"Judge Willis Brown (July 31, 1881 – October 20, 1931) was a juvenile court judge, self-described humanitarian, and filmmaker.
Born James Willhenry Brown in Columbus, Indiana to James W. Brown and Lucetta Pierson.
Boy City Film Company[edit]
In the decade of the 1900s Brown lectured on the Chautauqua circuit as a judge of the Utah Juvenile Court and a progressive expert on boys' reformation. Building a national reputation, in the 1910s he started "Boy Cities" in Charlevoix, Michigan, and Gary, Indiana, then relocated to Southern California. (The better-known Boys Town, Nebraska was founded in December, 1917.)
By 1917 Brown founded the Boy City Film Company in Culver City, part film studio, part homeless shelter.
In film history, Brown is remarkable for giving director King Vidor his first directing job. Brown funded a series of twenty two-reelers, both moral lessons and promotional films. Brown appeared as himself in all but the first one; Vidor directed at least six of them. These films have evidence of "fascinating social content" - the plot of the second entry, The Chocolate of the Gang, deals with a black child being denied membership in an all-white club, and employed black actors for the lead roles as opposed to the usual practice of white performers in blackface.
As early as 1910, Juvenile Court officials had debunked Judge Brown's credentials. He had indeed been appointed to the Juvenile Court in Salt Lake City in the spring of 1905, served two years, but had been permanently removed by the Utah Supreme Court.[3][4] Brown was, in fact, not even a lawyer, and had been misrepresenting himself.
According to Variety, Brown was shot to death in Columbus Ohio in 1931 by "a jealous widow" (
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