Silent Studio Directory

This book is the first of its kind, but NOT because of the topic. There have been other books published that have documented some of the better known and larger companies from the silent era. This book is the first of its kind because of the approach. In 2006, we created the first and only research database. Each poster entered into the database has all the information on it fed into the computer. There are currently over 100,000 poster images in the database. With this volume, we are able to resort the information from a wide variety of directions. To create this book, we started with studio and distributor information and logos that we had compiled from our database. We then factored in trade ads and other information that we had gathered from our research. This has created some very positive results and a unique foundation that has not been available before. One perk is that it is not confined to particular country borders. Another, that you should notice immediately, is that it presents many companies that you have never heard of before, including their names, the principals, addresses and, in some cases, the logo they used in their business endeavors. However, there are some considerations that must be addressed when using this book. Since film accessories were used to document these companies, there are potentially some gaps in the operational time periods referenced. Dates were gathered based on documentation found; however, companies may have existed for a longer period than shown. Also, some companies released ads and film accessories for an extended period of time but went out of business before completing their plans.This will be continually refined and expanded as we continue documenting the film accessories. For this reason, this book is not intended to be an all-inclusive reference work on silent production and distribution companies.