And it would be years that Thomas Alva Edison would have to wage legal battles against the other main producers, claiming exclusive patents in cameras, projectors and as far as the sprocket-holes in the film invented and manufactured by George Eastman (this last claim was upheld by the courts in 1911, but its appeal was reversed by 1912). And by the end of 1907, most of the contending majors were in agreement to become licences of Edison, but Biograph, which utilized a camera invented by W.K.L. Dickson (1860-1935), Edison's former assistant, held out until the following year and was the last to join. The Motion Pictures Patents Company (MPPC) was incorporated on September 9, 1908. Its members besides Edison and Biograph, were the Kalem Company, Vitagraph, Essanay, Star Film Paris, Selig Polyscope, Lubin and George Kleine (distributor of Gaumont and other imported films), and the French-based companies Pathe and Melies. Edison, Biograph, the inventor Thomas Armat (1866-1948) who was at this time associated with Biograph and Vitagraph would pool sixteen key patents - one for film, two for cameras, and the remaining thirteen for projectors. Edison's patents were regarded as basic and the other members agreed to pay him out royalties. Only verified members were permitted to use the equipment licensed by the Patents Company, the idea was to freeze out the many small independent producers. Jeremiah J. Kennedy, the new president of the company enforced the trust's rules staunchly. Producers were required to remit a royalty of half a cent on each foot of film, and exhibitors were expected to pay two-dollars per week which accumulated to a total of $24,000 a week. A licensed studio could rent their films only to to licensed exhibitors. An exclusive contract was signed with Eastman, the chief manufacturer of raw film stock in the United States.
Kennedy kept close control of production and exhibition and prohibited any publicity for actors, writers and directors in the film itself or in advertising. He also kept his allegiance to the practice of the standard one-reel film and the consequent variety program, that had a duration of one to two hours.
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| Alva look at what Thomas did. |
To service distribution on behalf of the Patents Company members, the General Film Company was incorporated in the year 1910 and would buy up the best run and most prosperous film exchanges. Late in the year 1911, it owned close to sixty of these and cancelled the licenses of those companies that refused to sell, denying them films to distribute.
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| The Vitagraph-Mobile |
Resistance had been growing since 1908, with Carl Laemmle (1867-1939) founder of Universal Studios, who was always in the vanguard of the independents. But William Fox, who owned the principal film exchange in New York was now a part of the struggle, not only refusing to sell but setting up his own production company and also suing the trust for conspiracy in restraint of trade. Fox's case went to hearing in January of 1913. By 1915, the federal court would rule against the Patents Company on the grounds, simply that while an individual patent holder had a legitimate monopoly on his own invention, he could not combine his patent with that of others to create a monopoly. Already in decline because of its outmoded policies, the company folded in 1918, when its appeal was finally dismissed.