| 1915 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
| January 19 |
Neon-tube advertising sign is patented in
France by Georges Claude (see 1911 November 9) |
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| January 25 |
First US transcontinental telephone call is
made between Alexander Graham Bell in New York and Dr Thomas A Watson in San Francisco. |
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| February 1 |
Fox Film Company is founded in New York by William Fox for production,
distribution and exhibition. It moved to Hollywood two years later. |
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| February 8 |
D W Griffith’s 12-reel production of The Birth of a Nation, based on
Thomas Dixon's pro-Ku Klux Klan novel The Clansman, is premiered in Los Angeles. It is shot entirely with a single
hand-cranked Pathé camera bought by cinematographer Billy Bitzer for $300 and equipped with two
interchangeable screw-in lenses. (Cranking is done in waltz time.) |
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| February 18 |
 D W Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation is screened at the White House for
President Woodrow Wilson, whose book History of the American People
is quoted in the film's intertitles. |
 Woodrow
Wilson quotation |
| March 3 |
D W Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation goes on release in the USA.
It becomes the biggest grossing film in history until 1925,.earning $10m at
the box office. |
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| March 14 |
First issue of the Sunday Pictorial newspaper in the UK, making extensive use
of photography. |
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| March 15 |
Divisional Court of Appeal decides that English local authorities do have the right to
ban cinema exhibition on Sundays (Ellis v North Metropolitan Theatres Ltd). |
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| April 11 |
Charlie Chaplin’s classic two-reel comedy The Tramp is released in the USA. |
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| September 30 |
A memorandum from David Sarnoff,
contracts manager, to Edward J Nally, vice-president and general manager of the Marconi
Wireless Telegraph Company of America, proposes the idea of a ‘Radio Music Box’
as a multi-frequency radio receiver that would become a ‘household utility’. |
Sarnoff's letter |
| October 21 |
American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) and Western Electric Company broadcast
music and speech from Arlington, Virginia, USA to Eiffel Tower, Paris, France. |
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| December |
Creole trumpet player Freddie
Keppard and his Original Creole Orchestra refuse to record for the Victor Talking Machine
Company because it would involve a recording test that Keppard regarded as a
free audition, thereby missing the chance to record the
first 'jazz' record |
|
| l |
In Mutual Film Corporation v. Ohio, the US Supreme Court rules that films are
only items of commerce and thus not subject to free-speech protection. |
Decision reversed 1952 |
| l |
Triangle Films is the first attempt to form a vertically integrated film
production/distribution/exhibition company in the US; it does not survive |
See also 1913 January and
1919 |
| l |
M Kashii Film acquires Pathé’s interests in Japan. |
|
| l |
Exclusive terms are offered for 600 British
films, as the total output falls to 5,390, including series, newsreels and shorts. |
|
| l |
In US, National Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures changes
its name to National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. |
|
| l |
The activities of the Motion Picture Patent Company and the General Film Company,
its distribution subsidiary, are declared illegal under the Sherman anti-trust
law and the GFC is dissolved by federal court order. |
US anti-trust enforcement delays |
| l |
Four members of the Motion Picture Patent Company (MPPC) form
a new joint distribution company, VLSE, comprising Vitagraph, Lubin,
Selig and Essanay. |
|
| l |
Kinematograph Renters Society (KRS) is founded in the
UK to represent the interests of film distributors. |
|
| l |
Film Company of Ireland is
founded by James Mark Sullivan, a lawyer, journalist and diplomat. He and his
collaborators are sentenced to death by the British but survive. |
See also 1918 |
| l |
Enlarged Lime Grove Studios open at Shepherds Bush,
west London. A C & R C Bromhead had operated a small studio on the site since the
earliest years of the century. |
|
| l |
Film studio at Alexandra Palace, north London is destroyed by fire. |
See also 1936 November 21 |
| l |
First film to include a nude scene—Daughter of the Gods, featuring
Annette Kellerman—is produced by Fox on location at St Augusta, Jamaica. |
|
| l |
First feature-length films made in
• Argentina: Nobleza Gaucha, directed by Humberto Cairo and Una
Noche de Garufa, directed by José Ferreyra;
• Bulgaria: Balgaran e Galant (The Bulgar is a Gentleman),
directed by and starring Vassil Gendov, a remake of his 1910 short. |
|
| l |
Death of Narayanrao Peshwa, directed by Shree Nath Patankar, is the first
historical Indian film drama. This year Patankar also makes the first Indian film with an
actress (Narmada Mane) in a female role, Jaimini (Passion v Learning). |
See also 1918 |
| l |
Patent application for a method of recording sound
and picture on separate films is filed in the US by H C Bullis. The two films run in sync
on a single machine; synchronising light pulses recorded on each film enable
matching of sound and picture. |
The patent (US 1,335,651) is granted in 1920. |
| l |
McKenna Duties impose import duty on ‘luxury’
imports to the UK, including cinema films. |
|
| l |
Universal Pictures moves to Hollywood, acquiring a site
that becomes Universal City (the only US city to consist of a film studio), to escape from
the New York-based Motion Picture Patents Company, which wishes to preserve
its monopoly. |
|
| l |
Technicolor Company is founded by Herbert T Kalmus, Daniel Frost Comstock
and W Burton Westcott. The name is derived from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where
Kalmus was educated. First attempts to create a colour film explore a two-colour additive process. |
See 1919 |
| l |
John Logie Baird, living at Yoker in Glasgow, achieves
limited success with television experiments. |
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| l |
In Italy, author and dramatist Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) publishes Shoot! The Notebooks
of Serafino Gubbio, Cinematograph Operator, thought to be the first novel set in the film industry. |
|
| l |
Daily Express newspaper goes into receivership, with Max Aitken as receiver. |
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