_(IA_movingpicturenew04unse)_(page_1152_crop).jpg){kind=logo} | |
| Founded | March 12, 1909; 116 years ago (1909-03-12) United States |
|---|---|
| Founder | Carl Laemmle |
| Defunct | April 30, 1912; 113 years ago (1912-04-30) |
| Fate | Folded intoUniversal Pictures |
The Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP) was amotion picture studio andproduction company founded in 1909 byCarl Laemmle. The company was based inNew York City, with production facilities inFort Lee, New Jersey. In 1912, IMP merged with several other production companies to formUniversal Film Manufacturing Company, later renamedUniversal Pictures Company with Laemmle as president.
The Independent Moving Pictures Company was founded in 1909 byCarl Laemmle and was located at 573 11th AveNew York City, with a studio inFort Lee, New Jersey.[1]
The first movie produced by IMP wasHiawatha (1909) starringGladys Hulette, a one-reeldramashort based on the 1855poemThe Song of Hiawatha byHenry Wadsworth Longfellow.[2] At a time when leading screen players worked anonymously, IMP performersFlorence Lawrence, formerly known as "The Biograph Girl," andKing Baggot became the first "movie stars" to be givenbilling andscreen credits, amarquee as well aspromotion inadvertising, which contributed to the creation of thestar system.
In the early 20th century, theMotion Picture Patents Company, or the Trust, was fought by the unlicensedindependent films (dubbed "pirates" or "outlaws"), led by Laemmle. Others against the MPPC includedHarry E. Aitken (Majestic Films),William Fox (founder of theFox Film Corporation), andAdolph Zukor (Famous Players Film Company, a precursor toParamount). The flexible, stealthy and adventurous independents avoided coercive MPPC restrictions (the requirement to use only Trust film stock and projectors, for example) by using unlicensed equipment, obtaining their own film materials, and making movies on the sly. After many of the independents, including IMP, organized their distribution subsidiaries into theMotion Picture Distributing and Sales Company in mid-1910, with Laemmle as their president, the Trust issued an injunction against Laemmle for the camera being used, claiming that it was an infringement on their patents,[3] but eventually lost.
Before long, the independents began moving toSouthern California, and opened up a West Coast movie-making industry. In 1910, IMP began production in Los Angeles, and had a studio inHollywood atSunset Boulevard andGower Street, which became known as "Gower Gulch" due to the actors dressed as cowboys and Indians waiting on that corner to be cast inWesterns.
By May 1912, the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company began to collapse, its supporting production companies removing their distribution needs to other companies or under their own direction. On June 10, 1912, the assets of Independent Moving Pictures were transferred to the newly incorporatedUniversal Film Manufacturing Company, which undertook to distribute for several of the departing Sales Company producers in continued opposition to the Edison trust. IMP was corporately dissolved but its name continued to be used as a brand name for Laemmle's productions.[4]
In 1913, Jack Cohn was put in charge of production at IMP's studio at Tenth Avenue and 59th Street, and he and his brother,Harry Cohn, made their first film,Traffic in Souls. In 1918 the Cohns and another IMP employee,Joe Brandt, left to formCohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation which later becameColumbia Pictures.[5]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
