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2 <^> <^> <^> The Motion Picture Industry
are far greater when expressed in the intangible terms of pleasurable entertainment to millions and millions of people. Twenty years after an event has occurred, it is often an easy thing to point out what should have been done. When confronted with a present-day problem, it is always easier to criticize adversely than it is to meet the situation constructively. Whatever criticisms may be directed toward these pioneers, their achievements both tangible and intangible are too definite and too permanent to be scoffed at. * The first public screen showing ever made of a motion picture occurred on May 21, 1895, when Otway Latham exhibited a film occupying about four minutes of screen time and depicting a prize fight. It was several years later, however, before the real commercial development of the industry began. In 1902, T. L. Tally opened in Los Angeles the first amusement house devoted exclusively to pictures. In 1903, Adolph Zukor began the operation of an arcade in South Union Square in New York City. In 1906, Carl Laemmle opened a show house in Chicago, and William Fox started the operation of a penny arcade and picture show in Brooklyn. By the close of 1906, the new industry was definitely launched as a commercial enterprise.1
In the early stages of its development, the business was dominated by those companies interested primarily in the manufacture and lease or sale of motion picture equipment.2 Once having disposed of the means of displaying a film, the
1 In this survey of the development of the industry, full appreciation must be given to Terry Ramsaye's Million and One Nights (Simon and Schuster, 1926), and to Benjamin B. Hampton's History of the Movies, 1931 (Covici, Friede, Inc.) ; substantial use has also been made of H. C. Hawley's Distribution as a Factor in Commercial Integration in the Motion Picture Industry, a doctoral thesis prepared under the direction of the author of this book in the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. A great wealth of material is also to be found in Federal Trade Commission v. Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, et al., Docket 835.
2 It is an interesting fact that today, after having once succeeded in freeing itself pretty largely from the domination of these outside interests, the motion picture industry again finds itself substantially influenced and in some cases actually controlled by manufacturers and distributors of certain types of equipment.