Part two of this picture will be shown in one minute.
-THE BARGAIN (1914)

What is a feature film? The term "feature" was an inheritance of the vaudeville program. When the "feature film" was first marketed, it meant a special film, a film with something that could be featured in advertising as something out of the ordinary run. It was not just another sausage.

A feature was a film that cost more to make, more to buy, more to rent, and sometimes, though not always, it cost more to see. That usually meant longer films, and after 1909 "feature" was the term generally used for any multireel film. In 1909 a feature film was 1,000 feet long or a little less, running from fifteen to twenty minutes at its slowest speed. A short film, called a "split reel," was 500 feet or less. In May 1910, when the Motion Picture...