Matinees On Main Street: A Movie History Podcast

A look at D.W. Griffith's early work at Biograph Studios.

In the shadow of Florence Lawrence's success at Biograph, another young actress appeared - MAry Pickford. This is her early story.

Not very long after the studios started hiring actors on a permanent basis, on of those actors suddenly became popular - The Biograph Girl.

The attempt to organize the founding fathers of the movie industry into a Patent Trust soon led to the appearance of the first independent film companies that would have nothing to do with the Trust companies. This was the beginning of the Patent War.

The Do-Gooders start to leverage their power over the movies taking advantage of the political chaos in the movie industry.

The growing atraction of the movies grabbed the attention of America's power structure, not just the money men, but the moralists who were of two minds concerning the movies. On this episode we look at who they were.

The Patent Trust was now completely organized, so they set out to force the film distributors and movie exhibitors to operate according to rules devised by the Trust. Good luck!

After a year of political gamesmanship, the two different patent groups, one headed by Edison Company, and the other headed by the Biograph Company, merged to create the official Patent Trust.

A glance at some of the movies from 1908.

At the bginning of 1908, Biograph Company was on hard times. Then they hired D. W. Griffith, and everything changed.