The 23 May 1925 Motion Picture News announced The Black Pirate as the next Douglas Fairbanks starrer, which he planned to film “entirely in color.” His cameraman, Henry Sharp, was conducting experiments with new color film technology, and principal photography was expected to begin in six weeks.
       On 27 Jun 1925, Exhibitors Trade Review reported that Henry Sharp and production manager Theodore Reed had recently scouted locations along the Southern CA coast with a color camera in tow, and discovered several “ideal locations” for The Black Pirate between Los Angeles and San Diego. The 8 Aug 1925 Motion Picture News added that Fairbanks had been considering the project for the two years.
       The 19 Sep 1925 Motion Picture News announced that the color experiment phase had been completed, and within a week, the 25 Sep 1925 FD indicated that principal photography was underway using the Technicolor process, with six to eight weeks expected for filming. A photograph of Fairbanks with Olympic swimmer, Johnny Weissmuller, published in the 3 Oct 1925 Exhibitors Trade Review, stated that Weissmuller was coaching Fairbanks to swim for his role. Weissmuller would later star in several “Tarzan” pictures in the 1930s and 1940s.
       The 31 Oct 1925 Exhibitors Trade Review noted that hundreds of background actors were needed for battle scenes taking place at sea. Billie Dove was listed as one of only two actresses to appear in the film. The second, who would play her maid, was not yet cast.
       According to the 25 Oct 1925 FD and the 7 Nov 1925 Motion Picture News, four “Spanish Main” ships were being built for the production at that time, three of which ranged in length from 100 to 212 feet, and the fourth totaling seventy-five feet. The ships were “fashioned after paintings by Carl Oscar Borg,” and would be, “propelled by a hundred oars.” P. H. L. Wilson was supervising construction and serving as “fleet captain” of the 380-man construction crew. Sections of the ships were duplicated and mounted on steel cradles in the studio for close-ups, as mechanical devices mimicked the vessels’ rocking. The 14 Nov 1925 Motion Picture News announced plans to explode “a full rigged seventeenth century galleon” known as the Muriel, that had previously been used to ship lumber before it was damaged and docked at Balboa Harbor.
       On 30 Nov 1925, FD announced that production would end “shortly after the holidays.” The 13 Jan 1926 FD reported that principal photography had just completed, and an autumn 1926 release was anticipated.
       The premiere was held on 8 Mar 1926 at New York City’s Selwyn Theatre, according to a news item from the same day’s FD. The West Coast premiere of The Black Pirate took place on 14 May 1926 at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, CA, as part of a “unique double-feature” with Fairbanks’s wife, Mary Pickford, showing Sparrows, as announced in the 29 May 1926 Moving Picture World.
       The Black Pirate was voted one of the “Top Best Features” of 1926 by the 1929 Film Daily Year Book, as reported in the 7 Feb 1930 FD. More Less