Year

Country

Home

People

Films

Articles

Store

USA

1915

His New Job, Charlie Chaplin’s first film for Essanay undergoes a heavy publicity campaign. [MORE] [ADD]

William Fox’s A Fool There Was is released.   The film’s star is Theodosia Goodman in the guise of Theda Bara.   Goodman is given a completely new past by Fox’s publicity department, who claim she is the daughter of a French father and Arab mother.   Bara becomes famous overnight after (silently) uttering the immortal line, “Kiss me, you fool.” [MORE] [ADD]

William Fox founds the Fox Film Corporation with Winfield Sheehan. [MORE] [ADD]

On the day that Birth of a Nation premieres, D. W. Griffith and Harry Aitken form the Epoch Producing Corporation.   The entire film is shot with one $300 hand-cranked Pathe camera purchased by cinematographer G. W. Bitzer. [MORE] [ADD]

Griffith’s Birth of a Nation is screened at the White House for President Woodrow Wilson.   Wilson’s book, History of the American People is quoted in the film’s intertitles. [MORE] [ADD]

Griffith’s Birth of a Nation goes on general release.   It earns $10 million at the box office, becoming the biggest grossing film in history until 1925. [MORE] [ADD]

In an attempt to avoid the MPPC, Carl Laemmle’s Universal moves to Hollywood and acquire a site which becomes Universal City. [MORE] [ADD]

Chaplin’s film The Tramp is released. [MORE] [ADD]

The State of Massachusetts votes in favour of a censorship board as a direct result of the screening of Birth of a Nation. [MORE] [ADD]

In Boston, black organisations gather 6,000 signatures in a petition asking the Mayor to ban Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. [MORE] [ADD]

Harold Lloyd completes filming of the first of what will be a series of Lonesome Luke comedy shorts for Hal Roach. [MORE] [ADD]

Charlie Chaplin releases Work, his eighth film for Essanay, and continues to assemble a stock company around him.   Edna Purviance plays Chaplin’s female lead, and other actors in Chaplin’s entourage include Ben Turpin, Billy Armstrong and Fred Goodwins. [MORE] [ADD]

Mack Sennett’s Bathing Beauties make their debut. [MORE] [ADD]

Harry Aitken forms Triangle Pictures with D. W. Griffith, Thomas Ince and Mack Sennett.   It is the first attempt in the US to form a vertically integrated film company controlling production, distribution and exhibition of its output. [MORE] [ADD]

J Stuart Blackton’s The Battle Cry of Peace, a film financed by arms manufacturer Hudson Maxim, is the first propaganda film to promote America’s participation in the war. [MORE] [ADD]

Following a ruling against them by the US Supreme Court in Washington in the Sherman anti-trust law hearings, the demise of Edison’s MPPC is assured.   The Court declares the activities of the MPPC's General Film Company illegal and orders the GFC to be dissolved by federal court order.   Member companies have already been distancing themselves from the ailing organisation for some time. [MORE] [ADD]

Opera diva Geraldine Farrar makes her screen debut in Cecil B. DeMille’s Carmen. [MORE] [ADD]

Douglas Fairbanks’ debut film, The Lamb, is released.   Fairbanks plays a wealthy coward who goes to great lengths to overcome his affliction and impress his fiance (Seena Owens).   Fairbanks subsequently signs for D. W. Griffith’s Triangle organisation for a salary of $2,000 per week. [MORE] [ADD]

Cecil B. DeMille’s The Cheat is released to much acclaim.   He shot the film in tandem with the shooting of The Golden Chance, filming one during the day and the other at night.  The Cheat stars Fannie Ward and Sessue Hayakawa. [MORE] [ADD]

– The Supreme Court rules that motion pictures are items of commerce and thus not subject to free-speech protection as ‘part of the press or as organs of public opinion. [MORE] [ADD]

– The National Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures changes its name to the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. [MORE] [ADD]

– Four former members of the MPPC form a new joint distribution company.   It is named VLSE after the initials of the member companies names: Vitagraph, Lubin, Selig and Essanay. [MORE] [ADD]

– H. C. Bullis applies for a patent for a method of recording sound and picture on separate films which run in synchronisation on a single film. [MORE] [ADD]

– Herbert T Kalmus, Daniel Frost Comstock and W Burton Westcott found Technicolour Company.   Their first efforts at creating a colour film employ a two-colour additive process. [MORE] [ADD]

– Richard A. Rowlands and Louis B. Mayer found Metro Pictures. [MORE] [ADD]

– Poet Vachel Lindsay writes “The Art of the Moving Picture,” the first book to treat movies as art.  [MORE] [ADD]

– The Bell & Howell 2709 cine-camera becomes popular with film-makers.   It is the first camera to enable close-up photography without having to move the camera closer to its subject. [MORE] [ADD]

– George and Noble Johnson form the Lincoln Film Corporation, to produce black films in Los Angeles.  [MORE] [ADD]

 Other Films of Note

Alias Jimmy Valentine (Maurice Tourneur) [MORE] [ADD]

The Bank  (Charles Chaplin) [MORE] [ADD]

The Champion (Charles Chaplin) [MORE] [ADD]

The Exploits of Elaine (Louis Gasnier) [MORE] [ADD]

The Pitch o’Chance (Frank Borzage) [MORE] [ADD]

The Warrens of Virginia (Cecil B. DeMille) [MORE] [ADD]