William
Kennedy Laurie Dickson started with Edison
in 1889. Dickson initiated the experiments and did the majority
of the work. In 1893 the very first films that were copyrighted
were done in Dickson's name. Almost everything else was credited
to Edison, even though Dickson did the work.
Disgruntled, Dickson left to form his
own company in 1895 called the American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company
Pictured below is a photo in 1895 in New
York of William K. L. Dickson and his partners Herman Caster,
Harry Marvin and Elias Hoopman.
The following photo is of Dickson filming
Pope Leo XIII in 1896.
This is an ad that the company used in
1899.
They were the first to utilize the production
wagon for help onsite in making their films.
During this time, other studios
were being harassed and bombarded with legal notices from Edison
trying to run everyone else out of the business. Biograph was
no exception, and on the edge of bankruptcy. When Biograph became
late on their loans, the bank placed Jerimiah Kennedy as the
new president.
Kennedy was a millionaire and
used to getting his own way. He was fascinated with this new
industry and wanted to try his hand at it... so instead of cutting
back as was expected, he put more money into Biograph. In the
expansion, a young theater actor named D.
W. Griffith was hired.
During 1907, Biograph only had
one director, Wallace McCutcheon, and he was in poor health,
so Biograph desperately needed directors. Soon Griffith was
offered a job as director.
From Griffith's first release,
The
Adventures of Dollie starring his wife Linda as the
lead role of Dollie, released in 1908, there was an immediate
change. Griffith's eye for detail and his vast theater experience,
brought a desperately needed new quality to Biograph films.
Between 1908 and 1913, Griffith personally directed over 400
Biograph films.
Griffith developed a tremendous
amount of talent for Biograph... including Florence Lawrence..
(who became to popular that she was known as 'the Biograph Girl'),
Mary Pickford, (who became the 2ND Biograph Girl on the departure
of Lawrence to IMP), the Gish Sisters (Dorothy and Lillian),
Mack Sennett (later to produce the Keystone Kops), Mabel Normand
and many more..
Kennedy also began
putting pressure on Edison to stop all litigation and accept
Biograph in his newly formed association of major studios. In
1909, Biograph joined Edison in the formation of the Motion
Picture Patents Company in an attempt by Edison to try to shut
out smaller studios. This was also an attempt to consolidate
the major US film producers against the invasion of French films
like Pathe, Melies and Gaumont that had been dominating a huge
part of the market.
The MPPC members
were Edison,
Biograph, Essanay,
Kalem, Kleine,
Lubin,
Melies,
Pathe,
Selig
and Vitagraph.
With this acceptance the name of the company
was changed from American Mutoscope and Biograph Company to
the Biograph Company.
The company produced a tremendous amount
of films.
Anti- trust lawsuits involving 'the Trust'
took their toll in 1916 and the company became dormant.......
HOWEVER....... unbelievably Biograph is
still in existance today.
The company was taken over by Tommy Bond
(yes, Butch from the Little Rascals) and is now owned by his
son Tommy Bond II.
You can visit their website at:
http://www.biographcompany.com
Here's what we have in our database for
Biograph so far.
