1. Y200 Politics and Film
September 6, 2011

2. The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC)
Founded in 1908
Peace treaty between Edison and Biograph.
Also called “The Trust”
Involved:
production of raw film
manufacture of motion pictures
manufacture of projectors
film distribution and exhibition

3. Biograph Theater in Chicago

4. The Members of the MPPC Edison Manufacturing
American Mutograph and Biograph
Eastman Kodak
Essanay (a Chicago film producer)
Kalem
Pathé Freres
Kleine, Lubin, Melies, Selig, and Vitagraph

5. Some Benefits of the MPPC
Formation of the General Film Company:
modernized film distribution
eliminated distributor favoritism
allowed exhibitors to show films by different production companies (no block booking)
classified theaters by size and location and priced accordingly
established a system of runs and clearances

6. Why MPPC Failed WW I sharply reduced demand for films in Europe.
The demand for films was so strong in the US that independent distributors found other sources of films besides the Trust.
Kodak (led by George Eastman) made its raw film stock available to other companies in 1911.
1915 U.S. court ruling that MPPC violated the Sherman Anti-Trust law in a suit brought by William Fox.
George Eastman
and Thomas Edison

7. Technological Changes Affecting the Film Industry
1893 Kinetoscope invented
1895 Movie Projector invented
1906 First Nickelodeon
1913 Kinetophone invented (did not work)
1927 Talking Pictures “The Jazz Singer”
1927 invention of television
1948 beginning of TV broadcasting

8. The Major Beneficiaries of Sound
Warner Brothers -- in alliance with Western Electric (the manufacturing arm of AT&T
RKO Pictures -- formed by RCA because RCA had a competing technology for adding sound to pictures
All the other studios lost ground
relative to these two upstarts.

9. Emergence of Movie Stars
Very popular actors were capable of bringing higher attendance to any movie they appeared in.
The first major female star was Mary Pickford.
Pickford joined with Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith and William S. Hart to found United Artists in 1919.

10. The Founders of United Artists
(from left to
right)
Douglas Fair-
banks, Mary
Pickford, and
Charlie
Chaplin

11. The Economics of the Star System
Having stars greatly reduces the risk of making a picture.
Wall Street financiers more inclined to finance a picture with stars in it.
Stars can command very high salaries because of their economic impact on revenues and profits.

12. Adolph Zukor Tries to Rein In the Stars
Zukor formed First National in 1917 (later to become Paramount Pictures).
Merger between First National and Famous Players - Lasky discussed in 1918.
Zukor attempts to buy a theater chain in 1919.
The Federal Trade Commission rules against Zukor’s attempt to merge with Famous Players in 1927 but Zukor buys the theater chain as planned.
UA had to match this by buying theaters also.

13. Zukor and His Friends in 1920
(left to right): Jesse L. Lasky, Adolph Zukor, Samuel
Goldfish (later Goldwyn), Cecil B. DeMille and Albert Kaufman.

14. Hollywood in 1903

15. The Big Five Paramount Loew’s MGM 20th Century Fox Warner Brothers RKO
Source: adapted from Mae Huettig in Tino Balio (ed.), The
American Film Industry.

16. The Little Three Every other studio is called an “independent”
Universal
Columbia Pictures
United Artists
Every other studio is called an “independent”
and has to sell or rent its pictures to one of the
major studios because of their ownership of
first-run theaters.

17. Years of Foundation of Major Studios

18. History of the Disney Studio
Founded in 1923 in a small office
Purchased Hyperion Avenue lot in 1925
1928: Birth of Mickey Mouse
1937: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1940: special animation building built
1949: Sound Stage 2 was built
1954: Built Disneyland