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American Film Industry: Class 3, Innovative Independents

  1. The Moguls
    • Adolph Zukor
    • Marcus Loew
    • William Fox
    • Sam, Harry, and the Warner Brothers
    • Samuel Goldfish
    • Carl Laemelle
  2. 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
  3. 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)
  4. 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
  5. European Feature Filmmaking
    • Queen Elizabeth (1912)
      • 4 reels ~ 60 minutes
    • Quo Vadis? (1913)
      • 120 minutes
    • Cabiria (1914)
      • 148 minutes
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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)
  9. Mary Pickford
  10. 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”
  11. Vertical Integration
    • Production
    • Distribution
    • Exhibition
  12. Distribution
    • Block Booking
    • Blind Bidding
    • Run-Zone-Clearance
  13. 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