Media History Shorts: The Rise and Fall of Edison's Trust and the Birth of Hollywood

Want to make a movie in America in 1908? You paid Thomas Edison. The man who misleadingly called himself the "Father of the Motion Picture" assembled a patent monopoly and sued anyone who filmed without a license — so filmmakers ran three thousand miles west to escape his iron grip, settling in a sleepy neighborhood of Los Angeles: Hollywood. The rise and fall of "The Trust" -- Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company -- remade American filmmaking. This short is a clip from the full video: The Invention and Art of The Movies (Part 1 of 3). Watch here:    • Media History: The Invention and Art of th...