The French film company, Pathè Frères, hires Ferdinand Zecca to be its head of film production. Within a year the number of Pathè releases surpasses the output of the popular French producer, Georges Méliès.
An organization of vaudeville performers, the “White Rats of America”, go on strike forcing many more vaudeville theatres to show motion pictures to fill their bills.
Thomas Edison wins his patent-infringement suit against the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. Biograph immediately appeals the ruling to a higher court.
Edison introduces a new projector that can take up 1,000 feet of film on a single reel. He also builds a new movie studio in the heart of New York City that is enclosed in glass and can be used year-round.
Significant Films:
Pathè releases, “The Story of a Crime”, which is stopped before its last scene is shown so that women and children can leave. The last scene shows the “terrifying” fall of a guillotine’s blade.