The unsteadiness of the pictures sent out by an American independent
manufacturer who makes a specialty of depicting Western scenes in the
wild woods of New Jersey prompted us to ask him what camera he was
using. He replied that it was a 'Billiken.' American independent manufacturers
are no doubt handicapped in choice of apparatus, but we certainly
can recommend the 'Billiken' for reproducing unsteady pictures.
-Moving Picture World, 19 March 1910, p. 421 1
The Motion Picture Patents Company had everything sewn up at the beginning of 1909. It took the best part of the year for the independents to get organized and gain strength, but the movement was in existence from that day in early January when William Swanson, president of the Film Service Association, found himself without power to negotiate anything with the united producers. He was the first of the exchange men to leave and declare himself independent. By 20 February there was already an exchange named the Anti-Trust Film Company of Chicago. That city was to be the hotbed of the independent movement. R. G. Bachman of the 20th Century Optiscope Company in Kansas City announced his defection on the 3rd of April with the advertisement "Bust the Trust-Go Independent." 2
Great Northern, founded in January 1908 as the U.S.
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