Harry Aitken and his
brother Roy started with a makeshift theater in their barn near Waukesha,
Wisconsin. Soon they left the farm and opened their first theater
in Chicago. The success from the first venture led to a string of
five theaters.
Harry was more interested in suppying
other theaters. He met with realtor John Freuler in Milwaukee and
started a partnership. In July 1906, the Western Film Exchange was
born in Freuler's real estate office.
The new concept of renting movies
to the theaters caught on quick and Western grew rapidly. Soon the
company had established branch offices in other markets such as Chicago,
St. Louis, and Joplin, Missouri. By February 1908, Western was officially
incorporated at Milwaukee with Harry Aitken serving as the first president.
This all came to a halt literally
overnight in 1908 because of lawsuits initiated by Thomas Edison.
Costly litigation tied up cash flows as well as valuable production
time. The independent studios retaliated by producing their films
in secret.
Edison was persuaded to make peace
with nine of the larger film studios. Together they formed the Motion
Picture Patents Company (MPPC) with the announcement that they held
a monopoly on the film market. Any studio that was not a member of
MPPC would not be licensed to produce films; any theater or exchange
that did not subscribe to the membership and royalty payments was
declared "outlaw" and not allowed to operate.
Aitken and Freuler decided to make
their own films and in 1910 incorporated the American Film Manufacturing
Company. Soon the legal pressure from the MPPC caused them to move
their operation to Santa Barbara, California. It was reported that
studios were able to operate on the west coast and had the Mexican
border close if they had to dodge litigation.
Soon American Film was cranking out
films and Western distributing them to several thousand theaters.
Aitkens also worked on forming
a second motion picture production company, 
Majestic
Film which he used to supply a new distribution company he formed
with several other 'outlaw' studios called the Motion Picture
Distribution and Sales Company (called the Sales Company).
In 1911, Aitkens lured away the rising
star of one of studios that was part of the Sales Company named 'Little
Mary' Pickford. This caused a major problem with the other studios
involved with the Sales Company to the point that Aitkens removed
Majestic and formed another studio he called Reliance.
After Aitken's departure, Carl Laemmle,
the head of the Sales Company, renamed the Sales Company—the
Universal Film Manufacturing Company.
With Majestic, Reliance, and American
all producing films at a dizzying rate, Freuler began to think about
a Milwaukee showplace in which to present them, so they opened the
Butterfly theater
In March 1912,
John Freuler and Harry Aitken created the Mutual Film Corporation
to house their satellite film studios, exchanges, and theaters.
Aitken was installed as the first president. The new company's
logo featured a winged alarm clock and the legend, "Make
Time Fly". At the same time, Aitken used Mutual to acquired
Thanhouser
Films from another former Milwaukee resident.
In 1913, Aitken made another major
acquisition, by luring D.W. Griffith away from Biograph. Even though
other studios like Fox, Zukor at Paramount and Laemmle from Universal
offered more money, Aitken offered freedom and control.
By 1914, all branches of the Western
Film Exchange had been superseded by new Mutual exchanges. Once consolidated,
Mutual also acquired Keystone and Kay Bee.
In 1915, Mutual had offices in 45
cities which in turn supplied the films to over 7,000 theaters. They
also opened branch offices in London, Berlin, Rome, and Paris. The
foreign offices were overseen by Roy Aitken from the London headquarters.
Problems soon arose however with the
conviction of Griffith to make an epic full length feature which had
never been done. Griffith held Aitkens to his promise of freedom while
the heavy cost soon threw Aitken and the board of Mutual into full
battles. The board refuse to cover the expenses of a single film that
would cost over $100,000 to make and run 120 minutes
Aitken turned to private sources for
financing. He obtained money from friends and business acquaintances
who invested in the project when Aitken offered his personal guarantee
that their money was safe. In this fashion, Aitken raised nearly $100,000.
In addition to his reputation, Aitken's personal fortune was on the
line. With this funding, Griffith and Aitkens formed Epoch Producing
Corporation.
Furious at the situation, the Mutual
board fired Aitkens.
Birth of a Nation, premiered in Los
Angeles and was a huge success, even at the astronomical price of
$2.00 a ticket. When the film went out on the road with traveling
orchestras for extended runs in 20 major cities, the returns were
staggering. The New York City engagement alone ran 48 weeks at the
Liberty theater on Broadway. Griffith was being lavished with praises
and Harry Aitken was riding high on the biggest gamble of his life.
Aitken accumulated a personal fortune
from The Birth of a Nation. He then organized the illustrious Triangle
Pictures Corporation. Triangle was envisioned as a prestige studio
based on the producing abilities of ace filmmakers D. W. Griffith,
Thomas Ince, and Mack Sennett. Aitken offered smaller partnerships
in Triangle to Adam Kessel and Charles Baumann, producers of the Kay
Bee films. In one swift stroke, Aitken crippled Mutual by taking their
top directors and over half of their major film-producing companies.
Triangle launched itself with Griffith's
film Intolerance. Aitken was in big trouble; Intolerance was a colossal
flop. Cash became tight, payrolls were missed, and stars began departing
for other studios at a record rate. One by one, Griffith, Ince, and
Sennett also left the company. The final blow came when Triangle's
Culver City studios were sold for 10 cents on the dollar. The triangle-shaped
Culver City lot was sold to Goldwyn Pictures, later to become the
home of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
With his limited remaining resources,
Harry Aitken was able to buy back some of his old films. These he
took back to his home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where he resided until
his death in 1956.
