American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

Scene from Old Isaacs, the Pawnbroker (1908), American Mutoscope & Biograph Company logo to the right of the door jamb

Biograph ( Biograph Company ) is an American film production company . It was founded in 1895 by William KL Dickson , a former employee of Thomas Edison , Herman Casler, Henry Marvin and Elias Koopman as the American Mutoscope Company , from 1902 American Mutoscope & Biograph Company , and renamed the Biograph Company in 1909 .

Some of the best-known artists of the silent film era began their careers with the Biograph . B. David W. Griffith , Mary Pickford , Lionel Barrymore , Lillian Gish, and Mack Sennett . The well-known names of the studio also included Mabel Normand (previously with Vitagraph ) and Robert G. Vignola (previously with Kalem ).

As with other well-known early film companies, the company logo, an A fused with a B in a circle as an abbreviation for American Biograph , appeared on the sets in the early silent films to prove authenticity and to protect against plagiarism .

Web links

Commons : American Mutoscope and Biograph Company  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

• Homepage of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company ( Memento of January 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )