Wilmette To Be Home of New "Movie" Studio

The United Photoplay company, a million dollar corporation, has, after two months spent in looking for a suitable site, chosen Wilmette as the home for their new $60,000 [unclear] studio. The company has purchased three acres on Wilmette avenue, one mile west of Fifteenth street, and they have agreed to commence building within sixty days and to have the studio completed within six months. It is said that some of the contracts have already been let and bids are being received on others.
Wilmette should consider herself fortunate in having been chosen as the home for this new studio. Waukegan made a valiant fight for it, and it is said that Chicago Heights offered to furnish them a site free. However, Wilmette, with her excellent loction on the shor eof hte lake, together with her splended natural scenery, was considered an ideal location and was consequently chosen. It is estimated that the studio will furnish employment for nearly one hundred people and that their pay-roll will be between three and six thousand dollars a week. The company has secured an option on ground near the site of the studio and it is thought that many of the employees will build their own homes during the coming year. It is estimated that fifty families, some members of whom will be employed by the company, will make their permanent home here.

Citizens of Waukegan, endeavoring to influence the company to build the plant in their city, purchased over $5,000 [unclear] worth of stock, but the citizens of the village, determined to secure the plant at any cost, also bought heavily.
The officers and board of directors of the United Photoplays company are as follows:
President--Wilbur Wynant, Chicago
Vice-president--Herbert L. Harris, Chicago
Second, Vice-president--Kenneth D. Langley, Chicago.
Directors: H. M. Kerr, Chicago; Frank H. Drury, Wilmette, Ill.; Hon. Louis J. Pierson, Wilmette, Ill.; George A. Critten, Chicago; S. C. Simms, Chicago; D. C. Davies, Chicago; George E. Fernald, Wilmette, Ill.; J. B. Mecham, Joliet, Ill.; Alfred F. Austrian, Chicago; W. C. Ohle, Chicago; J. M. Satterfield, Dover, Delaware