 |date=2015-07-04}}

Mary MacLaren, was one of its stars.The Mysterious Mrs. M (1917) Louise Lovely, an actress from Australia, was one of its stars.

{{cite journal |last1=Delamoir |first1=Marie Jeanette |title=Louise Lovely, Bluebird Photoplays, and the Star System |journal=The Moving Image |date=2004 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=64–85 |jstor=41167168 |doi=10.1353/mov.2004.0025 |s2cid=194017782 |url=https://acquire.cqu.edu.au/articles/journal_contribution/Louise_Lovely_Bluebird_Photoplays_and_the_star_system/13416878}}

Bluebird was a prestige brand for Universal and had a core of actors and directors including Lovely who worked for it.{{cite web |last1=Delamoir |first1=Marie Jeanette |title=Louise Lovely's Bluebird Photoplays |url=https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/louise-lovely-and-universals-bluebird-photoplays |website=National Film and Sound Archive of Australia |access-date=11 April 2022 |language=en |date=9 October 2012 |quote=The National Film and Sound Archive's festival of Spring Silents 2012 season 'Silent Screwball' at Arc Cinema, Canberra, Australia}}{{cite news |last1=Kennedy |first1=Cris |title=Arc Cinema: Sense of closure hard to accept |url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6137707/arc-cinema-sense-of-closure-hard-to-accept/?cs=14264 |access-date=11 April 2022 |work=The Canberra Times |date=4 August 2014 |language=en-AU}} Ida May Park directed for Bluebird Photoplays. Elsie Jane Wilson produced and directed for Bluebird Photoplays.{{cite web |title=Ella Hall in 'New Love for Old' Produced by Elsie Jane Wilson |url=https://archive.org/details/universalweekly00moti/page/n153/mode/2up |website=Motion Picture Weekly |publisher=Motion Picture Weekly Publishing Co. |access-date=10 April 2022 |location=New York |date=1918-02-02 |quote=via archive.org}} Among those who worked for this short-lived subsidiary of Universal are Carmel Myers, Mae Murray, Rudolph Valentino, Tod Browning, Rex Ingram,The Chalice of Sorrow Robert Z. Leonard and Rupert Julian.{{cite web |last1=Lewinsky |first1=Mariann |title=Beloved Bluebirds {{!}} Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival |url=https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/sezione/adorati-bluebirds/ |website=Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival |access-date=11 April 2022}}

Louis B. Mayer invested in the company. M. H. Hoffman managed the company.