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

of Science 55 months, buying an exchange here one day and one there the next day. At one stroke it acquired the extensive Gaumont exchange interests in Canada. Soon it had established marketing facilities able to handle big pictures produced practically with no regard for expense. The next step was to strengthen the production end. This was done more quickly and decisively than ever before. David W. Griffith, formerly head producer for the Biograph Company of America, "the Belasco of motion pictures," was put in charge of the producing end of the Reliance studios at a salary said to be more than $100,000 a year. With him he brought many of the Biograph forces, actresses, actors, directors, camera men and scenic artists. Now the Mutual Film Corporation stands on a firm basis, in the producing and the marketing end of the motion picture industry. How the Mutual Film Corporation attained its present prominence in so short a space of time is a matter of much interest. To tell of its remarkable growth involves a short resume of trade conditions in the motion picture business for the last few years. Interlocked closely with the history of the Mutual Film Corporation is the career of its president and guiding genius, Harry Elvin Aitken. Harry E. Aitken, manufacturer and capitalist, was born at Waukesha, Wisconsin, October 4, 1877, son of Elvin Aitken and Sarah Hadfield. His earliest American ancestor was his paternal grandfather, Joseph Aitken, who came in 1840 from England to the United States and settled in Wisconsin. Mr. Aitken was graduated from Carroll College in 1896 and began his business career in 1898 in the land