Samuel Goldwyn, also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios in Hollywood. His awards include the 1973 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1947, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1958.
William Wadsworth Hodkinson, known more commonly as W. W. Hodkinson, was born in Independence, Kansas. Known as The Man Who Invented Hollywood, he opened one of the first movie theaters in Ogden, Utah in 1907 and within just a few years changed the way movies were produced, distributed, and exhibited. He became a leading West Coast film distributor in the early days of motion pictures and in 1912 he co-founded and became president of the first nationwide film distributor, Paramount Pictures Corporation. Hodkinson was also responsible for doodling the mountain that became the Paramount logo in 1914. After being driven out of Paramount, he established his own independent distribution company, the W. W. Hodkinson Corporation, in 1917, before selling it off in 1924. He left the motion picture business in 1929 to form Hodkinson Aviation Corporation, and later formed the Central American Aviation Corporation and Companía Nacional de Aviación in Guatemala.
Jesse Louis Lasky was an American pioneer motion picture producer who was a key founder of what was to become Paramount Pictures, and father of screenwriter Jesse L. Lasky Jr.
Jetta Goudal was a Dutch-American actress, successful in Hollywood films of the silent film era.
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company.
Robert Zigler Leonard was an American film director, actor, producer, and screenwriter.
Victor Milner, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. He was nominated for ten cinematography Academy Awards, winning once for 1934 Cleopatra. Milner worked on more than 130 films, including dramas, comedies, film noir, and Westerns. He worked for large production companies like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Universal, and Paramount during his film career.
Julia Faye was an American actress of silent and sound films. She was known for her appearances in more than 30 Cecil B. DeMille productions. Her various roles ranged from maids and ingénues to vamps and queens.
Abbie Jean MacPherson was an American actress, writer, and director from 1908 until the late 1940s. She was a pioneer for women in the film industry. She worked with D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille, two of the foremost filmmakers of the time.
Edythe Chapman was an American stage and silent film actress.
Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), also known as FBO Pictures Corporation, was an American film studio of the silent era, a producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films. It was founded in 1920 as Robertson–Cole (U.S.), the American division of a British import–export company formed by the English-born Harry F. Robertson. Robertson-Cole bought the Hallmark Exchanges from Frank G. Hall in 1920. Exhibitors-Mutual/Hallmark had distributed Robertson-Cole product, and acquiring the exchanges gave them the right to distribute their own films plus Hall's product, with the exception of Charlie Chaplin reissues which he had the rights to.
Lillian Rich was an English-born actress of the silent era. She appeared in more than 60 films between 1919 and 1940.
John Miljan was an American actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1924 and 1958.
Pathé Exchange was an independent American film production and distribution company from 1921 through 1927 after being established in 1904 as an American subdivision of French firm Pathé.
Olga Engl was an Austrian-German stage and motion picture actress who appeared in nearly 200 films.
National Film or National-Film was a German film production and distribution company which operated during the silent and early sound era. In the early 1920s it made an attempt to take over Erich Pommer's Decla-Bioscop, but the projected merger failed and Decla instead joined with the major studio UFA. While Decla was generally in favour of joining with National, it was pressured by its creditors Deutsche Bank to merge with UFA.
Rayart Pictures was one of the early film production and distribution companies operating independently of the major Hollywood studios in the United States during the later silent film era from the mid-to-late 1920s and into the early "talkies" era of early films with sound in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It established its own distribution network, specialising in westerns. It was begun by W. Ray Johnston in 1924, after whom the company was named. It was originally created as a low budget release agent, and like the other so-called Poverty Row studios, was based in a small plot off Sunset Strip, by Gower Street. An early Poverty Row studio, it was a forerunner of Monogram Pictures, whom was also founded by W. Ray Johnston.
Chadwick Pictures was an American film production and distribution company active during the silent and early sound eras. It was originally established in New York by Isaac E. Chadwick in 1920 to release films, but from 1924 also began to produce them. In later years the company's independent films were similar to those of other small studios on Poverty Row. Following the introduction of sound, its releases were handled by Monogram Pictures. In 1933 it ceased production entirely.
Associated Exhibitors was an American film distribution company active during the silent era. The company did not produce its own pictures but released productions by independent producers, handling a mixture of low-budget and more prestigious films during the 1920s. Established in 1920, it had a close association with Pathe Exchange, another medium-sized American company.
The W. W. Hodkinson Corporation was a film distribution corporation active during the silent era. It was established and run by the pioneer William Wadsworth Hodkinson who had previously been instrumental in the foundation of Paramount Pictures. After being forced out from Paramount in 1916, Hodkinson briefly worked with Triangle Film before setting up his own independent distribution outfit in November 1917, purchasing Triangle's distribution network of film exchanges for $600,000. It distributed more than a hundred films from 1918 until 1924, sometimes through Pathe Exchange.
