Table of Contents

Part 1 Introduction Chapter 2 1 Pre-Cinema Chapter 3 2 The Motion Picture Patents Company and the Film Establishment Chapter 4 3 The Independents and a New Establishment Chapter 5 4 The Feature Film Chapter 6 5 Thomas H. Ince Chapter 7 6 D. W. Griffith Chapter 8 7 Sound and Music Chapter 9 8 The Star System Chapter 10 9 The Role of Women Chapter 11 10 New Technologies Chapter 12 11 Genres Chapter 13 12 The Language, Business, and Art of the Film Part 14 General Bibliography Part 15 D. W. Griffith Bibliography Part 16 Thomas H. Ince Bibliography Part 17 Index

About the Author

Anthony Slide has published over fifty pioneering works on film history, among them the first volumes dealing exclusively with early American cinema, the Vitagraph Company, the Fine Arts Company, filmmaking in Ireland, film preservation, and a non-theatrical film. He edits the Scarecrow Filmmakers Series and has produced a series of documentary films on silent screen personalities. In 1990 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by Bowling Green University; Lillian Gish called him "our preeminent historian of the silent film."

Reviews

Slide is a pioneering scholar in this field, and his observations are always informed...this is a must.
*Films In Review*

...a pleasure to read, and is to be strongly recommended as an introduction (indeed probably the standard introduction) to early American cinema, and also for more experienced scholars who might be surprised at what they learn.
*Historical Journal of Film, Radio, & Television*

...a fascinating account.
*Photoplay*

...carefully researched.
*Film Quarterly*

...relieve the general reader of the mist surrounding its subject.
*David Sanjek*

[A] greatly enlarged and extensively rewritten update of Mr. Slide's 1970 edition....Slide is a pioneering scholar in this field, and his observations are always informed. For those who missed his original excursion into the past, this is a must.
*Films In Review*

Cinematically erudite...
*The Daily Telegraph*

...a concise history of the American movie industry before 1920.
*Zentralblatt für Geologie und Paläontologie*

... a diligent and heartfelt excursion into the past...
*The San Francisco Chronicle*

One of the few books on the early cinema well-written enough to make good casual reading...
*Time Out*