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was conceived that was compatible with the evolving black-and-white film stocks of that time. Paris and Fort Lee 1910–1912 Paris was the center for motion picture production in 1910, but its dominance was soon to be challenged in a place called Fort Lee, New Jersey. A sleepy village and vacation community, it was now being used as a backlot by Manhattan's start-up picture companies. To centralize their productions, enterprising investors, such as Jules Brulatour, began building motion picture studios in Fort Lee in rapid succession. Among the very first was Solax Studio, owned by Alice Guy-Blaché and Éclair Films from France. With the arrival of Éclair came a sizable number of French emigre workers bringing with them significant creative and technical expertise. These French pioneers introduced an emerging style of visual storytelling referred to by director Louis Feuillade as Le Film Esthétique" (The Aesthetic Film) and La Vie Telle Qu'elle Est (For Life as It Is). Their creative and technical infusion unleashed a period of rapid growth, invention and a transformation within the American motion picture movement. America 1912 Ben was 29 in 1912 when Étienne Arnaud,the new head of Éclair Films American unit, invited him to come work at Fort Lee. Ben thought that this new adventure would only last a few years, so the learning of English properly was not a priority for him. Instead, Ben merged both the French and English languages into his own unique mongrel dialect that filmmaker Kevin Brownlow referred to as "Franglais." Ben departed France in early October on the steamship La Lorraine, arriving in New York City seven days later. He was warmly greeted dockside by his close friends from Paris, camera pioneers, Lucien Andriot and Georges Benoit. They, along with Art Director Henri Ménessier and cameraman John van den Broek, were to become inseparable companions in the rapidly growing French community at Fort Lee. Drawn from Ben Carré's 400-page unpublished memoire, "Parisian in Hollywood" is the first of three serialized chapters about Ben's journey and contributions to the creation and evolution of Art Direction for motion pictures in America. Chapter two will focus on the crucible of invention that Fort Lee became, Ben's thirty-two films with French director Maurice Tourneur and their eventual relocation in 1919 to a distant agrarian village called Hollywood. ADG A. IN 1911, THE FRENCH FILM COMPANY ÉCLAIR BECAME FORT LEE'S SECOND FILM STUDIO. THE TRI-STATE WAS TO BECOME THE PRIMARY POINT OF ENTRY FOR MANY OF THE MOST EXPERIENCED FRENCH FILM ARTISTS AND TECHNICIANS INTO THE EARLY AMERICAN FILM INDUSTRY. B. BEN CARRÉ (ON RIGHT) WORKING ON THE SMALL PAINT FRAME WITH TWO SCENIC ARTISTS AT PARAGON-WORLD STUDIOS, FORT LEE, 1915. C. AT FIRST, A CONVENIENT BACKLOT FOR NEW YORK CITY'S FILM PRODUCTIONS, THE SLEEPY VILLAGE OF FORT LEE, NEW JERSEY, IN 1910 RAPIDLY BECAME A BOOMTOWN AND THE EPICENTER FOR FILM PRODUCTION IN AMERICA. A B C