- [Jim] When this silent film actress came to St. Louis, it made history.

The first personal appearance by the woman considered the first movie star and the first to be the subject of an outlandish publicity stunt.

- First time Florence Lawrence becomes famous is when they're denying that she died.

- [Jim] Think small when you come to this museum in south St. Louis.

Small houses, smaller people, and tiny, tiny things with enormous appeal.

- All ages, all genders.

There's no limit.

- [Jim] And it's the technology that is changing so many things because they can now make so many things.

It's all next on Living St. Louis.

(playful jazz music) - I'm Jim Kirchherr.

It's academy awards time.

And while St. Louis is not usually a city associated with movie making, it does hold a special place in movie history.

Something happened here in the early days of silent films at Union Station that changed everything.

It's said that the modern era of what we call movie stardom, it was born on St. Louis, 112 years ago.

On March 25th of 1910, a crowd was gathering at Union Station awaiting the arrival of the woman who was known as "The Girl of a Thousand Faces."

The woman coming to St. Louis on the train was Florence Lawrence.

She's considered America's first movie star.

The first to be identified by name.

The first to be set out to make a personal appearance.

And the first was the subject of a movie studio publicity stunt.

This ad in the St. Louis Times is a good introduction to the life and reported death of Florence Lawrence.

- [Reporter] There's a wild surging rush forward, carrying police and barriers with it.

As the frenzied spectators struggle to greet and acclaim their favorite.

- [Jim] This is the iconic scene of movie stardom.

The premier, the spotlight, celebrities exiting luxury automobiles.

Adoring fans pressing for a chance to see their idols whose lives and loves, real or products of the press agents, were chronicled in the fan magazines.

But this was the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Back in 1910, the industry was still on the East Coast.

And the age was somewhat less than golden.

In New York city, DW Griffith's Biograph Pictures was turning out, really churning out short one and two real films from this modest building.

It was really a movie making factory and the people in front of the camera, workers on the assembly line.

One of them was a young, petite woman by the name of Florence Lawrence.

But at this point, movie goers did not know her name.

Actors were not listed in the credits.

But Florence Lawrence was becoming a fan favorite.

Even if they only knew her as the Biograph girl.

- They would try to crank out two or three a week.

And these were one-reeler usually two at times.

And I would say, Florence Lawrence was in 200 of them.

That's a rough estimate on my part, but she was in.

- [Jim] Katie Pratt, a former editor here at Nine PBS has worked restoring Biograph films for the Film Preservation Society.

She knows Florence Lawrence, frame by frame.

- I would say, and this is just speaking in the biograph realm, that there's definitely something about her.

As soon as she comes on the screen and Griffith was very good about knowing what talent would appeal to audiences.

He just had that gift of saying, you know, you've got whatever this is.

Star quality.

I guess.

- [Jim] Women were also swooning over the Biograph's handsome leading man.

Later, they would learn his name, King Baggot.

He would play a supporting role in the events in his hometown of St. Louis.

Tom Stockman has lectured on Baggot's film career.

- He could do comedy.

He could do romance.

He was a very good looking man.

The women just loved him.

- [Jim] They just didn't know his name.

Not yet.

There were a couple of reasons film players were anonymous.

Moving pictures were not considered legitimate theater and some stage actors who might make a film for money didn't want their name associated with it.

But it was also to the movie studio's advantage to keep it that way.

Joe McClintock, an amateur film historian who has dug deep into this story.

- Basically, there was a trust over in New York of about seven movie studios.

They all worked together 'cause they did not wanna pay the movie stars too much money.

So nobody knew who these movie stars were.

- [Jim] It took this guy to change that.

His name was Carl Laemmle.

He was later a major player in Hollywood as head of Universal Studios.

But in 1909, he was just starting up a new movie studio that was not part of the trust.

Thus, the name Independent Moving Picture company or IMP.

And in 1909, Florence Lawrence left Biograph and went to work for IMP studios.

And Laemmle decided that her fans should now know her by name.

They should know when a Florence Lawrence movie was showing.

- Sold tickets right there.

You didn't even have to say what film it was.

I mean, I'm guilty of that.

I'll watch anybody with my faith.

It's in it.

It doesn't matter what it's called.

So I think that was the start of that.

- All Laemmle had to do was turn a nationally known face into a household name.

And this is where it gets interesting.

There was a rumor, maybe a fabrication, that Florence Lawrence had been killed in a street car accident while shooting a scene in New York.

Some versions said it was an automobile.

Laemmle then placed this ad in a film industry publication headlined, "We Nail a Lie."

It says the rumor had been foisted on, are you ready?

"The public of St. Louis by his enemies," that Florence Lawrence was "in the best of health" making movies for IMP with her best work about to be released.

- Most accounts credit Carl Laemmle was simply making up the rumor himself so he could deny it.

But most accounts don't deal with the question, why St. Louis?

Yeah, it was still one of the biggest cities in the country, had a couple of hundred places showing moving pictures and lots of fans.

So, maybe, Carl Laemmle just picked a city's name out of a hat, but maybe, and there's a lot of maybes in this story St. Louis actually had a pretty big role in all of this.

Take a look.

Weeks before Laemmle's famous "We Nail a Lie" ad.

The St. Louis times was reporting this.

"Film poser is not dead."

Poser was often used to describe film actors famous for their facial expressions.

The subhead then uses her name.

"Miss Florence Lawrence reported killed in auto wreck, still acting before camera."

A fact it said that was confirmed by Carl Laemmle.

Joe McClintock thinks this early St. Louis report has been overlooked.

- The rumor was started and I think it was started to sell movie tickets.

But I don't think it started with Carl Laemmle.

I think it started with a man named Frank Talbot.

- [Jim] He would've had his reasons.

Frank Talbot owned theaters in St. Louis including the Gem theater, where the new IMP films with Florence Lawrence were being shown, and people were coming.

An earlier Post-Dispatch article on the local movie business makes no mention of Florence Lawrence's rumored death, but says, hundreds of fans had been asking about where she was and were switching theaters to find her films.

So, another possibility to consider.

It was a rival theater owner who started the rumor to keep his customers from heading over to the Gem.

Maybe Talbot didn't actually start the rumor.

Maybe he just took it and ran with it.

Got the not dead news story placed prominently in the St. Louis Times.

And in the same edition, his Gem theater ad.

"Florence Lawrence not dead.

See her here in today's motion pictures."

Was there a rumor?

Was it a hoax?

Was it Talbot's idea?

Laemmle's plan?

Nobody really knows for sure.

Whatever, it worked.

- The first time Florence Lawrence becomes famous is when they're denying that she died.

- [Jim] The Globe-Democrat took up the story with Florence Lawrence's surprised reaction to the reports of her death.

And here's a feature story with some Florence Lawrence beauty tips.

The Post-Dispatch ran a whole page on her, still alive.

It was titled "The Girl of a Thousand Faces."

"Determination, sadness, concentration, piety, coquetry, horror, hilarity."

The photos and quotes coming straight from the IMP studios.

And Carl Laemmle wasn't done.

He got on a train with Florence Lawrence and King Baggot, co-stars of his new film.

And they headed to St. Louis for two nights of personal appearances.

And, if you showed up at Union Station to greet them, you could get an autographed picture of Florence Lawrence.

It was March 25th of 1910.

- That day was really through the birth of movie stardom in America.

- [Jim] The St Louis Times seemed to be a partner at all of this with exclusive coverage.

It reported that thousands of people turned out, mostly women, a bigger crowd had said than had come out for president Taft's recent visit.

When Florence Lawrence got off the train, the Times said a "flood of femininity swept toward her like an avalanche," and that "the crowd pressed her so closely that it appeared she would be trampled underfoot."

Later account said buttons were torn from her coat as souvenirs.

This might all seem like studio hype, but remember, nothing like this had ever been done before.

- I have no reason to think it was exaggerated.

I think motion pictures were fairly new but there was a huge fan base for them.

And I think people generally had this appetite to meet a movie star.

- Of course, that just kept getting more and more intensified.

You know, throughout the 30's and 40's.

And yeah, I would credit Florence Lawrence with having started that or having it rest upon her, maybe.

- What happened in St. Louis that day set something in motion that now just couldn't be stopped.

The Post-Dispatch ran a full page story profiling other silent film stars by name.

It said movie fans or fiends as it called them, were now demanding personal news about their favorites.

The following year, the first fan magazines hit the news stands.

And King Baggot, he now became known as the king of the movies.

- He was the number one movie, male movie star for a number of years.

And he did so much.

His career went very well.

- [Jim] You could still find some of their films from the silent era but so many have not survived.

And for the most part for the general public today, neither have their names.

By the 1920's, they'd been surpassed by bigger stars making bigger pictures.

They both continued to appear in films but you'd be hard-pressed to spot them.

King Baggot as man and audience, racetrack spectator, theater goer, baseball fan.

Florence Lawrence in 1933's "The Silk Express" as "Older Blonde Phone Operator."

She did have a small speaking part in this 1931, Hoot Gibson, Western.

She arrives in a buggy for a single scene.

- That's the man.

- [Jim] She might not have said much, but Florence Lawrence could still make a face.

- Here's the hard hombre.

- You big brute.

- [Jim] Florence Lawrence's life was not going well.

She was dealing with pain from a movie set injury and with bouts of depression.

Later, suffering from an incurable bone disease.

The first movie star committed suicide in 1938.

King Baggot whose acting career started in St. Louis theaters died 10 years later.

Their deaths made the news but even St. Louis, the stories made no reference to what had happened here in 1910.

- You know, by the late 30's, it was a case of, I'm surprised.

I remember who she was at all.

- [Jim] This publicity photo was taken in 1935.

It shows 10 silent film stars signing contracts to appear as extras in MGM films.

And there they are.

King Baggot and Florence Lawrence who made movie history in St. Louis.

Together again for one more publicity stunt.

And now a story from the good things come in small packages category.

Brooke Butler heads to south St. Louis to visit a little museum that happens to be a museum of little things.

- [Brooke] Tucked away in the Bevo Mill neighborhood, you'll find some of the tiniest, larger-than-life objects.

Colonial furniture, a haunted mansion, charcuterie boards, a pinball machine.

The Miniature Museum of Greater St. Louis has it all.

Although, if you don't look close enough, you might miss it.

- They can have appeal to all ages, all genders.

There's no limit.

- [Brooke] The museum houses thousands of miniature items throughout their two floors of exhibit space, but it's not the quantity that attracts the visitors.

For miniatures, the appeal is all in the detail.

- I've been interested in miniatures since I was a child.

I had my child dollhouse.

And then I decided I was gonna build a dollhouse in 1980.

And I brought it outta the basement in 99.

It took me that long.

- [Brooke] Fay Zerbolio has been on the miniature museum's board since the early 90's.

And as she mentioned, it was her own hobby that sparked her involvement.

The museum's board was created in 1989 but it was in 2000 that Fay and her husband bought the building on the corner of Graveway and Dolor and transformed it into the museum people visit today.

- [Fay] My husband is my builder.

He retired at exactly the same time as we bought the building.

And so he needed something to do and we found it.

And, he's also the builder for the museum.

He's built a lot of the display cases and tray and tables and the covers and everything.

- These are two houses, this one and this one that were made by the same pair and donated to the museum and lit the same way.

You can see what happens with their lighting.

You'll notice that you can't see deep in into the rooms because there isn't a sufficient amount of light.

What we do here is something that we call front edge lighting.

We use LEDs.

And the difference between this and this, which is one that we have related is patently obvious.

- [Brooke] So this front edge LED lighting is a standout feature that makes this museum different than other miniature museums.

But there are some other components to the museum that also make it unique.

Intricate lighting is a subtle detail that Dominic says makes a big difference in the quality of a miniature display.

Like this jukebox or this fireplace.

- I had haven't seen anybody who build fireplaces the way we do.

- [Brooke] The display cases, also made by Dominic, are tailor made at the museum to make it easier for custom lighting.

The museum also offers classes that demonstrate these lighting techniques in addition to occasional sales, shows and other events.

But aside from these technical aspects, the museum is unique in that every single miniature item displayed has been donated.

Either from hobbyists or professional artisans that want their work to be enjoyed by others.

- Well, we're run by all volunteers.

There's not a paid person on our staff.

And it's an effort to get people to volunteer and fill the slots.

But we've managed so far.

- Mag Dietrich, started as a volunteer but her involvement has grown to serve as the current treasurer of the board.

- When my daughter was born, I kind of felt like I was justified in pursuing this interest in museum, in miniatures which started with my mother who collected a box of little treasures.

Maybe they were Crackerjack toys.

You know.

They weren't anything special but to her, they were special.

- [Brooke] Yes.

It's not anything new.

Miniatures have been around forever.

- And when you think about it, toys, in all their aspects, a lot of toys are small items for small hands.

So, miniatures have been around since, you know, the Egyptian mummies probably.

Yeah.

Miniatures are very, some of them, very expensive, very well made but there are also some miniatures that are geared to children that are meant to be toys and played with, and, you know, to help them grow into being an adult.

- [Brooke] And in fact, one of the first purposes of miniatures was to teach young girls how to maintain a household.

But of course, the hobby has evolved.

This article from Popular Science claims 2020 was the year of miniatures.

And anyone who watches TikTok or shops on Etsy would probably agree.

People are captivated by the detailed process of creating such lifelike objects.

On the other hand, you have some people who fall into what is referred to as the Uncanny Valley.

This term, although, commonly used to describe reactions to robots, refers to when an object appears to lifelike and it causes people to feel uneasy or creeped out.

I'm wondering is the goal to have people question, is that real?

- I don't know.

I like to, my dollhouse is clean.

A lot of miniatures are authentic.

They want to have their houses look dusty and dirty and worn, and they will sand the steps down to have it look like a worn.

But, I, my house was always like that with the kids.

And so I wanted to have my dollhouse was not gonna have clothes all over the floor and things hanging out of the drawers.

- [Brooke] So maybe for some, it's to create realistic replicas and maybe for others it's to create something they otherwise wouldn't have, like a clean and tidy house.

Whatever the goal is, sometimes, it's just nice to appreciate the little things.

- By the way, the world of miniatures which could once only be painstakingly handcrafted has been revolutionized by 3D printing.

That technology is having a wide ranging impact on all kinds of things.

Healthcare, construction, manufacturing.

Ruth Ezzel looks in on a local 3D startup that's making a name for itself and on one of its customers.

- [Ruth] This is a 3D printer.

Doesn't look like much but little by little it lays down razor-thin layers of plastic to make, well, leave it to your imagination.

We found in a peeling example in a shop in old town Florissant called Posie Pots & 3D prints.

The core products offered by owner Kay Wells are eye-catching, sturdy, self-watering flower pots.

Manufactured with 3D Printing from Wells's own patented designs.

- You put your water through a feeding tube that I created.

You put your water on top.

And it actually trickles down to the bottom where there's a reservoir in the bottom.

And all of this was created on the 3D printer.

Actually, I put it into the computer first.

So computer aid it drafting or CAD modeling system.

You have your drainage and aeration and you cannot overfill it.

There's a drain hole in the back.

And then you have your reservoir at the bottom.

With all of that, you only have to water your plant once a month.

- [Ruth] Wells' Posie Pots became so popular, her 3D printers weren't enough to fulfill the large contracts coming her way in a timely manner.

So she decided to out source some of the manufacturing.

- Someone referred me to them.

They said, "hey, these guys are opening up their new shop on Delmar."

They said, "come on by."

And they had their 3D printing line running.

I explained to them what I was doing and what I was trying to bring with the sustainable agriculture with green energy.

So it was just really a perfect match.

- Kay Wells is a client of the St. Louis 3D printing company, Printerior.

It's located in that building across the street in the city's Makers District.

In 2021, Printerior was awarded in Arch Grant for its process of creating objects from recyclable plastic.

Its sustainable practices result in zero-waste.

Printerior co-founders, Trent Esser and Hayden Seidel.

- We both had want to start a company together for quite a while.

Hayden really got into 3D printing while we were in college.

And I had a background in sustainability.

And Mizzou had actually just launched a new program, called EQ which was their entrepreneurship accelerator program.

And so, we had actually just come up with this idea, just heard about the accelerator program.

And we basically came up with the whole thing about two weeks and pitched it to the pitch competition.

And we ended up getting in.

And so then we really had to flush everything out.

We had a lot of pivots along the way, a lot of changes of how we wanted to do things, but they all kind of brought us here.

- [Ruth] Examples of Esser's and Seidel's work are all over their facility and share it on Printerior's popular social media accounts.

And yes, the Olympic rings are 3D printed too.

If there's a need for a particular object for their operation, they'll just make it.

- [Trent] So we needed a new light switch.

That was an easy 3D print.

Our whole shipping desk needed to be completely organized because it was a mess.

So everything on there that is attached to it wise from paper holders, to sticker holders, to tape holders, they're all 3D printed.

We have done sculptures for ourselves that are our own sign that is going in the front of our building is 3D printed.

- Our extrusion line.

We 3D printed bearings and different gears to help dial in our extrusion line.

We've got different brackets for shelving systems.

You name it.

- Our business card holders.

- [Ruth] They also make what is wrapped around these spools.

This is filament.

Which is to 3D print printing, what paper is to inkjet printing.

Printerior sells filament to businesses that do their own printing and to 3D printing hobbyists.

We wanted to see how filament is made.

So we returned to Printerior a few weeks later when a large order was being filled.

The process starts with recycled plastic in the form of pellets or in this case, flakes.

- And then right behind you Ruth, we have a mixer which mixes all of the material, if you wanna change the color.

So today we're just doing the natural blue.

So we don't need to add any colorant.

- [Ruth] The plastic is loaded into the hopper where it's dried.

And emptied into the extruder which melts it.

The liquified plastic is pushed out in a form resembling the finished filament.

And flows through a two-stage water bath to gradually cool.

Then it's pulled into an overhead storage area until it's time to run it through the spooler.

- [Hayden] Looking pretty good.

- [Ruth] The spools themselves are made of recycled cardboard.

- And all this scrap can go to our recycling bins.

- [Ruth] And that's the super simplified explanation of a process where precision is everything.

The final stop for filament is a 3D printer.

Where it's melted down one more time.

The printer is programmed to create an object from a design made on a computer and saved as a digital file.

- [Trent] And the way that it works is it lays down every layer over and over and over again, just like a traditional printer, but it builds it up into a 3D object.

It's a circular solution of from starting with raw material to making filament, to printing things, to recycling things.

So we tried to really bring a circular aspect to the business.

- [Ruth] Printerior's owners say they're starting small but hope to make a big impact.

An attitude shared by client, Kay Wells.

Who describes the potential of the 3D printing industry as ginormous.

- 3D printing is really the wave of the future.

And I'm here for it.

(laughs) - And that's Living St. Louis.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Jim Kirchherr and we'll see you next time.

- [Ruth] Living St. Louis is made possible by the support of the Betsy & Thomas Patterson Foundation, the Mary Ranken Jordan and Ettie A. Jordan Charitable Trust and by the members of Nine PBS.

(playful rock music continues)