In Hollywood fifteen cameramen found “The American Society of Cinematographers”. Feeling that distributors are taking too much of their money, D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks join forces and form their own distributing company called “United Artists Corporation”. Each will produce their own films that will…
Charlie Chaplin opens his own studios to produce films for First National. Mary Pickford forms her own film production company to make films for First National. First National will pay her an advance of $150,000, and then $250,000 for each of three films. The Pathè company in France…
Backed financially by Artcraft Pictures, which is owned by Paramount Pictures, Douglas Fairbanks forms the “Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation”. He will be paid $10,000 per week plus a percentage of the company profits. Paramount Pictures, under Adolph Zukor, begins to require “block booking” of its films. This procedure forces…
Charlie Chaplin signs a year-long contract with the Mutual Film Corporation. He is to receive $10,000 per week plus a $150,000 signing bonus. The “Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company”, and “The Famous Players Film Corporation” merge to become “Famous Players-Lasky Corporation”. Adolph Zukor becomes the president. Samuel…
Harry Aitken, former head of the Mutual Film Corporation, and D.W. Griffith form the “Epoch Producing Corporation”. The Bell & Howell 2709 camera, that was introduced in 1911, starts to be widely used. It is the first high-precision, all-metal 35mm motion picture camera. It has a frame-counter that makes…
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,…
Jesse L. Lasky, Samuel Goldfish, Cecil B. DeMille, and Arthur Friend form the “Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company”. Their first film, “The Squaw Man”, is directed by Cecil B. DeMille and shot in and around Los Angeles, California. To compete with the foreign multi-reel, “feature” films, the American…
The patent for the “Latham Loop” is overthrown by the courts. French multi-reel, feature-length films achieve great popularity and critical acclaim in the U.S. They help to establish the multi-reel “feature” film as a story that should be screened in its entirety during a single program. The French…
The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC), referred to as the “Edison Trust”, which only allows its own members access to cameras and projectors that use its patents, sets up its own film exchange. This distribution company, The General Film Company, attempts to counter the flood of films being produced by…