Epes W. Sargent

Epes Winthrop Sargent (August 21, 1872 – December 6, 1938) was an American vaudeville critic who wrote under the pen-names Chicot^[1] and Chic.^[1] He was also a screenwriter.

Epes W. Sargent
Born	August 21, 1872  Nassau
Died	December 6, 1938  (aged 66) New York City
Signature

He was considered "one of vaudeville's most influential critics and commentators".^[2]

Early life

He was born in Nassau, Bahamas on August 21, 1872, and moved to the United States in 1878 with his parents.^[1][3]

Career

He first worked as a critic for the New York paper, the Daily Mercury.^[2][1] In the 1890s, he joined the New York Morning Telegraph.

He claimed to have critiqued the first motion picture offered in a theatre, becoming a film fan in the process."^[4] In 1905, when Variety began publication,^[1] he joined them as their first reviewer and wrote for them intermittently until his death.

In 1911, he became a staff writer for The Moving Picture World.^[3] They serialized his Technique of the Photoplay, which was soon published as a book.

In 1914–1915 he wrote the stories for a large number of split-reel and one-reel silent comedies produced by Arthur Hotaling at the Jacksonville, Florida, studio of the Lubin Manufacturing Company, which included the earliest screen appearances of Oliver Hardy.^[5]

He died from a stomach hemorrhage in New York City on December 6, 1938.^[1]

Selected works

• Making a Sister, a Mock Initiation for Ladies (1910)
• Technique of the Photoplay (1913)
• Picture Theatre Advertising (1915)