Gem Motion Picture Company was an American silent-era film studio. It was co-founded by filmmaker Stanner E.V. Taylor and his wife, actress Marion Leonard in 1911. After management issues, the company evolved to primarily act as a producer of short comedies starring Billy Quirk.
Gem film properties produced by Taylor and Leonard were sold to the Rex Motion Picture Company, which released them in 1912 under their own banner. [1] The company's films were released by Universal in 1913. [2]
The Motion Picture Patents Company, founded in December 1908 and terminated seven years later in 1915 after conflicts within the industry, was a trust of all the major US film companies and local foreign-branches, the leading film distributor and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak. The MPPC ended the domination of foreign films on US screens, standardized the manner in which films were distributed and exhibited within the US, and improved the quality of US motion pictures by internal competition. But it also discouraged its members' entry into feature film production, and the use of outside financing, both to its members' eventual detriment.
Gottfried Wilhelm "Billy" Bitzer was an American cinematographer, notable for his close association and pioneering work with D. W. Griffith.
A feature film, or feature-length film is a film with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole film to fill a program. The term feature film originally referred to the main, full-length film in a cinema program that also included a short film and often a newsreel. The notion of how long a feature film should be has varied according to time and place. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute, a feature film runs for more than 40 minutes, while the Screen Actors Guild asserts that a feature's running time is 75 minutes or longer.
Universal City is an unincorporated area within the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Approximately 415 acres within and around the surrounding area is the property of Universal Pictures, one of the five major film studios in the United States: about 70 percent of the studio's property is inside this unincorporated area, while the remaining 30 percent is within the Los Angeles city limits. Universal City is primarily surrounded by Los Angeles with its northeastern corner touching the city of Burbank, making the unincorporated area a county island.
The Nestor Film Company, originally known as the Nestor Motion Picture Company, was an American motion picture production company. It was founded in 1909 as the West Coast production unit of the Centaur Film Company located in Bayonne, New Jersey. While not the first movie studio in Los Angeles, on October 27, 1911, Nestor established the first permanent motion picture studio in Hollywood, California, and produced the first Hollywood films. The company merged with its distributor, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, on May 20, 1912. Nestor became a brand name Universal used until at least mid-1917.
Grace Cunard was an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. During the silent era, she starred in over 100 films, wrote or co-wrote at least 44 of those productions, and directed no fewer than eight of them. In addition, she edited many of her films, including some of the shorts, serials, and features she developed in collaboration with Francis Ford. Her younger sister, Mina Cunard, was also a film actress.
Screen Gems, Inc. is an American film production and distribution studio that is a division of Sony Pictures' Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony. It has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation. The label currently specializes in genre films, mainly horror.
Lois Weber was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer, and director. She is identified in some historical references as "the most important female director the American film industry has known", and among "the most important and prolific film directors in the era of silent films". Film historian Anthony Slide has also asserted, "Along with D. W. Griffith, Weber was the American cinema's first genuine auteur, a filmmaker involved in all aspects of production and one who utilized the motion picture to put across her own ideas and philosophies".
The Chicago film industry is a central hub for motion picture production and exhibition that was established before Hollywood became the undisputed capital of film making. In the early 1900s, Chicago boasted the greatest number of production companies and filmmakers. Essanay Studios founded by George K. Spoor was one of the earliest successful studios to produce movies in Chicago, employing stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Gloria Swanson. Actor and co-founder of Essanay Studios, Broncho Billy Anderson gave birth to the western genre. Early film companies such as Essanay Studios produced multiple silent films every week and rented viewing equipment to showcase the latest cinematography to the public. This rental culture gave birth to the popularity of Nickelodeons up until the Great Depression. However, due to the high demand for motion pictures during this time, a black market for films and equipment developed. The Motion Picture Patents Company, established in 1909 as a conglomerate of the major studios, sought to eliminate all illegal use of patented film equipment. As a result, independent ventures entered the film scene. Independents drove the film industry to the west to avoid legal trouble with the trust of major film companies united under the Motion Picture Patents Company. The west offered fairer weather and scenery that better accommodated film making. Not until the 1980s and early 21st century has Chicago experienced a film production revival. Blockbusters, such as Blues Brothers, Sixteen Candles, and The Dark Knight, have rejuvenated the Chicago film scene. In the 21st century, Chicago further experienced a film revival due to a tax bill the state of Illinois passed to give filmmakers a 30% tax break on production costs.
The decade of the 1910s in film involved some significant films.
Mary Pickford (1892–1979) was a Canadian-American motion picture actress, producer, and writer. During the silent film era she became one of the first great celebrities of the cinema and a popular icon known to the public as "America's Sweetheart".
William A. Quirk was an American silent film actor. He appeared in 182 films between 1909 and 1924. He was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and died in Los Angeles, California. Gem Motion Picture Company produced a series of "Billy" titled pictured starring Quirk.
Stanner E.V. Taylor was an American screenwriter and director of the silent era. He wrote for 108 films between 1908 and 1929.
Providencia Ranch, part of 'Providencia Land and Water Development Company' property, was a piece of land in California, USA. It was used as a filming location for the American Civil War battle scenes in The Birth of a Nation (1915) and some other silent motion pictures. The Valley was also the site for two Universal Studios west coast operations in 1914.
Traffic in Souls is a 1913 American silent crime drama film focusing on forced prostitution in the United States. Directed by George Loane Tucker and starring Jane Gail, Ethel Grandin, William H. Turner, and Matt Moore, Traffic in Souls is an early example of the narrative style in American films. The film consists of six reels which was longer than most American film of the era.
The Woman in White is a 1912 American short silent film based on the 1860 novel of the same name by Wilkie Collins, produced by the Gem Motion Picture Company. Unlike a second film adaptation of The Woman in White produced by the Thanhouser Company the same year, it is not a lost film; a copy is preserved at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York.
Billy's Adventure is a single-reel American silent comedy film released in 1913. It was one of the last in a series of films made by actors Billy Quirk and Violet Horner for the Gem Motion Picture Company.
The Champion Film Company was an independent production company founded in 1909 by Mark M. Dintenfass. The studio was one of the film companies that merged to form Universal Pictures.
Rex Motion Picture Company was an early film production company in the United States. Edwin S. Porter was one of Rex's founders after his short lived Defender Film Company failed. Rex produced dozens of films from 1910 into 1917. Rex was one of the studios that combined to form Universal Pictures under Carl Laemmle's leadership.
Violet Horner was an actress in silent films in the United States. She had several starring roles including in one of the Lena Rivers films released in 1914 and a series of films made with Billy Quirk for Gem Motion Picture Company including Billy's Adventure.
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