1909 in film

Last updated November 27, 2025

The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.

Events

Carl Laemmle founds the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP).^[1]
Selig Polyscope Company establish the first permanent film studio in Los Angeles in Edendale, Los Angeles.
The New York Motion Picture Company is founded and also open a film studio in Edendale. The studio is later used by Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and then Mascot Pictures, which become part of Republic Pictures.
February 4 – The Paris Film Congress begins, an attempt by leading European producers to form a cartel similar to that of the Motion Picture Patents Company in the United States.
February 26 – Kinemacolor is shown to the public for the first time in the Palace Theatre in London.^[2]
March 16 – Charles Urban forms the Natural Color Kinematograph Company.
May 12 – Mr. Flip is released, the first film to feature someone being hit in the face with a pie.
May 23 – The first news cinema, The Daily Bioscope, opens in London.
June 17 – In the Sultan's Power , directed by Francis Boggs, is the first film ever completely made in Los Angeles, California.
October 25 – IMP release their first film, Hiawatha, based on the 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.^[3]
November 5 - A Nature Movie by Arthur C. Pillsbury using film to explore the wonders of Yosemite. This first showing was for John Muir, a friend and associate of Pillsbury. Included was footage of the Hetch Hetchy. This film was then shown for the 1910 season at the Pillsbury Studio in Yosemite, advertised using postcards.^[4]
December 2 – Matsunosuke Onoe, who will become the first superstar of Japanese cinema, appears in his first film, Goban Tadanobu.
December 20 – James Joyce opens the Volta Cinematograph, the first cinema in Dublin.^[5]

Notable films

Films produced in the United States unless stated otherwise

PLAY The Airship Destroyer ; runtime 00:06:41.

A

The Airship Destroyer , sci-fi trick film directed by Walter R. Booth – (UK)
At the Altar , drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company

C

PLAY The Curtain Pole ; runtime 00:08:00.

A Corner in Wheat , drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company
The Country Doctor , drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Mary Pickford
The Cowboy Millionaire , western directed by Francis Boggs and Otis Turner, starring Tom Mix
The Cricket on the Hearth , drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Owen Moore; based on the 1845 novella by Charles Dickens
The Curtain Pole , comedy directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Mack Sennett and Florence Lawrence

M

PLAY A Midsummer Night's Dream ; runtime 00:11:07.

A Midsummer Night's Dream , comedy directed by Charles Kent and J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios; based on the 16th-century play by William Shakespeare
Moscow Clad in Snow (Moscou sous la neige), documentary directed by Joseph-Louis Mundwiller for Pathé-Frères – (France)
Mr. Flip , comedy directed by Broncho Billy Anderson for Essanay Studios, starring Ben Turpin

N

Nero, or the Fall of Rome (Nerone, o la caduta di Roma), historical epic directed by Luigi Maggi and Arturo Ambrosio for Ambrosio Film – (Italy)

O

Oliver Twist , drama directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios; based on the 1838 novel by Charles Dickens ^[7]

P

Princess Nicotine; or, the Smoke Fairy , trick film directed by J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph Studios

R

PLAY Resurrection ; runtime 00:12:11.

The Red Man's View , western directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Owen Moore
Resurrection , drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Florence Lawrence; based on the 1899 novel by Leo Tolstoy

S

Slippery Jim (Pickpock ne craint pas les entraves), trick film directed by Segundo de Chomón for Pathe-Freres – (France)
The Spider and the Butterfly (Le papillon fantastique) (incomplete), trick film directed by and starring Georges Méliès for Star Film – (France)

T

Theodore Roosevelt in Africa , documentary directed by Cherry Kearton
Those Awful Hats , comedy directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Mack Sennett
A Trap for Santa Claus , drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company, starring Henry B. Walthall

V

The Voice of the Violin , drama directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company

W

Whimsical Illusions (Les Illusions fantaisistes), trick film directed by and starring Georges Méliès for Star Film – (France)

Births

January 1 – Dana Andrews, actor (died 1992)
January 3 – Victor Borge, musician, actor (died 2000)
January 8 - Willy Millowitsch, actor (died 1999)
January 15 – Gene Krupa, musician, actor (died 1973)
January 22 – Ann Sothern, actress (died 2001)
January 24 – Ann Todd, actress (died 1993)
January 29 – Alan Marshal, actor (died 1961)
February 2 – Frank Albertson, actor (died 1964)
February 6 – Aino Talvi, Estonian actress (d. 1992)
February 9
- Carmen Miranda, singer, actress (died 1955)
- Heather Angel, actress (died 1986)
February 11
- Max Baer – boxer, actor (died 1959)
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz – director, screenwriter, producer (died 1993)
February 16
- Hugh Beaumont, actor, director, writer (died 1982)
- Jeffrey Lynn, actor (died 1995)
March 19 – Louis Hayward, actor (died 1995)
March 26 – Chips Rafferty, actor (died 1971)
April 4 – Bobby Connelly, child actor (died 1922)
April 22– Ralph Byrd, actor (died 1952)
April 29 – Tom Ewell, actor (died 1994)
May 4 – Howard Da Silva, actor, director (died 1986)
May 15 – James Mason, actor (died 1984)
May 16 – Margaret Sullavan, actress (died 1960)
May 30 – Benny Goodman, musician, actor (died 1986)
June 7 – Jessica Tandy, actress (died 1994)
June 8 – Robert Carson, actor (died 1979)
June 14 – Burl Ives, actor (died 1995)
June 20 – Errol Flynn, actor (died 1959)
June 26- Wolfgang Reitherman, director, producer, animator (died 1985)
July 1 – Madge Evans, actress (died 1981)
July 11
- Irene Hervey, actress (died 1998)
- John 'Dusty' King, actor, singer (died 1987)
July 12 – Curly Joe DeRita, actor (died 1993)
July 23 – Helen Martin, American actress (died 2000)
July 24 - Sydney Bromley, English character actor (died 1987)
August 25
- Ruby Keeler, singer, actress (died 1993)
- Michael Rennie, actor (died 1971)
August 26 – Jim Davis, American actor (died 1981)
September 7 – Elia Kazan, director (died 2003)
September 27 - Amerigo Tot, Hungarian actor (died 1984)
October 6 – Robert Carson, screenwriter (died 1983)
October 20 – Carla Laemmle, actress (died 2014)
October 29 – Douglass Montgomery, actor (died 1966)
November 11 – Robert Ryan, actor (died 1973)
November 26 – Frances Dee, actress (died 2004)
December 9 – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., actor (died 2000)
December 12 – Karen Morley, actress (died 2003)
December 20 – Diane Ellis, actress (died 1930)
December 22 - Patricia Hayes, English character actress (died 1998)

Deaths

January 27 – Benoît-Constant Coquelin, actor, Cyrano de Bergerac (born 1841)
September 4 – Clyde Fitch, author & playwright whose works have been adapted into films. (born 1865)

Film debuts

Fatty Arbuckle – Ben's Kid (as Roscoe Arbuckle)
Ethel Clayton – Justified (short)
Dolores Costello (as a child) – A Midsummer Night's Dream
Helene Costello (as a child) – Les Misérables (Part I) (short)
Marie Dressler – Marie Dressler (short)
Francis Ford – The Stolen Wireless
Annette Kellerman – The Bride of Lammermoor: A Tragedy of Bonnie Scotland
James Kirkwood – The Heart of an Outlaw (short)
Florence La Badie – The Politician's Love Story
Tom Mix – The Cowboy Millionaire
Mary Pickford – Mrs. Jones Entertains
Billy Quirk – The Heart of an Outlaw
William A. Russell – Tag Day (short)
William Stowell – The Cowboy Millionaire
Blanche Sweet – A Man with Three Wives
Rose Tapley – The Way of the Cross (short)
Clara Kimball Young – Washington Under the American Flag (short)

References

↑ "Carl Laemmle | American film producer". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
↑ McKernan, Luke (2018). Charles Urban: Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America, 1897-1925. University of Exeter Press. ISBN 978-0859892964.
↑ "Hiawatha (1909)". AFI Catalog . Retrieved May 13, 2018.
↑ "1909 - First Nature Move" . Retrieved 18 November 2019.
↑ "Joyce's picture-house flop – Independent.ie". Independent.ie. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
↑ Kinnard, Roy (1995). "Horror in Silent Films". McFarland and Company Inc. ISBN 0-7864-0036-6. Page 28.
↑ "Oliver Twist (1909)". BFI. Archived from the original on December 20, 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2018.

External links

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[1] "Carl Laemmle | American film producer". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 25 September 2018.

[:2-2] McKernan, Luke (2018). Charles Urban: Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America, 1897-1925. University of Exeter Press. ISBN 978-0859892964.

[Hiawatha-3] "Hiawatha (1909)". AFI Catalog . Retrieved May 13, 2018.

[4] "1909 - First Nature Move" . Retrieved 18 November 2019.

[5] "Joyce's picture-house flop – Independent.ie". Independent.ie. Retrieved 25 September 2018.

[Kinnard_1995-6] Kinnard, Roy (1995). "Horror in Silent Films". McFarland and Company Inc. ISBN 0-7864-0036-6. Page 28.

[7] "Oliver Twist (1909)". BFI. Archived from the original on December 20, 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2018.

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