At Padre Park on the South Side of San Antonio—along the banks of the San Antonio River and near the Spanish Missions, runners and dog walkers pass by.
But just over a century ago, this was the location of the first movie set in Texas and one of the earliest places in the country where filmmakers shot the first authentic westerns.
Film historian Kathryn Fuller-Seeley says it was also the first shot in the battle over who would control American filmmaking.
“It was one of the earliest attempts to break away from the dominance of New York-based filmmaking,” she said.
Fuller-Seeley is a professor of media studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her new book is “The First Movie Studio in Texas.” It was co-authored by Frank Thompson…