The World Film Company or World Film Corporation was an American film production and distribution company, organized in 1914 in

Fort Lee, New Jersey Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop the Palisades. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 40,191. As of the 2010 U.S. census, t ...

. Short-lived but significant in American film history, World Film was created by financier and filmmaker Lewis J. Selznick in Fort Lee, where many early film studios in

America's first motion picture industry Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop the Palisades. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 40,191. As of the 2010 U.S. census, t ...

were based in the early part of the 20th century.

Formation

World Film was to be the distribution arm for three main production companies: Selznick's own production company called

Equitable Pictures Equitable Motion Picture Company was a short-lived but influential silent film company. It was launched in 1915. It was headed by Arthur Spiegel. It distributed its films through William A. Brady's World Film Company. It was acquired by World Fi ...

Jules Brulatour Pierre Ernest Jules Brulatour (April 7, 1870 – October 26, 1946) was a pioneering executive figure in American silent cinema. Beginning as American distribution representative for Lumiere Brothers raw film stock in 1907, he joined producer ...

's Peerless Pictures, and the Shubert Pictures production company founded by the strong-willed promoter and entrepreneur

William Aloysius Brady William Aloysius Brady (June 19, 1863 – January 6, 1950) was an American theater actor, producer, and sports promoter. Biography Brady was born to a newspaperman in 1863. His father kidnapped him from San Francisco and brought him to New Yo ...

. Under this arrangement, World Film was the distributor for some 380 short films and features from 1914 through 1921. It also became a production company, with filming centered at Brulatour's Peerless Studio facilities, and run by Brady. The Schuberts intended to use their own chain of vaudeville and legitimate theaters as film venues. In the period between 1912 and 1915, all of the five most important film production companies in the U.S. had similar ties to theatrical entrepreneurs, all hoping to leverage their theater chains:

Famous Players Film Company The Famous Players Film Company was a film company founded in 1912 by Adolph Zukor in partnership with the Frohman brothers, powerful New York City theatre impresario. History Discussions to form the company were held at The Lambs, a famous th ...

Klaw & Erlanger Klaw and Erlanger was an entertainment management and production partnership of Marc Klaw and Abraham Lincoln Erlanger based in New York City from 1888 through 1919. While running their own considerable and multi-faceted theatrical businesses on ...

's "Protective Amusement Company", the Jesse L. Lasky Company, the

Triangle Film Corporation Triangle Film Corporation (also known as Triangle Motion Picture Company) was a major American motion-picture studio, founded in July 1915 in Culver City, California and terminated 7 years later in 1922. History The studio was founded in July 1 ...

, and World Film. By 1916, Selznick was ousted from World Film by its board. Chicago investor

Arthur Spiegel Arthur Henry Spiegel I was a Chicago mail-order businessman and early American film studio executive. Biography Spiegel was the youngest son of Jewish businessman Joseph Spiegel, founder of the Spiegel Home Furnishings merchandising house b ...

was put in charge as president. Production remained at Fort Lee until 1919, when the company was re-purchased by Selznick and absorbed into his Lewis J. Selznick Productions, based on the

west coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

Talent

World Film was distinguished by its concentration of talent. It acquired film production company Equitable Motion Pictures Corporation. The destruction by fire of the French-based Eclair's New Jersey studio on March 10, 1914, and the outbreak of World War I the following August drove a re-organization of foreign film-industry assets in Fort Lee, including the employees. Within World Film a number of French directors and cinematographers, many of whom had been brought over to work at American Eclair, organized themselves in a separate French-speaking unit, with its own sensibility. For about three years Maurice Tourneur,

Léonce Perret Léonce Joseph Perret (14 March 1880 – 12 August 1935) was a prolific and innovative French film actor, director and producer.The Museum of Modern Art(retrieved 7 June 2007) He also worked as a stage actor and director. Often described as avant ...

George Archainbaud George Archainbaud (May 7, 1890 – February 20, 1959) was a French-American film and television director. Biography In the beginning of his career he worked on stage as an actor and manager. He came to the United States in January 1914, and st ...

Emile Chautard Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *'' Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *'' Emil and the Detecti ...

Albert Capellani Albert Capellani (23 August 1874 – 26 September 1931) was a French film director and screenwriter of the silent era. He directed films between 1905 and 1922. One of his brothers was the actor-sculptor Paul Capellani, and another, film dir ...

and

Lucien Andriot Lucien Andriot ASC (1892–1979) was a prolific French-American cinematographer. He shot more than 200 films and television programs over the course of his career. Life and work Born in Paris, Andriot began his career in France in 1909 workin ...

, among others, worked together on films such as 1914's '' The Wishing Ring: An Idyll of Old England'', the 1915 versions of '' Camille'' and '' Alias Jimmy Valentine'', the 1916 ''

La Bohème ''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...

''. and taught a young apprentice film cutter at the World studio: Josef von Sternberg.Von Sternberg, by John Baxter, pages 21-22 Others were also hired into World Film: actress

Clara Kimball Young Clara Kimball Young (born Edith Matilda Clara Kimball; September 6, 1890 – October 15, 1960) was an American film actress who was popular in the early silent film era. Early life Edith Matilda Clara Kimball was born in Chicago on Septembe ...

(the second wife of director James Young, married and divorced) hired away from Vitagraph,

Sidney Olcott Sidney Olcott (born John Sidney Allcott, September 20, 1872 – December 16, 1949) was a Canadian-born film producer, director, actor and screenwriter. Biography Born John Sidney Allcott in Toronto, he became one of the first great direc ...

hired away from

Kalem Studios The Kalem Company was an early American film studio founded in New York City in 1907. It was one of the first companies to make films abroad and to set up winter production facilities, first in Florida and then in California. Kalem was sold to Vi ...

, screenwriter

Frances Marion Frances Marion (born Marion Benson Owens, November 18, 1888 – May 12, 1973) was an American screenwriter, director, journalist and author often cited as one of the most renowned female screenwriters of the 20th century alongside June Mathis a ...

, actress Elaine Hammerstein, and vaudeville star

Lew Fields Lew Fields (born Moses Schoenfeld, January 1867 – July 20, 1941) was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager, and producer. He was part of a comedy duo with Joe Weber. He also produced shows on his own and starred in c ...

, and Clara Whipple (third wife of director James Young, married and divorced).

Partial filmography

* '' The Brass Bottle'' (1914) * ''

The Wishing Ring ''The Wishing Ring: An Idyll of Old England'' is a 1914 American silent comedy-drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur and starring Vivian Martin. Based on the 1910 play of the same name by Owen Davis that ran on Broadway starring Marguerite Cl ...

'' (1914) * '' The Lure'' (1914) * '' In the Land of the Head Hunters'' (1914) * ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U ...

'' (1914) * '' The Boss'' (1915) * '' Camille'' (1915) * ''

The Cub ''The Cub'' is an extant 1915 silent film drama produced by William A. Brady and directed by Maurice Tourneur. The film is based on a 1910 Broadway play, ''The Cub'' by Thompson Buchanan Thompson Buchanan (June 21, 1877 - October 15, 1937) was ...

'' (1915) * ''

Wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

'' (1915) * '' Evidence'' (1915) * ''

The Butterfly on the Wheel ''The Butterfly on the Wheel'' is a lost 1915 American silent drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur and starring Holbrook Blinn, Vivian Martin and George Relph. Plot Cast * Holbrook Blinn as Mr. Admaston * Vivian Martin as Peggy Admasto ...

'' (1915) * ''The Fisher Girl'' (1915); aka ''The Daughter of the Sea'' * ''Blue Grass'' (1915) * '' Hearts in Exile'' (1915) * ''

McTeague ''McTeague: A Story of San Francisco'', otherwise known as simply ''McTeague'', is a novel by Frank Norris, first published in 1899. It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty and violence ...

'' (1916) * ''

The Rise of Susan ''The Rise of Susan'' is a 1916 American silent film, silent film made by the Peerless Film Company and distributed by World Film which starred Clara Kimball Young. Remnants of a print survive in the Library of Congress missing several reels. A fu ...

'' (1916) * '' The Bludgeon'' (it) (1915) * ''The Question'' (1916) * ''His One Big Chance'' (1916) * '' The City'' (1916) * ''The Man Who Dared God'' (1917) * '' The Man Who Forgot'' (1917) * ''The Reapers'' (1916) * ''Sudden Riches'' (1916) * '' The Price of Happiness'' (1916) * ''The Revolt'' (1916) * '' The Gilded Cage'' (1916) * '' The Heart of a Hero'' (1916) * ''Birth of Character'' :Working titles: :: ''The Making of a Man'' :: ''The Transmutation'' :: ''Life's Crucible'' * ''

A Girl's Folly ''A Girl's Folly'' is a 1917 American silent comedy film directed by Maurice Tourneur and starring Robert Warwick, Doris Kenyon, June Elvidge, Jane Adair, Chester Barnett, and Johnny Hines. Tourneur also played the director for the film within ...

'' (1917) * ''

Betsy Ross Elizabeth Griscom Ross (née Griscom;Addie Guthrie Weaver, ''"The Story of Our Flag..."'', 2nd Edition, A. G. Weaver, publ., 1898, p. 73 January 1, 1752 – January 30, 1836), also known by her second and third married names, Ashburn an ...

'' (1917) * ''

The Ghost of Slumber Mountain ''The Ghost of Slumber Mountain'' is a 1918 film written and directed by special effects pioneer Willis O'Brien, produced by Herbert M. Dawley, and starring both men. It is the first film to show live actors and stop-motion creatures together o ...

'' (1918) * ''

Little Orphant Annie "Little Orphant Annie" is an 1885 poem written by James Whitcomb Riley and published by the Bowen-Merrill Company. First titled "The Elf Child", the name was changed by Riley to "Little Orphant Allie" at its third printing; however, a typesetti ...

'' (1918) * ''

The Devil's Trail ''The Devil's Trail'' is a 1919 American silent drama film that is set in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. It was directed by Stuart Paton and stars Betty Compson.

'' (1919) * '' When Bearcat Went Dry'' (1919)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Silent film studios Defunct American film studios Film distributors of the United States Film production companies of the United States Fort Lee, New Jersey Entertainment companies established in 1914 Mass media companies established in 1914 Mass media companies disestablished in 1919 1914 establishments in New Jersey 1919 disestablishments in New Jersey American silent films by studio Defunct companies based in New Jersey * American film studios