Motion Picture Early Years

Motion Picture - The Early Years

The first American studios were centered in the New York City area. Edison had claimed the patents for many of the technical elements involved in filmmaking and, in 1909, formed the Motion Picture Patents Company, an attempt at monopoly that worked to keep unlicensed companies out of production and distribution.

To put distance between themselves and the Patents Company's sometimes violent tactics, many independents moved their operations to a suburb of Los Angeles; the location's proximity to Mexico allowed these producers to flee possible legal injunctions. After 1913 Hollywood, California, became the American movie capital. At first, films were sold outright to exhibitors; later they were distributed on a rental basis through film exchanges.

Early on, actors were not known by name, but in 1910, the “star system” came into being via promotion of Vitagraph Co. actress Florence Lawrence, first known as The Vitagraph Girl. Other companies, noting that this approach improved business, responded by attaching names to popular faces and “fan magazines”
quickly followed, providing plentiful, and free, publicity. Films had slowly been edging past the 20 minute mark, but the drive to feature-length works began with the Italian “spectacle” film, of which Quo Vadis (1913), running nine reels or about two hours, was the most influential.

Directors of the day, including D. W. Griffith , Thomas Ince, Maurice Tourneur, J. Stuart Blackton, and Mack Sennett , became known to audiences as purveyors of certain kinds, or “genres,” of subject matter. The first generation of star actors included Charlie Chaplin , Buster Keaton , Mary Pickford , Douglas Fairbanks , Marie Dressler , Lillian Gish , William S. Hart, Greta Garbo , John Gilbert, Claudette Colbert , Rudolph Valentino , Janet Gaynor, Ronald Colman , Clara Bow, Gloria Swanson , Lon Chaney , and Will Rogers .
During World War I the United States became dominant in the industry and the moving picture expanded into the realm of education and propaganda.