Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 2 (1909 Into the Film Industry): Distribution

When Edwin Thanhouser began to distribute films in 1910, he joined the ranks of the Independents; the companies which sought to produce films but who were not members of the Patents Company.

In April 1910 the Independents Note were a mixed group, and few of them had any alliance with the others. Included were the Thanhouser Company, the Eclair Film Company (whose American studio was in the process of being set up by a Paris film maker, Société Française des Films et Cinématographes Eclair), the Great Northern Film Company (whose imported films were made in Denmark and Germany), the Independent Moving Picture Company of America (familiarly known as IMP, and headed by the outspoken Carl Laemmle, the Independents' David to the Trust's Goliath), Lux Films (an importer), the Nestor Film Company (operated by David Horsley, successors to the Centaur Film Company, which in 1908 had the distinction of being the first Independent company, when its admission plea to the Patents Company was refused), the New York Motion Picture Company (an aggressive maker of films under Bison and other labels, the brainchild of Adam Kessel, Jr. and Charles O. Baumann), Ambrosio and Itala Note (divisions of the New York Motion Picture Company, which released imported films), the Pantograph Corporation (a minor company), Powers Picture Plays (a medium-sized company headed by P.A. Powers), Actophone (a minor firm), Capitol (also minor), and Motograph (a small producer recently formed in Baltimore). The list of Independents did not remain static as some companies were merged or went out of business and new ones formed.

Each company announced its own release days for its pictures. At the outset Thanhouser released one film a week on Tuesdays. The schedule was changed to Friday on April 15, 1910, and then to Tuesday and Friday on June 7, 1910. The object was to contribute to a week-long program, Monday through Saturday, with each day having several releases of varied interest. It was hoped that exchanges would sign up to distribute Independent pictures exclusively. Many of the theatres which screened Independent films also padded their program with short subjects and fillers produced by other manufacturers or imported from Europe. In addition, there was an ample supply of old Edison, Lubin, and other Patents Company films which had been sold outright to exchanges before the Patents Company was formed. Often such older films would be retitled by the exchanges to give the illusion of a new subject or to preclude legal hassles.

Aggressive Independents such as Thanhouser, the New York Motion Picture Company, and IMP sought to increase their output, but at the same time to arrange their releases so that they complemented rather than conflicted with each other on the weekly programs.