Billy B. Van

More than a century ago, Billy B. Van (born William Webster Van de Grift; August 3, 1870 – November 16, 1950) built the Equity Motion Picture Company in Georges Mills, New Hampshire, on the shores of Lake Sunapee. There, he built a casino, a theater, and what may have been Northern New England’s earliest motion-picture studio. Van produced several silent comedies at his empire— but almost nothing survives from this surprising heyday of early filmmaking.

Billy B. Van's life in the movies Read more