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- American Film Industry
- The Innovative Independents
- The Moguls
- Adolph Zukor
- Marcus Loew
- William Fox
- Sam, Harry, and the Warner Brothers
- Samuel Goldfish
- Carl Laemelle
- Hegemony of Trust
- patent pool organized by Edison (1908)
- eight film companies
- dominated US film production and distribution
- response to protecting profits in a declining industry
- established standard for single-reel films
- brought respectability to nickelodeons
- Fall of the Trust
- emergence of independents
- Kodak leaving over profit-sharing disagreement (1911)
- revocation of latham loop patent
MPPC v. IMP (1912)
- anti-trust action
US v. MPPC (1915)
- The Move West
- By 1910, film production began to move west
- abundant sunshine
- diverse of natural locations
- cheaper land for studios
- Independents avoided the litigious MPPC
- European Feature Filmmaking
- Queen Elizabeth (1912)
- Quo Vadis? (1913)
- Cabiria (1914)
- Feature Films
- MPPC standard
- Single reel of 1,000 feet of film
- Multi-reel stories had to be distributed independently
- Independents
- followed example of European multi-reelers
- features would dominate film production
- Stars
- Evolution of “Poseurs” to Picture Personalities
- Actors whose “private” lives are followed
- Star personas may relate to actors’ roles
- Films marketed based on stars
- Stars began to command high salaries
- Florence Lawrence
- Film debut in 1906
- Those Awful Hats (1909)
- inquisitive fans began to ask about the “Biograph Girl”
- Carl Laemmle lured her away to IMP
- publicity stunt: Lawrence had been killed by a street car in New York City.
- placed ads declaring that she was alive
- starring in The Broken Oath (1910)
- Mary Pickford
- Adolph Zukor
- Famous Players Film Company (1912)
- Daniel Frohman, theatrical producer
- Edwin S. Porter, Edison’s filmmaker
- Queen Elizabeth (1912)
- four-reel French production
- featured Sarah Bernhardt
- “the most famous actress the world has ever known”
- Vertical Integration
- Production
- Distribution
- Exhibition
- Distribution
- Block Booking
- Blind Bidding
- Run-Zone-Clearance
- Picture Palaces
- Modeled on opera houses, legitimate theater
- First-run theaters
- Urban centers
- Strand Theater (1914)
- 47th and Broadway, New York City
- cost over a million dollars
- seated 2,750