Revisit The Motion Picture Industry Of NYC In The Early 1900s

The first motion picture filmed in Hollywood was a 17-minute short by D. W. Griffith, which was released on March 10th, 1910. The first film by a Hollywood Studio was shot the following year for the Nestor Motion Picture Company, released on October 26th, 1911. This was all years and years after films were produced out of New York—before filmmakers fled from the east coast and its punitive licensing from from the Motion Picture Patents Company, this city had a thriving film production industry. We even had the first Kinetoscope Parlor, located at 1155 Broadway; when it opened in 1894, it was the first time movies were commercially exhibited.

The American Vitagraph Company (at 140 Nassau Street, and later in Midwood), and Edison Studios (41 East 21st St, and later the Bronx) both did well in the city in the early 1900s. These photos, however, show the less revisited Owl Motion Picture Co., Carlton Motion Picture Laboratories, the Mutual Film Company (best known for their Charlie Chaplin comedies), and Empire Film Company—all who had operations out of New York City.

And while many of those first studios have been demolished over the years, the Biograph company's first studio was on the roof of 841 Broadway in Manhattan, and that building still stands today.

The first motion picture to be copyrighted in the U.S. was filmed in Thomas Edison's "Black Maria" studio in New Jersey. You can see the full film, Fred Ott's Sneeze, at the right. And you can check out a collection of New York City's earliest films, shot between 1898 and 1906, right here.