Before the Nickelodeon
  Foreword
  Acknowledgments

 collapse section1  Introduction
 •Modes of Production and Representation
 •Subject Matter and Ideology
 •Commercial Methods
 collapse section2  Porter's Early Years. 1870-1896
 •The Porter Family
 •Porter and Connellsville's Cultural Life
 •Porter and Technological Innovation
 collapse section3  Edison and the Kinetoscope: 1888-1895
 •Preparations
 •Initial Film Production
 •Exploitation of the Kinetoscope
 •Continued Film Production
 collapse section4  Cinema, a Screen Novelty: 1895-1897
 •The Vitaseope's Premiere
 •Producing Films for the Vitascope
 •The Vitascope Group
 •The Connellsville Entrepreneurs Acquire States Rights
 •Rival Novelties: the San Francisco Opening of the Vitascope
 •Porter Joins His Connellsville Friends in Los Angeles
 •The Vitascope Faces Increasing Difficulties
 •Indiana
 •The Vitascope Company in Disarray
 •The Edison Manufacturing Company Breaks Away from Raft & Gammon
 •Edwin Porter, Itinerant Exhibitor
 collapse section5  Producer and Exhibitor as Co-Creators: 1897-1900
 •The Peripatetic James White and Edison Film Production
 •Edison On the Legal Offensive
 •The Eden Musee
 •Porter Operates and Builds Projectors
 •The Eden Musee Moves Into Production—The Passion Play
 •The Spanish-American War
 •Porter and the Eden Musee After the War
 •The Edison Manufacturing Company and Its Licensees
 •James White and the Kinetograph Department
 •The Edison Manufacturing Company Reaches its Commercial Nadir
 collapse section6  The Production Company Assumes Greater Control: 1900-1902
 •Porter Becomes an Edison Employee
 •The Cinema as a Visual Newspaper
 •Editorial Strategies
 •Spring 1901
 •Edison Attains a Virtual Monopoly
 •Mckinley Pictures
 •Edison's Conservative Business Strategy
 •Defeated in the Courts, Edison Faces Renewed Competition
 •"Telling a Story in Continuity Form"
 collapse section7  A Close Look at Life of an American Fireman: 1902-1903
 •Representational Practices in Life of an American Fireman
 •Life of an American Fireman in Film History
 collapse section8  Story Films Become the Dominant Product: 1903-1904
 •Disruptions
 •Production Resumes at Edison
 •Uncle Tom's Cabin
 •Summer Fun
 •The Great Train Robbery
 •The Chase
 •The Railway Subgenre: Spectator as Passenger
 •Another Change in Personnel
 •The Russo-Japanese War
 •Dupes, Remakes, Copycatting, and Cheap Productions
 •The French Threat: Pathé Enters the American Market
 •George Kleine and the Edison Company Go Separate Ways
 •Edison Versus Biograph: the Remaking of Personal
 •The Legacy of Exhibitor-Dominated Cinema
 •Parsifal
 collapse section9  Articulating an Old-Middle-Class Ideology: 1904-1905
 •American Themes and Values: Family and Society
 •The Country and the City
 •Society and Its Outcasts
 •The Edison Comedies
 •Actualities and Short Subjects
 collapse section10  Elaborating on the Established Mode of Representation: 1905-1907
 •A Transformation in the Realm of Exhibition
 •Edison Benefits from the Nickelodeon Craze
 •Production Practices at Edison
 •The Issue of Narrative Clarity—Audience Familiarity
 •Self-Sufficient Narratives and Intratextual Redundancy
 •Complex Narratives
 •Robert K. Bonine and the Production of Actualities: 1906-1907
 collapse section11  As Cinema Becomes Mass Entertainment, Porter Resists: 1907-1908
 •The End of the Nickelodeon Frontier
 •The Formation of the Association of Edison Licensees and the Film Service Association
 •The Biograph Association of Licensees
 •The Edison Manufacturing Company Opens Its Bronx Studio
 •Narrative Clarity: 1907-1909
 •The Lecture
 •"Talking Pictures"
 •Intertitles
 •A Rigorous Linear Temporality
 •Edison Features: 1907-1908
 •The Kinetograph Department Forms Two Production Units
 •Cinema and Society
 collapse section12  Edison Lets Porter Go: 1908-1909
 •Edison and Biograph Begin To Negotiate
 •Motion Picture Patents Company Agreements
 •Commercial Warfare Within a New Framework
 •The Porter/Edison Films in Disfavor
 •Porter Is Demoted
 collapse section13  Postscript
 •Edison Filmmaking Revives
 •Edwin S. Porter and the Formation of Famous Players
 •Edison's Motion Picture Business Comes To a Close
 •Conclusion

  Appendix A  Edison Manufacturing Company Statements of Profit and Loss: 1893-1911
  Appendix B  Kleine Optical Company Accounts
  Appendix C  Credits and Key To Quotations in the Documentary Film Before the Nickelodeon: the Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
 collapse sectionNotes
 •Acknowledgments
 •1 Introduction
 •2 Porter's Early Years. 1870-1896
 •3 Edison and the Kinetoscope: 1888-1895
 •4 Cinema, a Screen Novelty: 1895-1897
 •5 Producer and Exhibitor as Co-Creators: 1897-1900
 •6 The Production Company Assumes Greater Control: 1900-1902
 •7 A Close Look at Life of an American Fireman: 1902-1903
 •8 Story Films Become the Dominant Product: 1903-1904
 •9 Articulating an Old-Middle-Class Ideology: 1904-1905
 •10 Elaborating on the Established Mode of Representation: 1905-1907
 •11 As Cinema Becomes Mass Entertainment, Porter Resists: 1907-1908
 •12 Edison Lets Porter Go: 1908-1909
 •13 Postscript
  List of Abbreviations and Primary Sources
  Credits for Illustrations
 collapse sectionSubject and Name Index
 •A
 •B
 •C
 •D
 •E
 •F
 •G
 •H
 •I
 •J
 •K
 •L
 •M
 •N
 •O
 •P
 •Q
 •R
 •S
 •T
 •U
 •V
 •W
 •X
 •Y
 •Z
 collapse sectionFilm Title Index
 •A
 •B
 •C
 •D
 •E
 •F
 •G
 •H
 •I
 •J
 •K
 •L
 •M
 •N
 •O
 •P
 •Q
 •R
 •S
 •T
 •U
 •V
 •W
 •Y
collapse section Collapse All | Expand All expand section