Editing Edison Studios (section)

==History==
[[File:Edison Studio Bronxbis.jpg|thumb|left|Several films in production at Edison's Bronx studio, {{Circa|1912}}. Seated in the foreground, with his legs crossed, is [[Charles Brabin]]; seated to the rear, with the card "26" under his arm, is [[Harold M. Shaw]].]]
The first production facility was [[Edison's Black Maria]] studio, in [[West Orange, New Jersey]], built in the winter of 1892–93. The second facility, a glass-enclosed rooftop studio built at 41 East 21st Street in [[Manhattan]]'s entertainment district, opened in 1901. In 1907, Edison had new facilities built, on Decatur Avenue and Oliver Place, in the [[Bedford Park, Bronx|Bedford Park]] neighborhood of [[the Bronx]]. 

[[File:Dickson greeting cropped.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[William Kennedy Dickson]], an early [[motion picture]] innovator, film production [[inventor]], and assistant of [[Thomas A. Edison]], eventually left to form the [[Biograph Company]].]]
[[File:Horace Plimpton 001.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Horace G. Plimpton]], an Edison Studios film producer 1909–1915]]
Thomas Edison himself played no direct part in the making of his studios' films, beyond being the owner and appointing [[William Gilmore (Edison Studios)|William Gilmore]] as vice-president and general manager. Edison's assistant [[William Kennedy Dickson]], who supervised the development of Edison's motion picture system, produced the first Edison films intended for public exhibition, 1893–95. After Dickson's departure for the [[American Mutoscope and Biograph Company]] in 1895, he was replaced as director of production by cameraman [[William Heise]], then from 1896 to 1903, by [[James H. White]]. When White left to supervise Edison's European interests in 1903, he was replaced by [[William Markgraf]] (1903–1904), then [[Alex T. Moore]] (1904–1909), and [[Horace G. Plimpton]] (1909–1915).

The first commercially exhibited motion pictures in the United States were from Edison, and premiered at a [[Kinetoscope]] parlor in New York City on April 14, 1894. The program consisted of ten short films, each less than a minute long, of athletes, dancers, and other performers. After competitors began exhibiting films on screens, Edison introduced its own, [[Kinetoscope|Projecting Kinetoscope]], in late 1896.

The earliest productions were brief "actualities", showing everything, from acrobats, to parades, to fire calls. But, competition from French and British story films, in the early 1900s, rapidly changed the market. By 1904, 85% of Edison's sales were from story films.

In December 1908, Edison led the formation of the [[Motion Picture Patents Company]] in an attempt to control the industry and shut out smaller producers.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| url = http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9053965| title = Motion Picture Patents Company| access-date = 2007-04-13| encyclopedia = [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]| publisher = Encyclopædia Britannica Online}}</ref> The "Edison Trust", as it was nicknamed, was made up of Edison, Biograph, [[Essanay Studios]], [[Kalem Company]], [[George Kleine|George Kleine Productions]], [[Lubin Studios]], [[Georges Méliès]], [[Pathé]], [[Selig Polyscope Company|Selig Studios]], and [[Vitagraph Studios]], and dominated distribution through the [[General Film Company]]. The Motion Picture Patents Co. and the General Film Co. were found guilty of [[United States antitrust law|antitrust]] violation in October 1915,<ref>''U.S. v. [[Motion Picture Patents Company]].'', 225 F. 800 (E.D. Pa. Oct. 1, 1915).</ref> and were dissolved.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://edison.rutgers.edu/NamesSearch/glocpage.php3?gloc=CK900&| title = Company Records Series – Motion Picture Patents Company| access-date = 2007-04-13| work = The Thomas A. Edison Papers}}</ref>

The breakup of the Trust by federal courts, under [[monopoly]] laws, and the loss of European markets during [[World War I]], hurt Edison financially. Edison sold its film business, including the Bronx studio, on 30 March 1918, to the [[Lincoln & Parker Film Company]], of [[Massachusetts]].