Biography

As youths, Joseph Stringer and his brother, Jack, were merchant sailors in the West Indies trade, Joseph as a ship's carpenter, Jack as a ship's musician (fiddler). In 1891, while his ship was in Boston, he met his soon-to-be wife, a nanny for a Methuen, MA, family, who convinced him to leave the sea and work as a carpenter in Methuen. They traveled in 1894 to his wife's home on Prince Edward Island, Canada, for the birth of their first child. When the child was a year old, they traveled around Cape Horn and settled in fast-growing California. Stringer again took up the carpentry trade in Los Angeles, where he made the acquaintance of D.W. Griffith, and was hired as a motion picture set carpenter. Stringer's special skill was in creating miniature sets for "long shots", especially miniature ships and maritime scenes. He remained in the movie industry until his retirement well into the 1930's.
- IMDb mini biography by: Paul Lareau <paul@lareau.org>