In 1911, Ince joined New York Motion Pictures (NYMP), leaving IMP because of the opportunities NYMP offered. After directing some films in New York City, Ince moved to Edendale (later known as Echo Park), California in November. There, he wrote and directed westerns for Bison Life Motion Pictures, a subsidiary of NYMP, for $150 per week. Ince's first western was War on the Plains (1912); one of his most successful was Custer's Last Fight (1912), which featured many extras and much realism, including many Indians who had actually been in battle. Ince became known as the "father of the western," completing several hundred one- and two-reel western pictures through 1914. (Almost none of these films remain in existence today.)
Supervised Construction of Inceville
Soon after Ince moved to California, the company bought land and built the biggest movie plant of the time. Ince oversaw construction of the studio, located on 18,000 acres on what is now the Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Ynez Canyon. The studio, known as Inceville, featured stages, offices, labs, commissaries, dressing rooms, props, sets, and other necessities and changed the way in which films were made. Because many westerns were made at Inceville, Ince took the innovative step of putting a Wild West show on his payroll, the Miller Brothers' 101 Ranch Wild West Show, to add authenticity to his pictures.
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