Paul Gerson

British-born actor, producer, and director Paul Gerson had appeared in the original Broadway production of Ben Hur (along with, incidentally, William S. Hart) and later starred opposite the legendary Minnie Maddern Fiske in her famous version of Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Becky Sharp. Gerson later opened his own drama school in San Francisco, CA, using the profits from the school to produce a series of low-budget screen melodramas filmed on location in the city's picturesque neighborhoods. Churning out mainly crime dramas starring the likes of Ora Carew, Gladys Hulette, and stunt man Richard Holt (aka Ashton Dearholt), Gerson also produced a 1923 version of Charles Dickens' The Cricket of the Hearth, directed by Lorimer Johnston and featuring Gerson himself as John Perrybingle. Gerson Pictures Corp. seems to have ended operations in 1926. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide