Free The Oxford History of World Cinema by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith Page A

one film company.
    US producers faced strong competition from European product within their own country
    for, despite the proliferation of relatively successful motion picture manufacturers during
    the transitional years, a high percentage of films screened in the USA still originated in
    Europe. Pathé opened a US office in 1904, and by 1907 other foreign firms, British and
    Italian among them, were entering the US market on a regular basis. Many of these
    distributed their product through the Kleine Optical Company, the major importer of
    foreign films into the United States during these years and a company that played a
    prominent role in the transition to the longer feature film. In 1907 French firms,
    particularly Pathé, controlled the American market, sharing it with other European
    countries: of the 1,200 films released in the United States that year only about 400 were
    domestic. The American film industry took note of this, and the trade press, established in
    this year with Moving Picture World, often complained about the inferior quality of the
    imports, criticizing films that dealt with contemporary topics for their narrative
    incomprehensibility and, worse yet, un-American morals.

    Pathé Frères' glass-topped studio at Vincennes, in 1906
    Paradoxically, an earlier move to rationalize film distribution had resulted in a
    maximization of profits, and as a result US manufacturers initially concentrated on the
    domestic market. However, during these years they began a campaign of international
    expansion that resulted in their being well placed to step into the number one position in
    1914, when European film industries were reeling from the effects of the outbreak of war.
    In 1907 Vitagraph became the first of the major US firms to establish overseas
    distribution offices, and in 1909 other American producers established agencies in
    London, which remained the European centre for American distribution until 1916. As a
    result the British industry tended to concentrate on distribution and exhibition rather than
    production, conceding American dominance in this area. American films constituted at
    least half of those shown in Britain with Italian and French imports making up a
    substantial portion of the rest. Germany, which also lacked a wellestablished industry of
    its own, was the second most profitable market for American films. In the pre-war years,
    however, American firms lacked the strength to compete with the powerful French and
    Italian industries in their own countries. American films were distributed outside Europe,
    but often not to the financial benefit of the production studios, who granted their British
    distributors the rights not only to the British Isles and some Continental countries but to
    British colonies as well.
    During this period American film production took place mainly on the east coast, with an
    outpost or two in Chicago and some companies making occasional forays to the west
    coast and even to foreign locations. New York City was the headquarters of three of the
    most important American companies: Edison had a studio in the Bronx, Vitagraph in
    Brooklyn, and Biograph in the heart of the Manhattan show-business district on
    Fourteenth Street. Other companies -- Solax and American Pathé among them -- had
    studios across the Hudson in Fort Lee, New Jersey, which also served as a prime location
    for many of the New York based companies. The Great Train Robbery ( Edison, 1903)
    was only one of the many ' Jersey' Westerns shot in the vicinity. So over-used were certain
    settings that a contemporary anecdote claimed that two companies once shot on either
    side of a Fort Lee fence, sharing the same gate. Chicago served as headquarters for the
    Selig and Essanay studios and for George Kleine's distribution company. Many studios
    sent companies to California during the winter to take advantage of the superior locations
    and shooting conditions, and Selig established a permanent studio there as