100 plus films from Universal Film Companies in 1914
How many films were produced by Universal film companies in 1914? I don't know. However, there were at least 80. The company publication "The Universal Weekly" published adverts with scenes from its 2-reelers and, on Ebay, the last count was more than 80 separate titles.
Do any of these films exist to-day? The odds are that not one of them is around, although the Dawson stash may match up with some of them.
We know there are other Universal films (some more than 2 reels) that are not in this bunch of 80. For instance: By Radium's Rays, By The Sun's Rays, Damon and Pythias, Diplomatic Flo, Discord and Harmony, Into the Wilderness, Aurora of the North, A Daughter of the Redskins, One of the Bravest, Richelieu, Robinson Crusoe, The Cabellero's Way, The Heart of the Hills, The Hopes of Blind Alley, The Lamb The Woman The Wolf, The Oath of Conchita, The Oubliette, The Spirit of the Flag, The Tragedy of Whispering Creek and Traffic in Souls. For these other titles I do have poster, lobby card or advert images. Many of these images I have accumulated because they were movies in which Lon Chaney was a cast member.
So at least 100 films can be documented with images even if they may not exist (By the Sun's Rays does exist but it may be the only one).
What interests me about Universal is that it was not one company but an amalgamation of several companies: Rex, 101 Bison, Victor and others. There were actors who would appear with one company for a while then switch, fairly effortlessly, into another company under the Universal banner. I do not quite know how this all worked out, but my initial theory is that Universal was similar to The Edison Trust, a group of companies which formed agreements between each other and with the umbrella company to market and distribute in a cooperative way. Universal was a film "exchange."
what fascinates me is that Universal was truly a rebel: creating, marketing and showing films using Edison cameras and projectors (or machines manufactured which used features patented by Edison). Edison believed no one had the right to do this unless they were part of The Edison Trust, while Carl Laemmle defended the right of anyone to make motion pictures and exhibit them. He did so financially, legally, and physically and in the end won out.
There were others, like Fox, which also stood up to the Edison Trust, but none so vociferously and powerfully as Universal. When "Uncle Carl" spoke, he stood up for a bunch of small companies and bevies of actors, directors, producers, set designers, film editors, photographers and costumers.
Do any of these films exist to-day? The odds are that not one of them is around, although the Dawson stash may match up with some of them.
We know there are other Universal films (some more than 2 reels) that are not in this bunch of 80. For instance: By Radium's Rays, By The Sun's Rays, Damon and Pythias, Diplomatic Flo, Discord and Harmony, Into the Wilderness, Aurora of the North, A Daughter of the Redskins, One of the Bravest, Richelieu, Robinson Crusoe, The Cabellero's Way, The Heart of the Hills, The Hopes of Blind Alley, The Lamb The Woman The Wolf, The Oath of Conchita, The Oubliette, The Spirit of the Flag, The Tragedy of Whispering Creek and Traffic in Souls. For these other titles I do have poster, lobby card or advert images. Many of these images I have accumulated because they were movies in which Lon Chaney was a cast member.
So at least 100 films can be documented with images even if they may not exist (By the Sun's Rays does exist but it may be the only one).
What interests me about Universal is that it was not one company but an amalgamation of several companies: Rex, 101 Bison, Victor and others. There were actors who would appear with one company for a while then switch, fairly effortlessly, into another company under the Universal banner. I do not quite know how this all worked out, but my initial theory is that Universal was similar to The Edison Trust, a group of companies which formed agreements between each other and with the umbrella company to market and distribute in a cooperative way. Universal was a film "exchange."
what fascinates me is that Universal was truly a rebel: creating, marketing and showing films using Edison cameras and projectors (or machines manufactured which used features patented by Edison). Edison believed no one had the right to do this unless they were part of The Edison Trust, while Carl Laemmle defended the right of anyone to make motion pictures and exhibit them. He did so financially, legally, and physically and in the end won out.
There were others, like Fox, which also stood up to the Edison Trust, but none so vociferously and powerfully as Universal. When "Uncle Carl" spoke, he stood up for a bunch of small companies and bevies of actors, directors, producers, set designers, film editors, photographers and costumers.