Bringing together a number of independent production companies, including Adolph Zukor’s “Famous Players”, W.W. Hodgkinson founds a nationwide distribution network named “Paramount Pictures”. Throwing out the old system where the production company rented its films directly to regional exchanges, Paramount pays member companies an advance of $30,000 for each picture, and then distributes the films nationwide keeping 35% of the rental fees for itself, and giving 65% to the original producer.
Charlie Chaplin leaves Keystone to work for the film production company, Essanay. Essanay agrees to pay Chaplin $1,200 per week plus a $10,000 bonus.
The first of the new movie “palaces”, the Strand and the Vitagraph, open in New York City. Each can accommodate over 2,000 patrons.
Significant Films:
The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company releases “The Squaw Man”, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. This is DeMille’s first picture, and the first feature–length motion picture to be filmed in California.
The Keystone Picture Company releases, “Making a Living”, which is Charlie Chaplin’s first motion picture.
The Famous Players Film Company releases its first film, “Hearts Adrift”, starring Mary Pickford.
Pathè’s American subsidiary releases the movie serial, “Perils of Pauline”, staring Pearl White. It is simultaneously serialized in a number of the Hearst newspapers, and becomes the most famous of the early “chapter plays”.
Keystone releases, Caught in the Rain”, the first movie to be entirely written and directed by Charlie Chaplin.