William Slade

Biography

William Slade (born William Snaden on 26 August 1884 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, U.K.), attended local public schools. His parents were William Snaden and Mary West Snaden. He served in C Squadron of the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry of the British Army from 1908 to 1911. In 1911, he migrated to the United States, crossing the border from Canada into Detroit, Michigan. He took the stage name "Slade" and made his silent film debut in "Trail to Sodom," a five-reel western that was produced by Esperanto Films of Detroit in 1915. The leading man of this film was Norman Hackett. It was shot in the Agawa Canyon region of Ontario, Canada. Unfortunately, the movie was not a commercial success. The chief cameraman for this company was Bill Kuensel, who in the late 1940s made many of the beautiful photographs that you saw in the Sunday edition of the Detroit News. He was also to be seen running up and down the sidelines at the University of Michigan stadium taking pictures of all home football games.In 1915, the Esperanto Films studio was located on Six Mile Road about three blocks from Woodward Avenue. This section is now covered with houses. After working in two movies at this studio, he organized and took a vaudeville show through Michigan and Illinois, ending his journey in the city of Chicago. There, he joined a company known as Eagle Films. It was here me married my mother, Florence Yerex, on December 15, 1915, just before they departed by train for Florida. Eagle Films made one- and two-reel films. They had an open-air studio in in Eagle City, nine miles north of Jacksonville, Florida. In 1916, my father was the principal supporting actor working with a European comedian by the name of Tweedledum. They acted together for nearly two years. Starting in 1917, my father worked with Victor Moore at Paramount Pictures, who was starring in their "Klever Comedies" series of two-reel films. At that time, Jacksonville was quite an important center for the movie industry. The very first Technicolor feature film was made in Jacksonville. Many New York film companies came down to the area in winter time to photograph exterior scenes. Among the companies that operated there was Vim Comedies, whose stars were Billy Ruge and Oliver "Babe" Hardy. Hardy later teamed up with Stan Laurel, and the two of them went on to make many full-length Laurel and Hardy comedies. Each summer, my father went to New York City to work as an independent with various film companies. He appeared in movies with Evylen Nesbitt (Fox Films), George Walsh, Bill Farnham, Virginia Pearson, Pearl White, Madge Kennedy and many others. This was still in the era of silent films, before the major studios moved to Hollywood. After working for a few more years as property manager for Fox Films, he quit the movie industry and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was there he died of a heart attack on 8 May 1950. He is buried in the cemetery at Central Lake, Michigan.