Founders of the Film Industry

Under Construction

This project is about people that built and directed the first big studios and shaped the modern film industry (not directors nor actors)

Eastman "Kodak" Laboratory (1888)

• Founder
  • George Eastman

Edison Film Manufacturing Company (1894)

Thomas A. Edison Company/The Edison Studios (1911)

• Founders
  • Thomas Alva Edison
  • William Gilmore
  • William Kennedy Dickinson

Gaumont Pictures (1895)

• Founders...
  • Léon Gaumont
  • Alice Guy-Blaché

Société Pathé Frères (1896)

• Founders...
  • Charles Pathé
  • Émile Pathé
  • Théophile Pathé
  • Jacques Pathé

American Vitagraph Studios (1897)

• Founders
  • J. Stuart Blackton
  • Albert E. Smith

Nordisk Films (1906)

• Founders...
  • Ole Olsen

Western Film Exchange/Mutual Film Corporation (1906)

• Founders
  • John R. Freuler
  • Harry E. Atkin
  • Roy Atkin

ALCOA Laboratories

• Founders
  • Charles Martin Hall

Laboratoires Eclair (1907)

• Founders...
  • Charles Jourjon
  • Ambroise-François Parnaland

American Film Manufacturing Company (1910)

(aka: The Flying "A" Studios)===

• Founders
  • Samuel S. Hutchinson
  • John Freuer
  • Charles J. Hite

    ---

  • Allan Dwan

American Mutoscope And Biograph Co. (aka: The Biograph Studios)(1912)

• Founding Members
  • D. W. Griffith
  • Mack Sennett

Laski-DeMille Picture Company(1912*)

• Founders
  • Cecil B. DeMille
  • Jesse Laski
• (See Paramont Pictures)

Paramount Pictures (1912)

• Operating as Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation in 1927, which was formed as Famous Players Lasky Corporation in 1916 from the merger of Famous Players Film Company, Lasky Feature Play Company, and Paramount Pictures Corporation.
• Founders...
  • Famous Players Film Company (1912)
    • Adolph Zukor
    • Daniel Frohman
    • Charles Frohman
  • Lasky Feature Play Company (1913)
    • Jesse L. Lasky
    • Samuel Goldwyn
    • Cecil B. DeMille
    • Oscar Apfel
  • Paramount Pictures Corporation (1914)
    • W.W. Hodkinson
    • Hobart Bosworth

William F. Cody Productions (1912-1914)

• Founder...
  • William F. Cody

Mutual News and Film Co (1912-).

• Founder...
  • William Randolph Hurst Jr.
  • D.W. Griffith

Universal (1912)

• Operating as Universal Film and Manufacturing Company in 1912 from the merger of several companies.
• Founders...
  • Independent Moving Pictures Company (1909)
    • Carl Laemmle
    • Abe Stern
    • Julius Stern
    • Jules Brulatour
  • Champion Film Company (1909)
    • Mark M. Dintenfass
  • Powers Motion Picture Company (1910)
    • Pat Powers
  • Nestor Motion Picture Company (1911)
    • Al Christie
    • David Horsley
    • William Horsley
  • Rex Motion Picture Company
    • William Swanson
  • New York Motion Picture Company
    • Charles Baumann
    • Adam Kessel

Metro Studio Pictures (1915)

(See also: Merger with MGM Pictures (1924))

Lincoln Motion Picture Company (1915-1923)

• Founders
  • George Johnson
  • Noble Johnson

Samuel Goldwyn Studios Corp. (1917)

• Founder
  • Samuel Goldwyn

(See also: Merger with MGM Pictures (1924)

Mabel Normand Studios (1917)

• Founders
  • Amabel Ethelreid Normand (Cody)
• Associated Founder
  • Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett Studios (1917)

• Founders
  • Mack Sennett
  • Adam Kessel
  • Charles O. Bauman

Micheaux Film Corporation (1918–1940)

• Founder/President
  • Oscar Micheaux

Hindustan Cinema Film Company (1918)

• Founders...
  • Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
  • Waman Shridhar Apte
  • Mayashankar Bhatt
  • Gokuldas Damodar
  • Madhavji Jessing

CBC Film Film Sales Corp. (1918)

• Founders
  • Harry Cohn
  • Joe Brandt
  • Jack Cohn

(See also: Re-Organized and Re-Named, Columbia Pictures (1924)

United Artists (1919)

• Founders...
  • Mary Pickford
  • Charles Chaplin
  • Douglas Fairbanks
  • D. W. Griffith

William H. Hart Productions (1919)

• Founders
  • William H. Hart

Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc (1923)

• Founders...
  • Albert Warner
  • Harry Warner
  • Sam Warner
  • Jack Warner

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1924)

• Emerged through the acquisition by Marcus Loew of several companies
• Founders...
  • Loew's Inc (1919)
    • Marcus Loew
  • Metro Pictures (1915)
    • Richard A. Rowland
    • Louis B. Mayer
  • Goldwyn Pictures Corporation (1917)
    • Samuel Goldwyn
    • Edgar Selwyn
    • Archibald Selwyn
  • Louis B. Mayer Pictures (1918)
    • Louis B. Mayer

Columbia Picture (1924)

• Founders
  • Harry Cohn
  • Jack Cohn

California Pictures(1926)

• Founded as an Independent Film Division of The Hughes Tool Company
  • Founder
  • Howard Robart Hughes Jr,
• Co-Founder
  • Preston Stergis

(Late 1940's, Hughes would later take over RKO Radio Pictures in a Control Buyout of the company and studio. See Also: Hughes Broadcasting Productions)

RKO Radio Pictures (1928)

• Founded by Radio Corporation of America (RCA) through the merger of Keith-Albee-Orpheum and Film Booking Offices of America.
• Founders...
  • David Sarnoff
  • Joseph P. Kennedy

Republic Pictures Studios(1933)

A compulation merger of small Short, Serial, and Grade "B" Movie Companies.

Pioneer Pictures Inc. (1933)

• Founders
  • John Hay Whitney
  • Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney

(See also: Merger with Selznick International Pictures (1935)

Normandy-Beacon/Colony Pictures Studio(1934)

• Founders
  • *Arthur Alexander
    • Maxwell Alexander

(Nephews of Carl Laemmle)

Selznick International Pictures (1935)

• Founders
  • David O. Selznick
  • John Hay "Jock" Whitney

20th Century Fox (1935)

• Merger of Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures
• Founders...
  • Fox Film Corporation (1915)
    • William Fox
  • Twentieth Century Pictures (1933)
    • Darryl F. Zanuck
    • Joseph M. Schenck

Grand National Pictures (1936)

• Founder
  • Edward L. Alperson

Vanguard Pictures (1946)

• Founder
  • David O. Selznick

Hughes Broadcasting Corp.(1947*)

Film and Live/Industrial Broadcast Productions

• Founder
  • Howard Robart Hughes Jr.