Promotional Information

Refuting virtually every previous account of the founding and development of the American motion picture industry, this entertaining biography pays tribute to a pioneer whose many innovations helped to create Hollywood as we know it today

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: The Forgotten Pioneer
• 1. The Birth of a Motion Picture Company
• 2. Making Westerns in the West
• 3. The Creation of the Movie Cowboy
• 4. Selig in Eden: The Genesis of Movies in Los Angeles
• 5. Selig's Cinematic Jungles and Zoo
• 6. Leading the World
• 7. Actualities, Expeditions, and Newsreels
• 8. The Development of the Feature Film
• 9. Exiled from Eden
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Suggested Reading and Selected Selig Filmography
• Index

About the Author

Andrew A. Erish teaches film history and aesthetics at Chapman University and is a guest lecturer at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center.

Reviews

"This may well be the film book of the year, simply because it so effectively documents the life and career of one of the least known though most seminal figures in all of film history." - Huffington Post