Edison Studios

Edison Studios

Company type	Film production company
Industry	Film industry
Predecessor	Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911)
Founded	1894 (1894)
Defunct	March 30, 1918 (1918-03-30)
Successor	Lincoln & Parker Film Company
Headquarters	West Orange, New Jersey; later Manhattan, New York City; then Bronx, New York City , United States
Key people	Thomas Edison (owner), William Gilmore (vice-president and general manager), William Kennedy Dickson, William Heise, James H. White, William Markgraf, Alex T. Moore, Horace G. Plimpton
Products	Films (feature-length and short films)

Edison Studios was a film production enterprise in the United States, owned by organizations under the control of inventor and businessman Thomas Edison. Functioning from 1894 until 1918, initially as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and subsequently under Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (1911–1918), the studio created close to 1,200 films. Their output included 54 feature-length movies alongside numerous short films. Since all these productions were released prior to 1928, they have entered the public domain.

History

The inaugural production site for Edison was the Black Maria studio located in West Orange, New Jersey, which was established between 1892 and 1893. By 1901, a new rooftop studio with glass walls was launched at 41 East 21st Street within Manhattan’s entertainment district. In 1907, Edison shifted its production activities to fresh premises on Decatur Avenue and Oliver Place in the Bedford Park area of the Bronx.

Thomas Edison did not engage personally in film-making but designated William Gilmore as vice-president and general manager. The pioneering filmmaker William Kennedy Dickson was responsible for producing the initial Edison films shown publicly from 1893 to 1895 before departing to found the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. Subsequent leaders in production included cameraman William Heise, then James H. White (1896–1903), followed by William Markgraf, Alex T. Moore, and Horace G. Plimpton up until 1915.

Edison debuted the first commercially screened motion pictures in America at a Kinetoscope parlor in New York City on April 14, 1894, showcasing brief films featuring athletes and entertainers. Confronted with competition from French and British narrative films, Edison introduced its Projecting Kinetoscope towards the end of 1896. By 1904, narrative films made up approximately 85% of Edison's sales.

In December 1908, Edison led the creation of the Motion Picture Patents Company—known as the "Edison Trust"—aimed at consolidating control over the industry and excluding smaller producers. The Trust comprised leading studios like Biograph, Essanay, Kalem, Lubin, Pathé, Selig, and Vitagraph, with distribution managed through the General Film Company. In October 1915, federal courts ruled against the Trust for antitrust violations, resulting in its dismantling.

The dissolution of the Trust combined with the loss of European markets during World War I caused significant financial difficulties for Edison. On March 30, 1918, Edison divested its film division—including its Bronx studio—to Lincoln & Parker Film Company based in Massachusetts.

Notable productions

Among Edison Studios’ significant works are The Kiss (1896); The Great Train Robbery (1903); Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1910); and Frankenstein (1910), which represents the earliest cinematic adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. Additional prominent titles include The Battle of Trafalgar (1911); What Happened to Mary (1912), an early example of a film serial; and The Land Beyond the Sunset (1912), directed by Harold M. Shaw, which historian William K. Everson described as "'the screen's first genuinely lyrical film'". The studio also produced short "Kinetophone" sound films from 1913 to 1914 utilizing an advanced acoustic system capable of recording sound from a distance of thirty feet. In 1915, Edison released animated films by Raoul Barré, and produced the first cinematic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped in 1917.

Legacy

William K. Everson characterized Edison Studios as "commercially prosperous yet lacking artistic ambition," pointing out that apart from directors like Edwin S. Porter and John Hancock Collins,

[T]he Edison studios failed to produce a director of significant renown or even one surpassing mediocrity. Unlike the year-over-year evolution evident in Biograph productions, Edison’s films give an impression of stagnation rather than dynamic advancement.

However, recent film restorations have begun to contest this perspective. For instance, The Land Beyond the Sunset, directed by Harold M. Shaw, showcases Edison’s inventive capabilities beyond the works of Porter and Collins. Shaw enjoyed a distinguished directing career internationally before his return to the United States in 1922. Additionally, several noteworthy filmmakers initiated their careers at Edison, including Oscar Apfel, Charles Brabin, Alan Crosland, J. Searle Dawley, and Edward H. Griffith.

See also

• it:Filmografia della Edison Filmography of Edison Studios

External links

• EdisonStudios.net (features a viewable 1910 Edison Studios version of "Frankenstein")
• Vernon K. Flaherty and R. Brian Flaherty collection at Library and Archives Canada, containing twenty documentary and fiction films produced by Thomas Edison.