The theatre of science; a volume of progress and achievement in the motion picture industry (1914)

42 Cbe Cljeatte same time starting more lawsuits, resulting in bringing him back into the field on a large scale. At the present time, besides being a large holder of Universal stock, Horsley is the head of the Centaur Film Co., director of the Interstate Film Co., also of the New England and Universal Film Exchanges ; is President of the Washington Paramount Film Co., and director of the Bank of South Hudson, Bayonne, N. J. One of the film pioneers to make his impress first in the West was John J. Murdock, whose achievements in vaudeville have already been recorded in this series of volumes. Murdock exerted the main influence in the organization of the "independents." It must be understood that in the period from 1896 to 1902 the manufacturers of film in this country were the Vitagraph, Edison and Biograph companies, later augmented by W. N. Selig and George K. Spoor, the last two operating from Chicago. Mr. Spoor afterv/ard was joined by Gilbert M. Anderson, the company being called the S and A (Essanay). Murdock being in Chicago in practical control of vaudeville and affiliated with the Keith and Kohl interests which operated the majority of the best vaudeville theatres, was looked to by his associates for some remedy to existing conditions. These were the days of guerilla warfare, and the duper was in his glory. Subjects were no sooner filmed than they were immediately duplicated. The vaudeville managers having learned the lesson of discipline and organization, authorized Murdock to go as far as he liked with a view to establishing an impregnable competition; but it was 1906 before it became apparent to thinking minds that something should be undertaken seriously. It was from this state of affairs and the gradual decline of public