The Warwick Trading Company was a British film production and distribution company, which operated between 1898 and 1915.

History

The Warwick Trading Company had its origins in the London office of Maguire and Baucus, a firm run by two American businessmen who, from 1894, acted as agents marketing films and projectors produced by

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

. In 1897, they also acquired the rights to distribute films produced by the

Lumière brothers Lumière is French for ' light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: *Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People *Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV * Institut Lumière, a ...

. Later that year, Charles Urban was appointed managing director. Urban was dissatisfied with the current location of the offices, in Broad Street, and proposed a move to a building in Warwick Court, which was nearer to like-minded businesses such as that of Robert W. Paul. Urban also suggested a simultaneous name change, as he felt the current name was difficult to do business with. The company was thus rebranded as the Warwick Trading Company, after the address of its new offices in Warwick Court. The new company was officially registered in May 1898. Urban oversaw significant growth in the company's operations, and it became a highly regarded film producer and distributor, with a particular focus on

actuality film The actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that, like the documentary film, uses footage of real events, places, and things. Unlike the documentaries, actuality films are not structured into a larger argument, picture of the phenomenon or co ...

s, travel and reportage. It distributed films from the Lumière brothers, George Albert Smith, James Williamson and

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

. The company also sold film equipment manufactured by Alfred Darling. At its peak, the Company either produced or distributed three-quarters of the films exhibited in Britain. Urban left the company in 1903, amid disagreements with Maguire and Baucus, and also with Alfred Jackaman Ellis, who had become the co-managing director in 1900. He set up another firm, the

Charles Urban Trading Company The Charles Urban Trading Company specialised in travel, educational and scientific films. It was formed in 1903 in London by the Anglo-American film producer Charles Urban, who struck out on his own after five years at the Warwick Trading Company. ...

, taking a number of key staff members with him, including well-known saleswoman Alice Rosenthal and cameraman and assistant manager John Gilman Avery. Between 1906 and 1909 the Warwick Trading Company was headed by

Will Barker William George Barker (18 January 1868, in Cheshunt – 6 November 1951, in Wimbledon) was a British film producer, director, cinematographer, and entrepreneur who took film-making in Britain from a low budget form of novel entertainment to t ...

, and between 1913 and 1915 by the naturalist photographer

Cherry Kearton Richard Kearton Zoological Society of London, FZS, Royal Photographic Society, FRPS (2 January 1862 – 8 February 1928) and Cherry Kearton (8 July 1871 – 27 September 1940), brothers, were a pair of British naturalists and some of the worl ...

, after which the company went into receivership.

References

;Bibliography * Film production companies of the United Kingdom {{UK-film-company-stub