San Juan Capistrano is well known for it’s rich historic heritage, that spans over two hundred and thirty years. The city is home to California’s first winery, oldest residential neighborhood, oldest occupied building, famous swallows, and, of course, Mission San Juan Capistrano. However, few know that the area was also the site of the first film shot in Orange County.
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On March 25, 1910, a cast and crew of fifty arrived, from New York’s Biograph Studios, to shoot the western film short “The Two Brothers” in and around the city’s (then barely a town) historic Spanish mission. Headed up by legendary director, D.W. Griffith, the cast included a, then unknown, Mary Pickford; who would go on to become one of the silent film era’s most celebrated actresses and producers, eventually co founding both United Artists and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Hampered by inclement weather, the shoot was delayed for three days and the film would ultimately prove less than memorable in the annals of notable movies, but the groundwork was set for the future of movie production in Orange County.
Over the ensuing twenty years, some 500 films were at least partially shot in Orange County and the county continues to be a popular backdrop for Hollywood productions up to the present day. San Juan Capistrano, on the other hand, would shy away from it’s early brush with cinematic notoriety. Lost in the multitude of “firsts” and historical significance that, deservingly, define the city, San Juan Capistrano’s role, as the county’s cinematic trailblazer, exists as little more than an obscure bit of trivia.
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