Volume III: Biographies

MAYO, Al F.

Assistant director, director (1913-1915)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Al F. Mayo was a Thanhouser studio employee, primarily an assistant director, in New Rochelle from 1913 to 1915. In autumn 1915 he was a director.

Biographical Notes: Al F. Mayo worked as an assistant director, director, and in other capacities at the Thanhouser studio from about 1913 to 1915. He was on the committee for the Thanhouser ball held in January 1914 in observance of the first anniversary of the January 13, 1913 studio fire. An article in The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 19, 1914, reported that he, Reenie Farrington, and Frederick Sullivan were injured in an accident involving a buckshot blast during the filming of a scene. He was assistant director to Frederick Sullivan in the production of the later episodes of the 1914-1915 serial, The Twenty Million Dollar Mystery, earlier titled Zudora. The New Rochelle Pioneer, April 3, 1915, stated that on the same day, Saturday, April 3rd, Al Mayo left Thanhouser and went to work for Howell Hansel, a former Thanhouser director, at the World Film Corporation, at the Mittenthal Studio in Yonkers, New York. By the fourth week of May 1915, he had severed his connection with World and was to follow Hansel to Lubin in Philadelphia. However, The Morning Telegraph, August 15, 1915, listed his name among nine directors then working at the Thanhouser Film Corporation. By October 1915 he was with the newly-formed Arrow Film Corporation.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1914: Gold (9-15-1914)

1914-1915 Serial: Zudora

# # #