| 1913 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
| January 1 |
British
Board of Film Censors comes into effect and issues U and A certificates, children
being admitted to films bearing the latter when accompanied
by ‘a parent or bona fide adult guardian’. |
History of British film censorship |
| January 1 |
Parcel post introduced in the US, removing a
previous limit of 4lb on the weight of mail items. |
|
| January |
J D Williams Amusement Company joins General Film Company of Australasia (see 1912 November), forming ‘the combine’—the first vertically integrated
film company in the world, combining production and distribution (as Australasia Films) and exhibition
(Union Theatres). |
à Triangle, 1915
à Famous Players, 1919 |
| February 17 |
Reworked version of Edison's Kinetophone sound film system is premiered at 13 cinemas,
four in New York and others across to Chicago and St Louis. The system lasts no more than two years,
during which time about 260 films are made. 0025 |
|
| March |
Stern Family Barn at Vine and Streets in the California farming community of Hollywood is
adapted by J J Burns and Harry Revier into a film studio facility for hiring to
independent producers. First client for the Burns and Revier Studio and Laboratory
is Fred Mace, a comedian formerly employed by Mack Sennett's Keystone company. |
â December 22 |
| April 9 |
Danske Statens Arkiv for Historiske Film og Stemmer (Danish State Archive for Historical
Film and Sound) is established at the Royal Library, Copenhagen—the world’s
first film archive. Its function is to collect records of significant events. |
à 1933 (Swedish Archive) |
| l |
Major European film of the year is Atlantis,
produced in Denmark by August Blom. |
|
| April 21 |
Bioscope Chronicle (Warwick Trading
Co) first uses an aeroplane for filming of a news event: George V leaving on the
Royal Yacht for a visit to Paris. The film was rushed back to Hendon and thence for
processing and was shown at the Coliseum at 5.20pm that day. |
|
| May 13 |
Release of Raja Harishchandra (King
Harishchandra), made by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (1870-1944) and widely regarded as the
first Indian feature film (but see 1912 May 18).
Phalke had been to London to buy film equipment, where he was much helped by Cecil
Hepworth and Mr Cabourne, editor of Bioscope, weekly trade paper. |
|
| May 24 |
An article in Moving Picture World uses the term 'natural history film',
probably for the first time, and a year before the word 'documentary' is applied to film.
0056 |
|
| May 26 |
Actors' Equity Association trades union is formed in New York. |
|
| May |
Members of the Motion Picture
Patent Company ('the Trust') reject the film distribution scheme pioneered in San Francisco
by W W Hodkinson. Hodkinson, who has been trying to persuade
the Trust to adopt the system nationally, resigns and forms Progressive Pictures to act as
a distributor on the US West Coast. |
|
| May |
First British six-reel film, the melodrama East
Lynne produced by Will Barker film studio, is released. |
|
| June 12 |
Pathé Frères releases an animated cartoon, Dachshund. |
|
| July |
Jesse L Lasky begins to organise the Jesse L Lasky Feature Play Company with himself
as president. His brother-in-law Samuel Goldfish is general manager and Cecil B DeMille is designated
'director general'. |
â November 23 |
| July |
A Message from Mars, a four-reel production by United Kingdom Films is
released—the first science-fiction feature film? |
|
| August 26 |
Eugène Lauste
gives a public demonstration of the latest version of his Photocinematophone
sound-on-film system in London. 0025,
0029 |
à 1914 |
| August |
Release of David Copperfield, first
eight-reel film produced in UK, by Hepworth Company at Walton-on-Thames. |
|
| October |
Edison launches his Disc Phonograph, using
hill-and-dale recording technique and signaling the effective end of his cylinder
technology, of which there are well over a million players in use, although he keeps on
releasing cylinders until 1929. |
|
| November 23 |
Jesse L Lasky Feature Play Company is incorporated in New York
with a capital of $50,000. |
â December 20
à 1916 |
| November |
First Finnish feature-length film is Kun Onni Pettää, directed by Konrad Tallroth. |
|
| December 20 |
Jesse L Lasky Feature Play Company arrives at the Alexandra Hotel
in Los Angeles to prepare for production of its first film, The Squaw Man. |
|
| December 22 |
Cecil B DeMille, on behalf of the Lasky Company, takes a lease on the Burns & Revier Studio in Hollywood. The rent is $25 a month. Jesse L Lasky
Feature Play Company thus becomes the first production company to establish a base in Hollywood. |
â December 29 |
| December 29 |
Selig-Polyscope Company releases the first of 13 episodes of The Adventures of
Kathlyn, co-produced with the Chicago Tribune, which also publishes the story in serial form. |
|
| December 29 |
Lasky Company begins production of The Squaw Man,
directed by Cecil B DeMille. |
|
| December |
Release of The Sea-Wolf, first seven-reel movie produced in the US. It is
one of 12 ‘feature’ film (over an hour’s running time) releases made in US during the year. |
|
| l |
Germany is the leading producer of feature films (over one hour) with 49 releases during
the year, followed by Russia 31, Italy 29, UK 18, Denmark 13, US 12, Hungary 11 and Romania 10. (The
French total is not known.) The world total is over 200. |
|
| l |
Patterns of cinema construction in England are patchy. Manchester has 11 cinemas serving
a population of 739,000; Brighton and Hove have 15 cinemas for a population of 176,000. |
 |
| l |
All foreign film activity in Russia is prohibited. |
|
| l |
Some California-based film cameramen form the Static Club of America, naming the
organisation for the static discharge caused by friction between the film and the metal of the camera
gate, especially in cold weather. In New York, three Edison Studio cameramen form the Cinema Camera Club. |
|
| l |
Box Office Attraction Company is formed in New York by William
Fox—the basis for Fox Film Company. |
|
| l |
Gaumont British Instructional Films is formed in the UK. |
|
| l |
In France, Georges Méliès’ Star Film Company is forced into bankruptcy by the strength
of competition from newer styles of film-making. It is bought out of receivership by the Pathé Company. |
|
| l |
London Film Company is formed by exhibitor Dr Ralph Jupp, based at Twickenham Studios
in a former skating rink. It is the largest British film studio to date. |
|
| l |
Nominal capital of Provincial Cinematograph Theatres
is increased to £400,000, the largest of any company in the British film industry. For 544 public
companies in the sector, average capitalisation is £5,400. |
|
| l |
Sunny South Film Company is formed by Will Evans and F L Lyndhurst at Shoreham on the
Sussex coast west of Brighton. The area surrounding the daylight-only studio becomes popular with film
and music hall artistes who build bungalows locally, many constructed from old railway carriages. The
Progress Film Company soon after takes over the studio. |
|
| l |
 The
first ‘movie palace’ cinemas appear in New York. The Regent Cinema [right] is among them. |
|
| l |
Theodore Brown demonstrates his Kinoplasticon system
which projects stereoscopic colour moving pictures with sound at the Scala Theatre, London. The
experiments are funded by Charles Urban. |
|
| l |
‘Irising’, circular masking of the moving picture, is first used by
D W Griffith in The Battle of Elderbush Gulch. |
|
| l |
First dramatic film made in Canada is The Great Unknown, directed by O A C Lund. |
|
| l |
First film made in Bolivia by Luis Castillo. |
|
| l |
First feature-length film made in Belgium is the ironically titled Franco-Belgian
co-production Maudite soit la Guerre (War Be Cursed), directed by Alfred Machin, with a running
time of 82 minutes. |
|
| l |
Guarany Film Company makes first Brazilian feature film, O Crime dos Banhados,
directed by Francisco Santos.
• First in Cuba is El Rey de los Campos de Cuba (The King of the
Cuban Plains), directed by Enrique Diaz Quesada. |
|
| l |
Cuckoo hatchling pushing a reed warbler chick from its nest is filmed for the first time by
Oliver Gregory Pike. 0056 |
|
| l |
Canada’s new Radio Telegraph Act includes radiotelephony (voice transmissions). |
|
| l |
Two complete Beethoven symphonies are released on disc by Odeon in Germany. |
|
| l |
First classified sales chart, based on sales of sheet
music, is published in the American trade paper Billboard. |
|
