June 16, 1916: The merger of Famous Players and Jesse Lasky Feature Play Co. brings together Lasky, Adolph Zukor and Samuel Goldfish (Goldwyn). June 11, 1922: The “father of the documentary film,” Robert Flaherty, releases his greatest achievement, Nanook of…
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This Week In Film History, 05.27.12
June 2, 1916: Victor Schertzinger composes the first original film score for an American feature, Thomas H. Ince‘s Civilization. May 28, 1935: Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Film Corporation unite to form 20th Century Fox, overseen by Joseph Schenck and…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 05.20.12
May 21, 1942: For the first time, James Cagney attends the premiere of one of his films: the patriotic song-and-dance extravaganza Yankee Doodle Dandy. May 24, 1946: Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce have their final bow as Sherlock Holmes and…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 05.13.12
May 15, 1900: The Lumiere brothers dazzle audiences at the Paris World’s Fair with films projected onto an enormous 82′ x 49′ wide screen. May 17, 1912: Carl Laemmle oversees the merger of a number of independent production companies to…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 05.06.12
May 10, 1912: The screen’s earliest romantic pairing, Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne, first gaze into each other’s eyes in The House of Pride. May 11, 1927: The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is founded. There are…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 04.29.12
May 5, 1903: The film world first mines the riches of the literary world with Edwin S. Porter‘s version of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. May 4, 1934: With a show-stopping performance of “Baby Take a Bow” in Fox’s…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 04.22.12
April 24, 1913: With The Bangville Police, the Keystone Kops arrive on scene. Though they’ll last only a few years, they’ll become synonymous with Mack Sennett‘s studio. April 27, 1930: From Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, Lewis Milestone films All Quiet…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 04.15.12
April 20, 1903: A judgment on appeal in Edison v. Lubin allows a film to be copyrighted in its entirety, rather than each individual frame. April 20, 1909: Broadway star Mary Pickford signs to appear in films for director D.W….
Read more →This Week In Film History, 04.08.12
April 12, 1911: Cartoonist Winsor McCay brings his popular Little Nemo in Slumberland characters to animated life in Little Nemo and the Princess. April 10, 1915: The controversy over D.W. Griffith‘s portrayal of blacks in The Birth of a Nation…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 04.01.12
April 1, 1923: Moviegoers are thrilled by the death-defying, high-rise antics of comedian Harold Lloyd in Safety Last. April 7, 1927: Upon the centenary of the military leader’s death, director Abel Gance releases an epic achievement, the landmark Napoleon. April…
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