Editing Fort Lee, New Jersey (section)

===America's first motion picture industry===
[[File:Fort Lee-The First Hollywood.jpg|alt=Fort Lee-The First Hollywood|thumb|Sign reading "Fort Lee-The First Hollywood" outside the [[Barrymore Film Center]]]]
The history of [[cinema in the United States]] can trace its roots to the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]], where, at one time, Fort Lee was the [[motion picture]] capital of America. The industry got its start in the state at the end of the 19th century with the construction of [[Thomas Edison]]'s "[[Edison's Black Maria|Black Maria]]", the first [[movie studio|motion picture studio]], in [[West Orange, New Jersey]]. New Jersey offered land at costs considerably less than New York City, and the cities and towns along the [[Hudson River]] and [[The Palisades (Hudson River)|the Palisades]] benefited greatly as a result of the phenomenal growth of the film industry at the turn of the 20th century.<ref>Kannapell, Andrea. [https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/04/nyregion/getting-big-picture-film-industry-started-here-left-now-it-s-back-state-says.html&pagewanted=all "Getting the Big Picture; The Film Industry Started Here and Left. Now It's Back, and the State Says the Sequel Is Huge."], ''[[The New York Times]]'', October 4, 1998. Accessed December 7, 2013.</ref><ref>Amith, Dennis. [http://j-entonline.com/blu-ray-dvd-reviews/dvd-reviews-film-tv/before-hollywood-there-was-fort-lee-n-j-early-movie-making-in-new-jersey-a-j-ent-dvd-review/ "Before Hollywood There Was Fort Lee, N.J.: Early Movie Making in New Jersey (a J!-ENT DVD Review)"], J!-ENTonline.com, January 1, 2011. Accessed December 7, 2013. "When Hollywood, California, was mostly orange groves, Fort Lee, New Jersey, was a center of American film production."</ref><ref>Rose, Lisa.[http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/100_years_ago_fort_lee_was_the.html "100 years ago, Fort Lee was the first town to bask in movie magic"], ''[[The Star-Ledger]]'', April 29, 2012. Accessed December 7, 2013. "Back in 1912, when Hollywood had more cattle than cameras, Fort Lee was the center of the cinematic universe. Icons from the silent era like Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish crossed the Hudson River via ferry to emote on Fort Lee back lots."</ref> [[:Category:Films shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey|A large number of early films]] were shot in Fort Lee.

Filmmaking began attracting both capital and an innovative workforce, and when the [[Kalem Company]] began using Fort Lee in 1907 as a location for filming in the area, other filmmakers quickly followed. In 1909, a forerunner of [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]], the [[Champion Film Company]], built the first studio.<ref>[http://www.fortleefilm.org/history.html Before Hollywood, There Was Fort Lee] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090712034143/http://www.fortleefilm.org/history.html |date=July 12, 2009 }}, Fort Lee Film Commission. Accessed April 16, 2011.</ref> They were quickly followed by others who either built new studios or who leased facilities in Fort Lee. In the 1910s and 1920s, film companies such as the [[Independent Moving Pictures|Independent Moving Pictures Company]], [[Peerless Pictures Studios|Peerless Studios]], [[The Solax Company]], [[Eclair (company)|Éclair Studios]], [[Goldwyn Picture Corporation]], [[Georges Méliès|American Méliès]] (Star Films), [[World Film Company]], [[Biograph Studios]], [[Fox Film Corporation]], [[Pathé Frères]], [[MGM|Metro Pictures Corporation]], [[Victor Studios|Victor Film Company]], and [[Selznick Pictures Corporation]] were all making pictures in Fort Lee. Such notables as [[Mary Pickford]] got their start at Biograph Studios.<ref name="Koszarski 2004">Koszarski, Richard. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5w0r8YKan04C&hl=en "Fort Lee: The Film Town''], [[Indiana University Press]], 2004. {{ISBN|9780861966523}}. Accessed May 27, 2015.</ref><ref>[http://www.fortleefilm.org/studios.html Studios and Films] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181020130551/http://fortleefilm.org/studios.html |date=October 20, 2018 }}, Fort Lee Film Commission. Accessed December 7, 2013.</ref><ref name=Birthplace/>

With the offshoot businesses that sprang up to service the film studios, for nearly two decades Fort Lee experienced unrivaled prosperity. However, just as the development of Fort Lee production facilities was gaining strength, [[Nestor Studios]] of [[Bayonne, New Jersey]], built the first studio in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] in 1911.<ref>Staff. [https://www.proquest.com/docview/165206569 "Memorial at First Studio Site Will Be Unveiled Today"], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', September 29, 1940. Accessed July 8, 2014. "The site of the Nestor Studios today is the Hollywood home of the Columbia Broadcasting System."</ref> Nestor Studios, owned by David and William Horsley, later merged with Universal Studios; and William Horsley's other company, Hollywood Film Laboratory, is now the oldest existing company in Hollywood, now called the Hollywood Digital Laboratory. [[California]]'s more temperate climate enabled year-round filming and led to the eventual shift of virtually all filmmaking to the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]] by the 1930s.

At the time, [[Thomas Edison]] owned almost all the patents relevant to motion picture production. Movie producers on the East Coast acting independently of Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company were often sued or enjoined by Edison and his agents, while movie makers working on the West Coast could work independently of Edison's control, in part due to the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit|Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals]]–which was headquartered in [[San Francisco]] and covered most of [[Southern California]]–being well known for not enforcing patents claims.<ref>[[Jim Bishop|Bishop, Jim]]. [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Sl4gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JmUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3130,3977758&dq=thomas-edison+hollywood+patents&hl=en "How movies got moving..."], ''[[Sun Journal (Lewiston)|The Lewiston Journal]]'', November 27, 1979. Accessed February 14, 2012. "Movies were unheard of in Hollywood, even in 1900. The flickering shadows were devised in a place called Fort Lee, N.J. It had forests, rocks cliffs for the cliff-hangers and the Hudson River. The movie industry had two problems. The weather was unpredictable, and Thomas Edison sued producers who used his invention. [...] It was not until 1911 that David Horsley moved his Nestor Co. west."</ref>

In nearby Little Ferry on [[1937 Fox vault fire|July 9, 1937, a major fire]] broke out in a [[20th Century-Fox]] storage facility containing hazardous extremely flammable [[nitrate film]] reels.

[[Television and film of New Jersey|Television and film in New Jersey]] remains an important industry. Since 2000, the Fort Lee Film Commission has been charged with celebrating the history of film in Fort Lee, as well as attracting film and television production companies to the borough.<ref>[http://www.fortleefilm.org/ Home page], Fort Lee Film commission. Accessed November 6, 2011.</ref> The [[Barrymore Film Center]] promotes films, filmmaking and its history in the borough.<ref>[https://www.barrymorefilmcenter.com/ Home Page], Barrymore Film Center. Accessed October 2, 2019.</ref>