The New York Motion Picture Company was a film production and distribution company from 1909 until 1914. It changed names to New York Picture Corporation in 1912. [1] It released films through several different brand names, including 101 Bison, Kay-Bee, Broncho, Domino, Reliance, and Keystone Studios. [1] [2]
Keystone would later be a part of Triangle Pictures, which would merge with Feature Play and become Paramount Studios. [3]
The New York Motion Picture Company was founded in 1909 by Adam Kessel, Charles O. Baumann, and camera operator Frank Balshofer. [1] [4] Originally interested purely in film distribution, the company's refusal to work with Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) created difficulties in securing films. [5] Kessel was quoted as saying, "We would have to go out of business unless we made some films ourselves." [5]
Their first film, Disinherited Son's Loyalty, was made in May 1909. [5] It cost around $200 to make, and earned $2,000. [4] From that point on, NYMPC produced about half the films it played.
Billy Gane served as general manager.
The company later merged with the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, only to later pull out of the merger in favor of their rival, the Mutual Film Corp., when Universal attempted to remove Baumann as company president. [2] Due to the complicated legal situation, Universal continued to release films under the 101 Bison brand name at the same time as Mutual, which prompted NYMPC to release flyers urging viewers to make sure they were viewing a "genuine Bison" [2] It was during their time with Mutual that Kessel and Baumann formed the Keystone Studios brand with director and actor Mack Sennett. [6] At this point, the company had changed location from the North East to California, being one of the first to do so. [2] [3]
It was during a one-year apprenticeship at Keystone that Charlie Chaplin made some of his earliest films. [7] It was during Chaplin's time at Keystone that he created the 'Little Tramp' character he became known for. [7]
In 1915, Keystone Studios became an integral part of the Triangle Film Corporation, after the decision was made to end the merger with Mutual Film Corp. [5] Triangle Film sought to combine the talents of producers D.W. Griffith, Thomas Ince and Mack Sennett. [5] Essentially, it was a combining of assets between Kessel, Baumann, and former Mutual Film Corp. president Harry Aitken as well as Jesse Lasky's Feature Play company. [8] Their mission statement was to make multi-reel films, à la The Birth of a Nation , that would appeal to higher class audiences while also gaining popularity among the general population. [8]
Triangle Film was largely considered a failure, however, Feature Play would go on to merge with Famous Players and become Paramount Pictures, a company that was far more successful in achieving the kind of vertical integration Triangle sought in its business model. [3] [8]
| Release Date | Title |
|---|---|
| October 1914 | The Typhoon |
| August 1915 | The Toast of Death |
| November 1915 | The Coward |
| December 1915 | The Winged Idol |
| February 1916 | The Three Musketeers |
| April 1916 | The Stepping Stone |
| August 1917 | The Soul Herder |
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career.
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an early American motion picture studio. The studio was founded in 1907 in Chicago, and later developed an additional film lot in Niles Canyon, California. Its various stars included Francis X. Bushman, Gloria Swanson and studio co-owner, actor and director, Broncho Billy Anderson. It is probably best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies from 1915-1916. In late 1916, it merged distribution with other studios and stopped issuing films in the fall of 1918. According to film historian Steve Massa, Essanay is one of the important early studios, with comedies as a particular strength. Its founders, George Kirke Spoor and Anderson, were subsequently awarded special Academy Awards for pioneering contributions to film.
Tillie's Punctured Romance is a 1914 American silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Cops. The picture is the first feature-length comedy and was the only feature-length comedy made by the Keystone Film Company.
The Tramp, also known as the Little Tramp, was English actor Charlie Chaplin's most memorable on-screen character and an icon in world cinema during the era of silent film. The Tramp is also the title of a silent film starring Chaplin, which Chaplin wrote and directed in 1915.
Amabel Ethelreid Normand, better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, director and screenwriter. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their Keystone Studios films, and at the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s had her own film studio and production company, the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company. On screen, she appeared in twelve successful films with Charlie Chaplin and seventeen with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, sometimes writing and directing films featuring Chaplin as her leading man.
Keystone Studios was an early film studio founded in Edendale, California on July 4, 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from actor-writer Adam Kessel (1866–1946) and Charles O. Baumann (1874–1931), owners of the New York Motion Picture Company. The company, referred to at its office as The Keystone Film Company, filmed in and around Glendale and Silver Lake, Los Angeles for several years, and its films were distributed by the Mutual Film Corporation between 1912 and 1915. The Keystone film brand declined rapidly after Sennett went independent in 1917.
Mutual Film Corporation was an early American film conglomerate that produced some of Charlie Chaplin's greatest comedies. Founded in 1912, it was absorbed by Film Booking Offices of America, which evolved into RKO Pictures.
Fred J. Balshofer was a pioneering silent film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer in the United States.
Edendale is a historical name for a district in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, in what is known today as Echo Park, Los Feliz and Silver Lake. In the opening decades of the 20th century, in the era of silent movies, Edendale was known as the home of most major movie studios on the West Coast. Among its many claims, it was home to the Keystone Cops, and the site of many movie firsts, including Charlie Chaplin's first movie, the first feature-length comedy, and the first pie-in-the-face. The Edendale movie studios were mostly concentrated in a four-block stretch of Allesandro Street, between Berkeley Avenue and Duane Street. Allesandro Street was later renamed Glendale Boulevard.
Alice Howell was a silent film comedy actress from New York City. She was the mother of actress Yvonne Howell.
(Sir) Charlie Chaplin (KBE) (1889–1977) was an English internationally renowned Academy Award-winning actor, comedian, filmmaker and composer who was best known for his career in Hollywood motion pictures from his debut in 1914 until 1952; he however subsequently appeared in two films in his native England. During his early years in the era of silent film, he rose to prominence as a worldwide cinematic idol renowned for his tramp persona. In the 1910s and 1920s, he was considered the most famous person on the planet.
The Centaur Film Company was an American motion picture production company founded in 1907 in Bayonne, New Jersey, by William and David Horsley. It was the first independent motion picture production company in the United States. In 1909 the company added a West Coast production unit, the Nestor Film Company, which established the first permanent film studio in Hollywood, California, in 1911. The company was absorbed by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in 1912.
Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent era filmmaker and media proprietor. Ince was known as the "Father of the Western" and was responsible for making over 800 films.
The L-KO Kompany, or L-KO Komedies, was an American motion picture company founded by Henry Lehrman that produced silent one-, two- and very occasionally three-reel comedy shorts between 1914 and 1919. The initials L-KO stand for "Lehrman KnockOut".
Her Painted Hero is a 1915 American short comedy film directed by F. Richard Jones and written by Mack Sennett. Harold Lloyd appears in the film, uncredited.
Charles O. Baumann was an American film producer, film studio executive, and pioneer in the motion picture industry.
Frank D. Williams was a pioneering cinematographer who was active in the early days of the motion picture industry. He developed and patented the traveling matte shot.
Kay-Bee Pictures, or Kessel and Baumann, was an American silent film studio, and part of the New York Motion Picture Company. The company's mottos included, "every picture a headliner" and "Kay-Bee stands for Kessel and Baumann and Kessel and Baumann stands for quality", referring to Adam Kessel and Charles Baumann. It was party of the New York Motion Picture Company and was used after a settlement with rival Universal Pictures to end the film division named 101 Bison. Anna Little was one of its stars. Its executives included Thomas Ince.
Adam Kessel, Jr. (1866–1946) was a film company executive. He partnered with Charles Baumann in a series of film distribution and production companies.
Reliance Film Company (1910–1915) was an early movie production studio in the United States. It was established in 1910 in Coney Island by Adam Kessel Jr. and Charles O. Baumann.
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