Volume I: Narrative History Volume I: Narrative History
The year 1914 was a time of great change in the motion picture industry, and for the Thanhouser Film Corporation it was a time of success, a time of tragedy, and a time of transition. Serials and multiple-reel features came of age in the industry, and the one-reel film, except for comedies, became an anachronism unworthy of critical consideration. No longer would the one-reel drama attract the serious attention of reviewers.
The Adventures of Kathlyn serial was an unqualified success, and soon The Chicago Tribune, which had backed Kathlyn, would seek a successor. Just about everyone else would jump into the game as well. While numerous serials would come on the market within the next two years, none would be more famous than Pathé's The Perils of Pauline, starring Pearl White. Although Pathé's American branch was doing well, as reflected by news in the trade papers, it seemed that the firm's head did not agree. Charles Pathé came to the United States from France for a visit in late 1913 and was quoted: Note
Recently I have travelled much and have studied the motion picture industry all over the world. I am satisfied with conditions all over the world, except the United States. I do not know what is wrong here, but the conditions of the business, the standing of the theatres as places of entertainment, and the exhibition of the pictures all seem to be faulty. I shall investigate everything thoroughly before I suggest remedies, but when I leave I hope to have done something that will be helpful to motion pictures in this country.
There was uncertainty in the field, and such evolutions as the change of emphasis from single-reel films to multiple-reel features, the vast expansion of the star system, and the involvement of Wall Street all portended a future far different from the past. Addressing this question, A.H. Sawyer, former president of the Kinemacolor Company of America, shared his thoughts with readers of The New York Dramatic Mirror: Note
The day is past of men made successful by floating with the current. The call is for men with the foresight and imagination of those who established the business, men with the business acumen of the most successful financiers. You say there is uncertainty among film men. Of course there is. But it is not because of anything wrong with the motion picture as a form of amusement, or any fear that the picture's popularity is to wane. There is uncertainty because the men in the business are facing new problems, and the ignorance of just how to cope with these problems causes the present uneasiness.
That you may understand me rightly, let me give you my view of the future. I have watched the film game for years, from the time that I was an exhibitor myself and one-reel shows were the rule. I have watched public taste in pictures through all its changes. I have seen all the changes in business conditions. The big development of the coming year in my estimation will be a closer competition than ever with the legitimate stage.... [There must be created] quality pictures first of all, that can play for a week or more.... The average director is not a businessman. But the big returns of the film game are attracting real businessmen, and business methods will prevail. High salaried casts will no longer be idle about the studio, in costume for hours. Ten and 12 reels of film will not be made for pictures that are to be released in four reels.... The returns in the film business are so great as to attract the most successful of businessmen, and modern business methods must also come....
Big business was very much in evidence at the Mutual Film Corporation, as an article in the January 3, 1914 issue of The Moving Picture World suggested:
Incorporation papers are ready for filing for a new company, to be known as the Reliance Motion Picture Company, with a capital stock of one million dollars, to produce great dramas by great authors for the Mutual Film Corporation, to cost from $25,000 up. Note Harry E. Aitken, president of the Mutual, is the organizer and head of the new concern, and his associates are prominent New York and Chicago bankers.
The organization will take over the immense new studios of the Carlton Motion Picture Laboratories, one of which has just been completed on the estate of the late Clara Morris in Yonkers. Another, recently purchased, is the great Kinemacolor studio in Los Angeles, and a third is the big four-story loft building at 29 Union Square, New York City. All of these will be under the immediate direction of D.W. Griffith. Among the big things to be done at once are a tremendous production of The Clansman, [based on a novel and play] by Thomas Dixon....
To finance The Clansman, the name of which was changed subsequently to The Birth of a Nation, Aitken helped set up a separate corporation apart from Mutual, for certain Mutual investors did not want to become involved. Later, when The Birth of a Nation made a fortune, a rift, fueled by jealousy, developed between Aitken and certain of his Mutual Film Corporation associates. Note
In late 1913 Vitagraph announced that it would open a theatre in New York City to showcase its films. Trade reaction ranged from concern to enthusiasm, with the worried ones fearing that if it was successful nothing would prevent other studios from opening theatres and directly exhibiting their own wares, thus bypassing the exchange system and denying other theatres the opportunity to show the pictures. It was not long before George Kleine, the well-known Chicago film importer and motion picture entrepreneur, stated that he, too, would open a theatre. Charles J. Hite mused that if this was the wave of the future, he wanted to be in on the action as well. Most people overlooked the fact that the idea was hardly new and that years earlier Siegmund Lubin had opened not one theatre but several to show his wares as well as films made by others. Vertical integration of the film industry, with the same corporation controlling a picture from camera to screen, would happen in a large way in the 1920s, but now, in 1914, it was more of a concept than a reality.
The program releases continued early in 1914, but this distribution method was declining as more and more producers and importers found that feature films of four, five, or more reels - the pictures that garnered great publicity and induced the average moviegoer to part with more than the customary nickel or dime - did not fit conveniently on such schedules. Nearly all large features were distributed by direct negotiations with exchanges or with entrepreneurs who would pay an agreed price for a specified territory, or with individual theatres and theatre chains. Unlike daily program releases, large feature films were often played at a given theatre for a run of several days' duration. Still, the program releases continued. However, the Exclusive Supply program, which was a promising newcomer in 1913, by now had faded into near obscurity. The week beginning Sunday, January 11, 1914 Note saw the following lineup:
PATENTS COMPANY (LICENSED) FILMS:
Monday: Biograph, Edison, Kalem (2 reels), Lubin, Pathé Weekly newsreel, Selig (2 reels), Vitagraph
Tuesday: Cin-es (2 reels), Edison, Essanay, Lubin, Pathéplay, Selig, Vitagraph (2 reels)
Wednesday: Edison, Essanay, Pathéplay, Selig, Vitagraph
Thursday: Biograph, Essanay, Lubin (2 reels), Méliès, Pathéplay (2 reels), Pathé Weekly, Selig, Vitagraph
Friday: Edison (2 reels), Essanay (2 reels), Kalem, Lubin, Selig, Vitagraph
Saturday: Biograph, Edison, Essanay, Kalem, Lubin, Pathéplay (2 reels), Vitagraph (2 reels)
MUTUAL FILM CORPORATION FILMS:
Sunday: Apollo, Majestic, Thanhouser
Monday: American (3 reels), Keystone, Reliance, Thanhouser
Tuesday: Majestic, Thanhouser
Wednesday: Broncho, Mutual Weekly, Reliance
Thursday: American, Domino (3 reels), Keystone
Friday: Kay-Bee (2 reels), Thanhouser, Princess
Saturday: American, Keystone (2 reels), Majestic, Reliance
UNIVERSAL FILMS
Monday: Victor, IMP (3 reels), Powers
Tuesday: Gold Seal, Crystal
Wednesday: Nestor, Joker, Eclair (2 reels), Universal (Animated Weekly)
Thursday: IMP, Rex (2 reels), Frontier
Friday: Nestor, Powers, Victor (2 reels)
Saturday: Joker, Frontier, 101 Bison (2 reels)
EXCLUSIVE SUPPLY FILMS
Tuesday: Gaumont
Thursday: Gaumont
Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.