Timeline of Influential Milestones and Turning Points in Film History

Timeline of Influential Milestones and Important Turning Points in Film History

1900s

Herein is a detailed timeline of the key film milestones, important turning points, and significant historical dates or events (organized by decade) that have had a significant influence on the world body of cinema and shaped its development. For more detailed accounts of many items, also see this site's extensive narratives on Film History by Decade, Film Milestones in Visual and Special Effects, and a comprehensive History of the Academy Awards.

Index to Timeline of Greatest Film Milestones and Turning Points

(by decade)

Pre-1900s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s
1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

1900s - Part 2

Year	Event and Significance
1906-1908	About 5,000 nickelodeons existed throughout the United States. Many studios were created to keep up with the increased demand for films. In 1907, The Saturday Evening Post reported that daily attendance at nickelodeons exceeded two million. In 1907, the Chicago Daily Tribune denounced nickelodeons as firetraps and tawdry corrupters of children. Nickelodeons spread and numbered between 8,000 to 10,000 by 1908 with 200,000 customers a day, charging five cents for a movie accompanied by a piano.
1907	The first film-makers arrived in Los Angeles. Filmmakers began to realize that the Los Angeles area was a good filming area with a favorable climate and a variety of natural scenery. The first movie was also made in Los Angeles soon afterwards (see 1909). Previously, movies were filmed in New York City and in Fort Lee, NJ.
1907	The first feature-length (90 minutes) film produced in Europe was L'Enfant Prodigue (aka The Prodigal Son) (Fr.), directed by Michel Carré and shot at the French film production company, the Gaumont Film Company.
1907	The Bell and Howell Company, founded by Chicago movie projectionist Donald H. Bell and camera repairman Albert S. Howell, developed a film projection system. Their firm went on to revolutionize motion picture photography and projection equipment.
1907	The first documentary re-creation, Sigmund Lubin's The Unwritten Law (1907) (subtitled "A Thrilling Drama Based on the Thaw-White Tragedy") dramatized the true-life murder -- on June 25, 1906 -- of prominent architect Stanford White by mentally unstable and jealous millionaire husband Harry Kendall Thaw over the affections of showgirl Evelyn Nesbit (who appeared as herself in the one reel film). [Alluring chorine Nesbit would become a brief sensation, and the basis for Richard Fleischer's biopic film The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955), portrayed by Joan Collins, and E.L. Doctorow's musical and film Ragtime (1981), portrayed by an Oscar-nominated Elizabeth McGovern.]
1908	Nine leading film producers or manufacturers (including Biograph that joined forces with Edison) set up the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC), a.k.a. "the Trust." It was an attempt to legally monopolize production in the burgeoning American film industry. Ten producers were granted licenses to use equipment authorized by the Trust, while everyone else was ruled to be running illegal film production operations. The trust formed a subsidiary called the General Film Company in 1910 to use intimidation and violence (with threats of not selling or leasing licensed equipment) against independents or any other distributors who purchased and showed motion pictures from any other company. Kodak agreed to sell film stock only to member companies.
1908	The Adventures of Dollie, the first movie directed by D. W. Griffith (in the same year that he started as a director at American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in New York City), was released and debuted in New York. Griffith would go on to direct 450 one-reel films for Biograph in the next five years, developing many innovative techniques.
1908	The 8-minute UK short film A Visit to the Seaside (aka A Visit to the Seaside at Brighton Beach, England), directed by George Albert Smith, was the first commercially-produced film in natural color - using the revolutionary Kinemacolor process (a two-color additive process) invented by Smith himself. It was first exhibited in 1908, then shown publically in 1909 in London, and later released in the US in late 1910.
1908	The first detective films, the Nick Carter series, were released in France.
1908	The first real horror film, William Selig's 16-minute Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, was premiered in Chicago.
1908	French director Emile Cohl's animated short film Fantasmagorie was considered the first fully animated film. About a minute in length, it consisted solely of simple line drawings (of a clown-like stick figure) that blended, transformed or fluidly morphed from one image into another.
1908	The first film for which a totally-original film score was specifically composed was for the silent film The Assassination of the Duke de Guise (aka L'Assassinat du duc de Guise), by classical composer Camille de Saint-Saëns.
1909	The Selig Polyscope Company established the first permanent film studio in the Los Angeles area, at 1845 Allesandro Street (now Glendale Blvd.) in Edendale [present day Echo Park]. The first dramatic film to be completely made on the West Coast, in Los Angeles, California, was debuted by Selig - In the Sultan's Power, from director Francis Boggs.
1909	The New York Times published its first movie review, a report on D. W. Griffith's Pippa Passes.
1909	The first 'independent' film, arguably, released as the first film from the IMP Company (Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Picture Company), was the one-reel Hiawatha. It was not affiliated with the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) newly-formed in 1908.
1909	There were about 9,000 movie theaters in the United States. The typical film was only a single reel long, or ten- to twelve minutes in length, and the performers were anonymous. Acting in a movie was looked upon as degrading compared with stage acting, so actors were never identified by name.
1909	The New York Times coined the term ‘stars’ for leading movie players.
1909	An American court ruled that unauthorized films infringed on copyrights, in a case over the 1907 film version of Ben-Hur. As a result, film companies began buying screen rights to books and plays.
1909	Comedian Ben Turpin was mentioned in a trade journal, and became the first American film actor to have his name published.
1909	Cameraman Billy Bitzer became the first to film entirely indoors using artificial light.
1907-1914	The Broncho Billy series, with 400 episodes, popularized westerns. Gilbert Anderson became the first cowboy hero and perhaps the first recognizable character in American films. In 1909, Tom Mix made his first western, in Oklahoma.