Thomas Lincoln Tally Explained

Thomas Lincoln Tally
Birth Date:	1861
Death Date:	November 24,
Death Place:	United States
Occupation:	Film producer, businessman
Spouse:	Mary A.^[1]
Children:	Seymour Tally (1889–1976)^[2]

Thomas Lincoln Tally (1861 – November 24, 1945)^[3] on or near April 16, 1902, opened the Electric Theatre in Los Angeles, the first movie theatre in that city and the first movie theater in California known to have been built from the ground up inside a larger building on the ground floor. (Photographs exist but rights are not available).

With James Dixon Williams he founded First National Pictures.^[4] He was the first to show a color movie in Los Angeles in 1912, and the first to sign Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford to movie contracts.^[5]

Lawsuits

• Tally v. Ganahl, 151 California Supreme Court 418 (1907)

Notes and References

1. [1910 US Census]
2. [California Death Index]
3. Associated Press, "Movie Pioneer Dies", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Saturday November 24, 1945, Volume 52, page 2.
4. News: First Film House is Victim of Time. Used Clothing Store Stands on Its Unmarked Site.. Los Angeles, April 17, 1962 One of the historic sites of the movie industry has been obliterated by time, squalor and indifference. . . April 17, 1962.
5. News: Thomas L. Tally, Film Pioneer, Dies. Producer First Signed Mary Pickford, Chaplin. A Founder of First National Pictures. . . November 25, 1945.