Ellis Island - in The Arts

In The Arts

Ellis island has been a source of inspiration or subject for the arts including film, literature and music.

Early films, including those from the silent era, which feature the station include Traffic in Souls (1913), which starred Matt Moore; The Yellow Passport (1916), starring Clara Kimball Young; My Boy (1921), starring Jackie Coogan; Frank Capra's The Strong Man (1926), starring Harry Langdon; We Americans (1928), starring John Boles; The Mating Call (film), 1928, co-starring Thomas Meighan and Renée Adorée; Ellis Island (1936), starring Donald Cook; Paddy O'Day (1936), starring Jane Withers; Gateway (1938), starring Don Ameche; Exile Express (1939), which starred Anna Sten; I, Jane Doe (1948), starring Ruth Hussey and Vera Ralston, and Gambling House (1951), starring Victor Mature

Some films have focused on the immigrant experience, such as the 1984 TV miniseries Ellis Island. The IMAX 3D movie Across the Sea of Time incorporates both modern footage and historical photographs of Ellis Island. The 2006 Italian movie The Golden Door, directed by Emanuele Crialese, takes place largely on Ellis Island.

The island has also been used as a film location. In the film X-Men, a UN summit held on the island is targeted by Magneto, a former immigrant who attempts to artificially mutate all the delegates present. In the 2005 feature film romantic comedy, Hitch, starring Will Smith, his and Eva Mendes' characters take a jet ski to the island and explore the building. The opening scene of The Brother From Another Planet takes place on Ellis Island.

Photographer Stephen Wilkes' series Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom (2006) captured the abandoned south side of Ellis Island and helped raise $6 million in funding from the United States Congress towards restoration of that area.

Ellis Island as a port of entry is described in detail in Mottel the Cantor's Son by Sholom Aleichem. It is also the place where Don Corleone was held as an immigrant boy in The Godfather Part II, where he was marked with an encircled X.

Ellis Island: The Dream of America is a work for actors and orchestra with projected images by Peter Boyer, composed in 2001-02.

A documentary film entitled Forgotten Ellis Island, on the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital was created by Lorie Conway and released in 2008. A book by the same title was published in 2007.

"Scenes from Ellis Island" (for guitar ensemble, piano, double bass, two violins and percussion) was composed by American classical guitarist Benjamin Verdery, and was inspired by a visit to Ellis Island.

The song "The New Ground - Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears", on the 2010 album Songs from the Heart by the group Celtic Woman, is about Annie Moore and Ellis Island.