Col. William N. Selig, the Man Who Invented Hollywood

9. Exiled from Eden

WILLIAM SELIG REACHED THE PINNACLE OF HIS SUCCESS WITH THE release of The Adventures of Kathlyn and The Spoilers in 1914. The popularity of his jungle-adventure films, which resulted in the construction of one of the world’s largest private zoos and first movie theme park, as well as the international success of the Tom Mix Westerns, all contributed to Selig’s high standing in the motion picture industry during the prewar era. His preeminence was celebrated in innumerable newspaper and magazine articles from the Los Angeles Times to Electrical Review and Western Electrician, whose March 1914 issue offered a detailed examination of Selig’s Chicago studio, which employed more than four hundred people.1 Even at that early date, however, signs of trouble were apparent. Selig’s Chicago plant closed just three months after the March publicity, on June 27, 1914.2 Selig’s many triumphs weren’t profitable enough to compensate for the enormous expense of operating two formidable operations half a continent apart. The official explanation for the closure was that the expanded Los Angeles facilities afforded “better arrangements” beyond the hospitable climate and variegated scenery that originally inspired Selig to establish a studio there.3 In the six years following the opening of Selig’s Los Angeles studio, most of the rest of the American motion picture industry followed suit, with the more successful filmmakers imitating everything from his Western aesthetic to longer, more complex feature films.4 Ironically, Selig would in a sense become a victim of his own success. Under the weight of pressures from both within and without, William Selig’s empire would crumble and fade from the scene. A new generation of filmmakers, inspired by Selig’s success with long feature films, quickly jumped on the bandwagon with financing from New York banks. Try as he might, C H A P T E R 9 Exiled from Eden The Selig Polyscope Company at its apex. Courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences EXILED FROM EDEN ∙ 197 ∙ Selig, like the other self-financed pioneers, couldn’t begin to compete with the resulting spike in production costs. Simultaneously, Selig’s international business became an early casualty of the First World War, and the massive overhead required to operate a privately owned zoo was a crippling drain on his dwindling capital. Col. Selig grappled with the need for economizing even as Kathlyn and The Spoilers were enjoying tremendous success. Months after ushering in a new era in motion pictures with the production of the Kathlyn serial and two-hourlong features, Selig appeared to temper his enthusiasm for the longer format, declaring that a “program offering four or more [one-reel] productions is more apt to please an entire audience than is a program offering a photo-play of four or five reels.” Implicit in his statement was criticism of filmmakers who were padding their productions to the detriment of the stories and the industry in general. Selig noted that only “exceptional” stories and strong casts justified the occasional longer feature.5 His position is understandable given the years of institutional resistance to longer films, as well as his contractual obligation with General Film to supply exhibitors with single- and two-reel films on an almost daily basis. And, of course, lengthy features were much more expensive to produce. One of the reasons General Film was established was to control exhibition by buying the former FSA exchanges in order to exclusively distribute the films of MPPC members; however, Greater New York Film Rental Company president William Fox held out for a higher price. When his exchange license was consequently revoked, Fox filed suit against the MPPC and General Film. A lower court ruled in favor of the MPPC, but the US Department of Justice appealed the decision, charging the MPPC with antitrust violation.6 Three years later, on October 1, 1915, a federal court ruled that the MPPC and General Film were an illegal monopoly and forced them to dismantle.7 By imitating the business and aesthetic practices of Selig and other MPPC members, former nickelodeon operators Adolph Zukor, Carl Laemmle, William Fox, Louis B. Mayer, and the Warner brothers were able to make a successful transition into production . However, each of the second-generation moguls also engaged in rewriting the history of the medium in order to claim the pioneers’ innovations as their own. Perhaps the...