Edison Studios was an American

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

production organization, owned by companies controlled by inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films, as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and then

Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated (originally the National Phonograph Company) was the main holding company for the various manufacturing companies established by the inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison. It was a successor to Edison Manufacturin ...

(1911–1918), until the studio's closing in 1918. Of that number, 54 were feature length, and the remainder were shorts. All of the company's films have fallen into the public domain because they were released before 1925.

History

The first production facility was Edison's Black Maria studio, in West Orange, New Jersey, built in the winter of 1892–93. The second facility, a glass-enclosed rooftop studio built at 41 East 21st Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

's entertainment district, opened in 1901. In 1907, Edison had new facilities built, on Decatur Avenue and Oliver Place, in the Bedford Park neighborhood of

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

Thomas Edison himself played no direct part in the making of his studios' films, beyond being the owner and appointing William Gilmore as vice-president and general manager. Edison's assistant William Kennedy Dickson, who supervised the development of Edison's motion picture system, produced the first Edison films intended for public exhibition, 1893–95. After Dickson's departure for the

American Mutoscope and Biograph Company The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, ...

in 1895, he was replaced as director of production by cameraman William Heise, then from 1896–1903, by James H. White. When White left to supervise Edison's European interests in 1903, he was replaced by William Markgraf (1903–1904), then Alex T. Moore (1904–1909), and Horace G. Plimpton (1909–1915). The first commercially exhibited motion pictures in the United States were from Edison, and premiered at a Kinetoscope parlor in New York City on April 14, 1894. The program consisted of ten short films, each less than a minute long, of athletes, dancers, and other performers. After competitors began exhibiting films on screens, Edison introduced its own, Projecting Kinetoscope, in late 1896. The earliest productions were brief "actualities", showing everything, from acrobats, to parades, to fire calls. But, competition from French and British story films, in the early 1900s, rapidly changed the market. By 1904, 85% of Edison's sales were from story films. In December 1908, Edison led the formation of 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 George Kleine (1864June 8, 1931) was an American film producer and cinema pioneer. Biography Klein's father, Charles, was a New York optician who sold optical devices and stereopticons. Klein joined the family firm, moving to Chicago in 1893 w ...

, Lubin Studios, Georges Méliès, Pathé, Selig Studios, and Vitagraph Studios, and dominated distribution through the General Film Company. The Motion Picture Patents Co. and the General Film Co. were found guilty of antitrust violation in October 1915, and were dissolved. The breakup of the Trust by federal courts, under

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

laws, and the loss of European markets during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, hurt Edison financially. Edison sold its film business, including the Bronx studio, on 30 March 1918, to the Lincoln & Parker Film Company, of

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Notable productions

Some of the studio's notable productions include '' The Kiss'' (1896); '' The Great Train Robbery'' (1903); '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1910); ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...

'' (1910), the first film adaptation of the novel; '' The Battle of Trafalgar'' (1911); '' What Happened to Mary'' (1912), one of the earliest film serials; and '' The Land Beyond the Sunset'' (1912), which was directed by Harold M. Shaw and was later described by film historian William K. Everson as "'the screen's first genuinely lyrical film'". The company also produced a number of short " Kinetophone" sound films in 1913–1914 using a sophisticated acoustical recording system capable of picking up sound from 30 feet away. They released a number of Raoul Barré cartoon films in 1915 and the first film version of the

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as '' Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

historical novel ''

Kidnapped Kidnapped may refer to: * subject to the crime of kidnapping Literature * ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson * ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Cam ...

''.

Legacy

Everson, calling Edison Studios "financially successful and artistically unambitious," wrote that other than directors Edwin S. Porter and John Hancock Collins,

e Edison studios never turned out a notable director, or even one above average. Nor did the Edison films show the sense of dynamic progress, that one gets, from studying the Biograph films, on a year-by-year basis. On the contrary, there is a sense of stagnation.

However, new restorations and screenings of Edison films in recent years contradict Everson's statement; indeed, Everson citing '' The Land Beyond the Sunset'' points out creativity at Edison beyond Porter and Collins, as it was directed by Harold M. Shaw (1877–1926), who later went on to a successful career directing in England, South Africa, and Lithuania before returning to the US in 1922. Other important directors who started at Edison included Oscar Apfel, Charles Brabin, Alan Crosland,

J. Searle Dawley James Searle Dawley (October 4, 1877 – March 30, 1949) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, stage actor, and playwright. Between 1907 and the mid-1920s, while working for Edison, Rex Motion Picture Company, Famous Playe ...

, and Edward H. Griffith.

Notable films

File:Blacksmith Scene.ogv, ''

Blacksmith Scene ''Blacksmith Scene'' (also known as ''Blacksmith Scene #1'' and ''Blacksmithing Scene'') is an 1893 American short black-and-white silent film directed by William K.L. Dickson, the Scottish- French inventor who, while under the employ of Thoma ...

'' (1893) File:Fred Ott Sneeze 1894 remastered.webm, ''Fred Ott's Sneeze'' (1894) File:Annie Oakley shooting glass balls, 1894.ogv, Annie Oakley shooting glass balls, 1894 File:Leonard Cushing Kinetograph 1894.ogv, ''Leonard-Cushing fight'' (1894), the first boxing match on film. File:May Irwin Kiss.ogv, '' The Kiss'' (1896), the first love scene on film. File:Whathappenedontwentythirdstreet-thomasedisoninc.ogv, ''What Happened on Twenty-third Street in New York Cty'' (1901) File:The Great Train Robbery (1903) - yt.webm, '' The Great Train Robbery'' (1903), the first " Western" ever filmed. File:The messenger boy's mistake (1903).webm, ''The Messenger Boys Mistake'' (1903) File:Nervy Nat Kisses the Bride (1904) - yt.webm, ''Nervy Nat Kisses the Bride'' (1904) File:Battle of Chemulpo Bay edison.ogv, alt=A film of a re-enactment of a naval battle, depicting Russians firing at a Japanese ship with a cannon., ''Battle of Chemulpo Bay'' (1904), a re-enactment of the '' Battle of Chemulpo Bay''. File:The Night Before Christmas (1905).webm, ''

The Night Before Christmas ''A Visit from St. Nicholas'', more commonly known as ''The Night Before Christmas'' and ''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously under the title ''Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas'' i ...

'' (1905), an early film adaptation of the 1823 poem, " A Visit from St. Nicholas". File:Frankenstein1910-clip.ogv, thumbtime=49, The climax of ''

'' (1910), the first film adaptation of the 1818 novel ''

''.

References

External links

* * *
''EdisonStudios.net''
(includes a viewable Edison Studios 1910 adaptation of "Frankenstein")
Vernon K. Flaherty and R. Brian Flaherty collection (R9144)
at Library and Archives Canada. The collection consists of twenty documentary and fiction films by Thomas Edison. {{Authority control Entertainment companies established in 1894 Mass media companies established in 1894 Mass media companies disestablished in 1918 Film production companies of the United States Defunct American film studios Thomas Edison Silent film studios Articles containing video clips 1894 establishments in New Jersey 1918 disestablishments in New Jersey Bedford Park, Bronx Film production companies established in the 1890s