Film & TV Database

Notes Founded by Thomas A. Edison. Logo consists of a cursive `E'. [Edison website: www.edisonfilm.com] Originally produced the kinetoscope films and in 1893 produced the first films to be copyrighted. The company continued to expand and in April 1896 gave its first public screening of theatrical films. Expansion continued and a new studio was set up in the Bronx, New York in 1908. In September 1908, the company became part of the Motion Pictures Company, an attempt to protect Edison's motion picture patents, which increased the company's success. However, after 1912 success began to wain, partly as a result of the loss of influence of the Motion Pictures Company and partly as a result of Edison's production schedule in not producing longer films relying instead on one reelers. By 1916 the company was in decline and its last production, The Unbeliver, was made in 1918.