The Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company was a major, national

motion picture 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 atmosphere ...

distribution company which operated in the United States between May 31, 1910 and the end of June, 1912. The company distributed almost 2,200

silent era A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...

motion pictures during its two-year existence. Its product came from the majority of independent American film producers, which hitherto had distributed their product through states' rights franchisees, as well as a handful of small, independent national distributors, all of whom opposed the attempted monopoly of distribution by the

General Film Company The General Film Company was a motion picture distribution company in the United States. Between 1909 and 1920, the company distributed almost 12,000 silent era motion pictures. Formation The General Film Company was formed by the Motion Pictu ...

, which was a subsidiary of Edison's

Motion Picture Patents Company The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC, also known as the Edison Trust), founded in December 1908 and terminated seven years later in 1915 after conflicts within the industry, was a trust of all the major US film companies and local foreign-bran ...

. Both Universal Pictures and the

Mutual Film Corporation Mutual Film Corporation was an early American film conglomerate that produced some of Charlie Chaplin's greatest comedies. Founded in 1912, it was absorbed by Film Booking Offices of America, which evolved into RKO Pictures. Founding Mutual's ...

grew out of the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company.The Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company
Max Joseph Alvarez, Film History: An International Journal, Volume 19, Number 3, 2007, pp. 247-270,

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...

References

External links

Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company
at the Internet Movie Database Film distributors of the United States History of film {{US-film-company-stub