Musser takes us into the long-forgotten world of early cinema--unexpectedly sophisticated and yet radically different from current movie-making. Focusing on Edwin S. Porter, most often remembered as the producer of The Great Train Robbery, Musser situates Porter's achievements within the vibrant context of turn-of-the-century popular culture and the commercial pragmatics of the Edison Manufacturing Company--the leading American film-producing entity from 1894 to 1908.

"The most important book on early American cinema yet to appear. At once a compelling biography and a fundamentally new view of a major cultural phenomenon, it offers fresh perspectives on the development of twentieth-century American society."--Robert Sklar, author of Movie-Made America

INTRODUCTION
The first fifteen years of commercial motion pictures were extraordinary: film practices and the films not only differed fundamentally from today's counterparts but also underwent an unparalleled series of changes. During this formative period, Edwin S. Porter emerged as America's foremost filmmaker.

Although many books have been written on D. W. Griffith, John Ford, and Orson Welles, not one has been published on the creator of The Great Train Robbery . This study is both a biography of the filmmaker Edwin S. Porter and an industrial history of the Edison Manufacturing Company from the beginning of commercial motion pictures through 1909—roughly until the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Company.

This double focus is appropriate, for Porter and the Edison Company were associated in one form or another from the spring of 1896, when Porter entered the motion picture industry with a group that owned rights to "Edison's Vitascope," until 1909, when he left Edison's employ. In the interim, he worked for the Edison-licensed Eden Musee and then joined the Edison Manufacturing Company in late 1900. ...

Read Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company Online

Paperback: 591 pages
Author: Charles Musser
Publisher: University of California Press (May 14, 1991)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0520069862
ISBN-13: 978-0520069862

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgments
1  Introduction
2  Porter's Early Years. 1870-1896
3  Edison and the Kinetoscope: 1888-1895
4  Cinema, a Screen Novelty: 1895-1897
5  Producer and Exhibitor as Co-Creators: 1897-1900
6  The Production Company Assumes Greater Control: 1900-1902
7  A Close Look at Life of an American Fireman: 1902-1903
8  Story Films Become the Dominant Product: 1903-1904
9  Articulating an Old-Middle-Class Ideology: 1904-1905
10  Elaborating on the Established Mode of Representation: 1905-1907
11  As Cinema Becomes Mass Entertainment, Porter Resists: 1907-1908
12  Edison Lets Porter Go: 1908-1909
13  Postscript
Appendix A  Edison Manufacturing Company Statements of Profit and Loss: 1893-1911
Appendix B  Kleine Optical Company Accounts
Appendix C  Credits and Key To Quotations in the Documentary Film Before the Nickelodeon: the Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
Notes
List of Abbreviations and Primary Sources
Credits for Illustrations
Subject and Name Index
Film Title Index

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Comment

smaller | bigger

Add Comment