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George Loane Tucker became a director in 1910 and went on to make many one-reel films for studios such as IMP and Reliance-Majestic. In 1913, he gained considerable notoriety for making the sensationalistic Traffic in Souls, a racy exposé of white slavery. A tremendous box-office success, the film is credited with starting a trend of increasingly sexy films. Just before the film was released, Tucker had moved to England where he made a few more highly regarded films. In 1917, he returned to the U.S. and continued directing. One of his most acclaimed works was The Miracle Man (1919), the film that featured Lon Chaney in his first starring role. Tucker was highly regarded in Hollywood and when he died of a lingering illness in 1921 at the age of 49, he was hailed as "the First of the Immortals."