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1922

Erich von Stroheim’s Foolish Wives is released.   The director also stars as a grifter posing as a Count opposite Miss Dupont. [MORE] [ADD]

The first of Walt Disney’s Laugh-O-Grams, The Four Musicians of Bremen, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

The body of director William Desmond Taylor is discovered in his apartment.   He has been murdered by a single gunshot.   Police fail to prevent studio executive Charles Eyton from removing evidence from the apartment, and allow onlookers to contaminate the crime scene.  Despite a lengthy investigation, Taylor’s killer is never found. [MORE]

Das Wieb des Pharao (The Loves of Pharaoh), Ernst Lubitsch’s latest film, is released in the States before it is in its native Germany.   The film stars Emil Jannings and Dagny Servaes, who replaces first choice Pola Negri. [MORE] [ADD]

In the face of a number of scandals, the major studios establish a self-regulating censorship board headed by former postmaster-general Will Hays.   The stated aim of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) is to “foster the common interest of those engaged in the industry by establishing and maintaining the highest possible moral and artistic standards in motion picture production by developing the education as well as the entertainment value and general usefulness of the motion picture… and by reforming abuses relative to the industry…” [MORE] [ADD]

Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle is finally acquitted over the homicide of starlet Virginia Rappe after three trials.   The previous two juries were unable to reach a verdict.   The clearing of his name does nothing to resurrect his film career, and he continues to be considered unemployable. [MORE] [ADD]

Bubbles, Dave and Max Fleischer’s seven-minute animated short starring Koko the Clown, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

Rudolph Valentino is arrested on a bigamy charge after marrying costume designer Natasha Rambova.   Valentino divorced his first wife in January.   Their marriage didn’t survive beyond the wedding night and only three months had to pass for the marriage to be annulled.   However, Californian law prohibited Valentino from marrying for a year. [MORE] [ADD]

Joseph Tykocinski-Tycociner, a professor at the University of Illinois, develops a sound-on-film system that plays at speeds of up to 162-feet per minute. [MORE] [ADD]

Robert J. Flaherty’s documentary film Nanook of the North is released. [MORE] [ADD]

Emmett J Flynn’s A Fool There Was, based on the Rudyard Kipling poem and Porter Emerson Browne’s subsequent play, is released.   The film stars Estelle Taylor, Lewis Stone, Irene Rich and Marjorie Daw. [MORE] [ADD]

Robin Hood, Douglas Fairbank’s latest adventure film is released.   Directed by Allan Dwan for United Artists, the film reaches new heights of exuberance and technical wizardry.   Largely financed by the star, the film features gigantic sets built by art director William Buckland at new studios on Santa Monica Boulevard. [MORE] [ADD]

The Audion, a system for synchronising pictures and sound is demonstrated by Western Electric’s Bell Laboratories to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers at Woolsey Hall, Yale University. [MORE] [ADD]

Edward Venturini’s The Headless Horseman is released.   It is the first film to be shot on Panchromatic stock rather than orthochromatic, which rendered blue skies as pale white. [MORE] [ADD]

Despite his acquittal over the homicide of Virginia Rappe in April, a New York Times editorial holds Fatty Arbuckle up as “a symbol of the vices indulged in by the world of cinema.” [MORE] [ADD]

Chester M Franklin’s The Toll of the Sea, the world’s first Technicolor film, premieres at the Rialto Theatre in New York.   Produced by Metro Pictures, the film stars Anna May Wong and Kenneth Harlan. [MORE] [ADD]

Lee DeForest forms the DeForest Phonofilm Corporation to exploit his sound-on-film system. [MORE] [ADD]

– The Mitchell ‘Standard’ film camera is produced. [MORE] [ADD]

– Perfect Pictures produce The Power of Love, the first film to make use of stereoscopy (anaglyphic 3D). [MORE] [ADD]

– Sid Grauman opens Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles.   The first film shown is Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood. [MORE] [ADD]

– The average weekly movie attendance reaches 40 million (1.56 per household). [MORE] [ADD]

– The New York State Court rules that actor’s cannot prevent the re-editing or re-release of films in which they appear. [MORE] [ADD]

– Studios situated in or around Hollywood account for 84% of the country’s total film output. [MORE] [ADD]

– The First National distribution company expands into production and acquires a studio in Burbank, California. [MORE] [ADD]

Other Films of Note

Blood and Sand (Fred Niblo) [MORE] [ADD]

Cops (Buster Keaton) [MORE] [ADD]

Fury (Edmund Goulding) [MORE] [ADD]

Manslaughter (Cecil B. DeMille) [MORE] [ADD]

Orphans of the Storm (D W Griffith) [MORE] [ADD]

Our Gang series (Hal Roach) [MORE] [ADD]

Salome (Charles Bryant) [MORE] [ADD]