Volume I: Narrative History Volume I: Narrative History
Seeking to formalize an alliance, certain Independent interests banded together to form distributing companies: the National Independent Moving Picture Alliance and the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company, the latter referred to in the trade as the Sales Company. Note
The New York Dramatic Mirror on April 9, 1910 printed the following:
The executive committee of the National Independent Moving Picture Alliance met in the Imperial Hotel, New York, last week and after some discussion elected J. D. Brulatour president to fill the vacancy which existed since the resignation of Mr. Murdock. Mr. Brulatour is the American representative of the Lumière interests in America. Note The Victor and the United, both new film manufacturing companies in Chicago, were admitted to membership.
More important than the action of the Alliance committee, however, was the announcement of the new Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company, composed chiefly of representatives of the IMP and Bison interests. The new company is intended, so it is said, to systematize and regulate the sale of Independent films to the exchanges, the idea being to prevent the ruinous cutting of prices by the different manufacturers and importers and to confine the sales to those exchanges who are in good standing. All of the manufacturers connected with the Alliance have been invited to join the new combination to the extent, at least, of marketing their product in America solely through this agency. No announcement has yet been made as to how many manufacturers will participate, but it is understood that the Thanhouser Note and the Great Northern Company have come in, and it is anticipated that the others will join as a matter of protection for themselves. The new plan appears to have sound business reasons as a basis. It has been apparent for some time that the Alliance rule was not strong enough to keep all the rival companies in the straight path. The officers of the Sales Company are: Carl Laemmle, president; Adam Kessel, Jr., vice president; Charles O. Baumann, treasurer, and Thomas D. Cochrane, secretary.
The New York Dramatic Mirror, April 16, 1910, told more:
The Independent situation is somewhat unsettled up to the present writing. The new Sales Company organized by the Laemmle and Bison interests for the purpose of handling all the Independent output has only succeeded thus far in bringing in one outsider, the Thanhouser Company, but as this gives them seven reels per week, soon to be eight, when Thanhouser increases to two, and as these eight reels are admittedly the cream of the Independent production, the Sales Company officials express confidence that they will eventually dominate the situation. It is said that the Sales Company has tied up a number of the most prominent Independent exchanges with agreements to buy only from the Sales Company. The two most outspoken 'insurgents' are the Powers and the Nestor companies.
Edwin Thanhouser endorsed the newly-formed Sales Company and announced that beginning on June 3rd Thanhouser films would be distributed through that organization.
On May 6, 1910 the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago furnished the site for a conclave of Independent manufacturers. Representatives of the National Independent Moving Picture Alliance met in one salon, while in another those affiliated with the new Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company held council. The two groups then met jointly under the chairmanship of William Swanson, a prominent Midwestern exchange operator. Various opinions were aired, including the seemingly insolvable conflict of having too many films released each week, especially in view of the growth in output desired by certain companies. Edwin Thanhouser was invited to speak, but said that he desired to "use all his eloquence in his productions." Nevertheless, he gave an entertaining talk to the assembled group. Note
The manufacturers and importers who agreed to market their goods through the Sales Company included the Thanhouser Company, the American Kinograph Company, the Capitol Film Company, the Great Northern Film Company, the Motograph Company of America, David Horsley (Nestor films), R. Prieur (Lux and LeLion films), the Powers Company, Miss Frieda Klug, Film d'Art, the Independent Moving Picture Company, Carlton Laboratories, Great Western Film Company, J.J. Murdock, Arthur G. Whyte, the Yankee Film Company, New York Motion Picture Company, the Pantograph Company, the Exclusive Film Company, Eclair, the Victor Company, the Actophone Company, and the Electragraff Company. Officers elected were: Carl Laemmle, president; P.A. Powers, vice president; Charles O. Baumann, treasurer; and Herbert Miles, secretary Note
The Sales Company alliance was an uneasy one, and on Saturday, May 21, 1910, in a meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a splinter group formed the Independent Manufacturers and Importers Association. Note Included were the Thanhouser, Nestor, Capitol, Whyte, Actophone, Electragraff, Eclair, Lux, Great Northern, and American Kinograph brands. The new group said it would work with the Columbia Phonograph Company as a licensee for Bianchi cameras and certain rights to Armat-Jenkins patents. "Bless you, my children," The Moving Picture World commented. Seemingly, order was finally being made out of chaos.
However, there were more changes to come, and The Moving Picture World, May 28, 1910 told of David Horsley's announcement that Nestor films would be shipped directly to exchanges. Mr. R. Prieur, agent for Lux and LeLion films, said he was also going to do his own distributing, and the Electragraff Company said it would follow suit. "It looks as if there will be a split in the Independent ranks" it was noted.
To an observer in the industry, Thanhouser's position seemed confused. The firm announced that beginning on June 3rd it would be releasing through the Sales Company. Then, The Moving Picture World, June 4, 1910, carried a notice to the contrary:
Thanhouser Film will not be handled by the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company but will be sold and shipped by the Thanhouser Company direct.'
The New York Dramatic Mirror, June 4, 1910, told of increasing problems:
The situation among the Independents has now developed into a wide open split, with the new Sales Company and its affiliated interests on one side and the so-called insurgents headed by the Thanhouser Company on the other side. Connected with the Sales Company faction are the IMP, Bison, and Powers companies, who also control the releases of Film d'Art, Itala, and Ambrosio. It is said that the new Yankee Company, of which William Steiner and Herbert Miles are the promoters, and the new company which Murdock is said to be starting will also connect up with the Sales Company. Among the exchanges in this faction the most important will be the Laemmle, Imperial, Empire, and Swanson.
On the other side, working entirely independently, are Thanhouser, Nestor, Capitol, Actophone and a number of other less important Independent American producers, with the foreigners represented by the Lux, Great Northern, Eclair, Cin-es, Note and the English and German producers. It is said that the Thanhouser Company has already commenced legal proceedings against the Sales Company to prevent it from interfering with its distribution of films, but just what form this litigation will take and how it can be made effective is not clear, unless the Sales Company be attacked as in restraint of trade.
The New York Dramatic Mirror, June 11, 1910, told of the continuing evolution in film distribution:
The split of the Independents shows no indications of growing less open. Each side is at present engaged in strengthening its position, chiefly in the matter of new releases. Each side has been weak in this respect, neither having enough new issues each week to make a strong showing.
The Sales Company, by the addition of new producing companies, will soon be issuing from 12 to 16 reels per week. The new Defender Company releases one reel this week, and the Yankee commences with one reel next week. After that the Reliance, the Uncle Sam, Note the Victor, the Carlton, and the Owl companies will, it is claimed, commence issuing regularly. The Owl is the new Murdock company.
On the other side, the so-called insurgents, the Thanhouser Company commences two reels per week with the issues of June 7 and 10. They also have one Great Northern, two Lux, two Eclair, one Nestor, one Centaur, one Actophone, and one Motograph, with others promised, including one Electragraff, one Capitol, one Cin-es, two Kinograph, one Carson, and one Whyte. The fight of the insurgent exchanges appears to be centered principally against the IMP Company, and to this defiance Carl Laemmle has replied in a characteristic warmly worded advertisement, calling on exhibitors to demand IMP films from their exchanges.
The squabble between Thanhouser and the Sales Company was eventually resolved in court, as The Morning Telegraph related in its issue of June 25, 1910:
An important decision has been handed down by Justice Erlanger of the Supreme Court, dissolving the injunction secured by the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company against the Thanhouser Company. The opinion speaks for itself: "The plaintiff, claiming under an agreement constituting it exclusive sales and distributing agent for the defendant's films, seeks to enjoin defendant from selling any moving picture films manufactured by it, except it be done through the plaintiff. The defendant manufactures moving picture films used by the exhibitors of motion pictures.
"On or about May 7, 1910 the defendant by letter authorized the plaintiff to act as its exclusive sales and distributing agent for the United States and Canada, the plaintiff to pay 10 cents per foot for films sold in Canada, and the plaintiff to receive a commission of $100 a week for handling defendant's product. These terms were accepted by the plaintiff, who claims that it was also entitled to such profit as it might make on the sale of the films. About two weeks after the sale of the date of the letter of May 7, defendant undertaking to sell its product direct to moving picture exhibitors, this action followed. While the defendant claims that he was led into the so-called agreement by misrepresentation, I am satisfied that it deliberately and with full knowledge of the result of its action made and authorized through its president this business arrangement.
"The difficulty I find is in enforcing the contract specifically by means of an injunction. It is quite obvious not only from the letter of May 7, but those following and set forth in the plaintiff's replying affidavit, that it was only a sales agent at a fixed compensation of $100 per week, and possibly in addition the profit it could make above the stipulated sales price specified in the letter of May 7. No particular films are specified, and they change necessarily from week to week, each one covering a different subject, so that the contract is not directed to any particular film or class of films. If, therefore, an injunction were to issue it would be directed not to any existing film, but to such as may be hereafter manufactured in respect to subjects or incidents which the future might suggest to the defendant. It would in effect mean the supervision by the court of defendant's business (St. Regis Paper Co. vs. Santa Clara Co., 55 A. D., 225).
"But beyond that the plaintiff does not undertake to sell any specified number of films: it is only required to use its best endeavors in that regard, and the defendant could not compel the plaintiff to take or sell any specific quantity. In that respect the covenants are not mutual (Lawrence vs. Dixie, 119 A. D., 295).
"Finally it seems to me the plaintiff has an adequate remedy at law (Wallach vs. Beck, L. J., January 26, 1909; Ringler & Co. vs. Mohl, 115 A. D., 549). While it is alleged in the complaint on information and belief that the defendant will not be able to respond in damages to the plaintiff, that allegation is not sustained by adequate proof, and is more than overcome by the defendant's evidence. Motion denied, with $10 costs."'
An advertisement in the June 4, 1910 issue of The Moving Picture World stated:
Commencing with the week of June 6th, two releases of Thanhouser Film will be made each week - on Thursday and on Friday. Wire your standing order for both releases.
For a time, Thanhouser and other insurgents distributed their films through the Associated Independent Film Manufacturers, which maintained offices at 124 East 25th Street, New York City. The A.I.F.M. weekly program made its debut on June 6th in the following format:
Monday: Eclair, Nestor
Tuesday: Lux, Thanhouser
Wednesday: Actophone, Eclair
Thursday: Capitol, Nestor
Friday: Lux, Thanhouser
Saturday: Carson, Great Northern
The program of two films per day, each of one-reel length, occupying a total of about 25 to 30 minutes on the screen, was insufficient for most theatres, so the new releases had to be augmented with older subjects from the same companies as well as fillers made by others.
The Billboard Note told of a meeting of the Association of Independent Film Manufacturers held at the Sinton Hotel, Cincinnati, June 18-19, 1910, and the rules adopted:
All exchanges must either buy only the product of the members of the Associated Manufacturers or suffer cancellations of their orders. There shall be no mixed programs, according to the decision rendered. An exchange handling the output of the members of the Independent Film Manufacturers cannot at the same time use films coming through the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company.
As a result of this decision, a number of film exchanges have been cut off, insofar as their supply for members of the Associated Manufacturers is concerned. It was professed by some of the exchange representatives present that "the other fellow's" film was a necessity, as a failure to handle his product would entail a serious loss of business. They explained that some of the films obtained through the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company were demanded by their patrons, and therefore declined to handle the Independent product exclusively. Each of the exchange representatives present was requested to indicate his position toward the two fighting organizations, and definitely declare on which side of the fence he stood. At the adjournment of the session Saturday evening there were 11 exchanges not in the fold. The Association sent telegrams and messages to each of these insurgents, notifying them that their supply of Association films was to be cut off unless they agreed to use their film exclusively.
Represented at the meeting were 25 representatives of various exchanges and manufacturers. For the latter, the following were on hand: Edwin Thanhouser, Arthur G. Whyte, David Horsley, Mark M. Dintenfass (Champion Film Company, New York City), Paul H. Cromelin, Note and Mr. R. Prieur (representative of the Lux and LeLion film companies in the United States).
The account continued:
After recess lasting until four o'clock in the afternoon, the real meeting was opened, Mr. Bachman [Robert Bachman of Chicago, a distributor] presiding. The first address was that by President Cromelin, who outlined the status of conditions in the film world and the purpose of the Association in bettering them, insisting that united action and perfect accord between exchange men was necessary to accomplishment of the desired end. Mr. Horsley then rose to voice the same opinion, adding the suggestion that each person present be asked to make known his stand on the situation. Mr. Ullman [of the Columbia Film Company, New York, an exchange] then struck the keynote when he sounded the blast with the statement, "We are prepared to fight, and in doing so carry the war into the enemy's country, if necessary." At this point Mr. Thanhouser took the floor and emphatically asserted that he would remain with the Association until the enemy was defeated. An important announcement was then made by Mr. Magee [a Boston distributor] concerning the Gaumont Company, which, at the expiration of its contract with the Motion Picture Patents Company, on June 20, will go Independent....
At the same time, an advertisement in the June 25th issue of The Billboard by the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company, controlled by Carl Laemmle and dominated by his IMP Company, noted that J.P. Chalmers (editor of the Moving Picture World) had visited Laemmle and had a satisfactory meeting - and that, further, every possible and imaginable objection was wiped away by oral and documentary proof, and "we conclusively establish the fact that the temporary split in the Independent party was caused in toto by a complete outsider with a selfish motive and not by any real flaw in the Sales Company idea."
The Billboard Note reported that a meeting was held between the insurgents and the Sales Company, and that the Sales Company had agreed to amend its charter to satisfy the insurgents. Everybody was happy except Arthur G. Whyte, whose remarks were not pleasing to either the Sales Company or his own constituents. It was stated that the revised Sales Company would have individual members implement the recent agreement made with the Columbia Phonograph Company with regard to the Bianchi camera, and that the group would not act together in this way - individual companies could do what they wanted to. The Alliance was scheduled to have a convention in Niagara Falls on July 16th, and it was to be recognized by the Sales Company and to work cooperatively with it. Both factions appeared to be at peace.
In the same issue of The Billboard an advertisement stated: "The Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company and the Associated Independent Film Manufacturers and the National Independent Moving Picture Alliance are now acting as ONE, having buried all differences on a basis that insures complete satisfaction for every Independent exhibitor, exchange and manufacturer."It was stated that after July 18th various brands of films would be available through the Sales Company.
The Billboard Note reported that the National Independent Moving Picture Alliance held its convention at the Imperial Hotel in Niagara Falls, New York, July 16th and 17th. Twenty-one representatives of exchanges and 13 manufacturers were present during the two day convention, during which only one meeting was held, from 8 to 12 p.m. on July 16th. Sunday was devoted almost exclusively to sightseeing and other pleasures. Among those in attendance was Edwin Thanhouser. It was stated that the NIMPA was looking forward to working together with the Sales Company. A charter was supposed to be ready but wasn't, so its signing was rescheduled for the 22nd of July.
The Nickelodeon trade journal ran this item in its November 1, 1910 issue:
Another exchange has transferred its alliance to the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company. The H & H Film Service Company, of Chicago, is the latest one to make the move. Mr. Hutchinson, of the partnership of Hite & Hutchinson, is also president of the American Film Manufacturing Company, of Chicago, but retains his interest also in the H & H Company. This exchange has an enviable record in the film world and is operated on the basis of best business principles. Both Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Hite have a thorough knowledge of the film situation.
A year or so later, in early 1912, Charles J. Hite, of the H & H, was to make his indelible mark on Thanhouser Company history, while Samuel S. Hutchinson's American Company was later to set up studio facilities on the West Coast and to become a prominent factor in the industry, releasing films under the Flying A brand until the early 1920s.
An advertisement in The Moving Picture World, November 12, 1910, stated "Thanhouser Wins the Loop" in Chicago on Madison Street where many motion picture theatres showed only Licensed films, and it looked like no Independent picture was ever going to have a chance. Then Mr. Ferris, owner of the Boston Theatre, contracted with the Standard Film Service to run Independent films beginning on Monday, October 20th. An observer was quoted as saying: "I made it a point to watch this house and its patrons to see what sort of reception the change would be given, and, believe me, as I sat through a show last Tuesday I never saw an audience enjoy a picture as much as they did the Thanhouser Oh, What a Knight and a couple of other reels."
Beginning in mid-July 1910, when peace had been made, Thanhouser was a vital segment of the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company organization and featured the Sales Company logotype in its advertisements. Although release days and companies changed from time to time, during the first week of December 1910, the Sales Company lineup of releases was as follows:
Monday: American, Eclair, IMP, Yankee
Tuesday: Bison, Powers, Thanhouser
Wednesday: Ambrosio, Atlas, Champion, Nestor
Thursday: American, Defender, IMP, Itala
Friday: Bison, Lux, Solax, Thanhouser, Yankee
Saturday: Capitol, Great Northern, Itala, Powers, Reliance
Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.