American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company was founded in 1895, and the oldest motion pictures and entertainment company in America and in existance today. The company was originally called 'American Mutoscope Company' and was started by nickelodeon producer William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, an inventor at Thomas Edison’s laboratory who helped pioneer the technology of capturing moving images on film.  Dickson left Edison and joined with Herman Casler, Henry Marvin and Elias Koopman to form the American Mutoscope Company, the first company entirely devoted to film production and the company was located at 841 Broadway, New York, and made films for the Mutoscope from its rooftop studio, utilizing the sun's light instead of articicial lighting. With the popularity, it became a rival to Edison’s Kinetoscope for individual “peep shows”, making the company Edison’s chief competitor in the nickelodeon market. In the summer of 1896 the Biograph projector was released, offering superior image quality with its 68mm film stock, compared to Edison’s 35mm Vitascope projector. The company soon became a leader in the film industry, with distribution and production subsidiaries around the world including the British Mutoscope Company. In 1899 it changed its name to the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, then moved its headquarters to 11 East 14th street. A patent case victory in March 1902 allowed Biograph and other producers and distributors to use the less expensive 35mm format without an Edison license. Biograph offered both formats to exhibitors until 1905, when it discontinued the larger format. Among Biograph’s other accomplishments were being the first producers to film the Pope at the Vatican (1896); and the first company to shoot a movie in Hollywood: D.W. Griffith’s In Old California. Biograph also was the first major movie company to give complete creative control to a Black American, vaudevillian/comedian Bert Williams, who produced, directed and starred in the short comedies Fish (1916), and Natural Born Gambler (1916).  Director D.W. Griffith joined Biograph in 1908 and helped establish many of the conventions of narrative film as well as helped the company become a major commercial success. Many early movie stars were Biograph performers, including Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, and Robert Harron. Mack Sennett honed his craft as a director of comedies at Biograph. In January of 1910, D.W. Griffith, and Lee Dougherty with the rest of the Biograph acting company, traveled to Los Angeles. While the purpose of the trip was to shoot the film Ramona in authentic locations, it was also to determine the suitability of the West Coast as a place for a permanent studio. The group set up a small facility at Washington Street and Grand Avenue (Where the Los Angeles Convention Center now stands). After this, Griffith and his players decided to go a little further north to a small village they had heard about that was friendly, and had beautiful floral scenery. They decided to travel there, and fell in love with this little place. The place was Hollywood. Biograph then made the first film ever in Hollywood called In Old California, a Latino melodrama about the early days of Mexico-owned California. Griffith and the Biograph troup then filmed other short movies at various locations, then travelled back to New York. After the east coast film community heard about Hollywood, other film companies began to migrate there. Biograph’s little film launched Hollywood as the future movie capital of the world. Following this, Biograph sent a film crew to work on the coast each year until 1916.

In December 1908, Biograph joined Edison in forming the Motion Picture Patents Company in an attempt to control the industry and shut out smaller producers. “The Edison Trust” as it was nicknamed, was made up of Edison, Biograph, Essanay Studios, Kalem Company, George Kleine Productions, Lubin Studios, Georges Méliès, Pathé, Selig Studios, and Vitagraph Studios, and dominated distribution through the General Film Company.

At this time in 1912 is when D. W. Griffith left Biograph and Biograph moved from its old address and built its new Biograph Studio facilities at 807 E. 175th Street., in the Bronx, New York.

Shielded by the Trust, Biograph had been slow to enter feature film production (its first feature, Classmates, was released in February 1914, after sixty-nine other American features had been released in 1912-1913), or to develop a marketable star system as the independent companies were doing,  The Biograph Co. released its last new feature-length films in 1915, its last new short films in 1916,

In October of 1915, the Motion Picture Patents Co. and the General Film Co. were found guilty of antitrust violation, and the patents company was dissolved. Soon after, Biograph stopped making its own films and just leased the Bronx facilities to other producers. After the Trust’s fall, Biograph found itself behind the times. and the company ceased operations in 1929.

In 1985, Biograph actress Blanche Sweet helped producer Thomas R. Bond, II and his father, the late Tommy Bond, who played “Butch” in Our Gang (The Little Rascals) acquire the company, and it was revived in 1991 incorporating in California. After it's revival, Biograph has been honored by the California State Film Comission, State Senate of California, the United States Congress, and May 5th being proclaimed "Biograph Day" by the city of Los Angeles. Biograph is also involved the independent film world, and film preservation along with AFI (American Film Institute). Biograph It is still an independent film and entertainment company, now located in Beverly Hills, California.