The Down Express is on the wrong line. My God! It's bound to crash into
the local!
-An intertitle in "A Partner to Providence,"
number 8 in the series TtlE BELOVED ADVENTURER, September 1914
To prevent the piracy rampant in the early days of the industry, the production companies began to place their trademark on the sets of nearly every scene, on the walls of the set, or even on trees when the scene was shot outdoors. The practice began in American films around 1907, as a way of avoiding the expense of copyrighting, since infringement of a trademark was a felony, and if someone made an illegal duplicate copy of a film, it could be easily identified. Vitagraph had a winged "V," Lubin had a bell, Biograph used an "AB," Essanay had a circle with "S & A" inside of it, Pathe a cock (or rooster, as it was called in refined American circles), Kalem a sun (which, when used as an "end title," was an animated sun with rays that revolved). Thanhouser used a wreath enclosing comic and tragic masks as well as intertwined company initials, and American had a winged "A." These trademarks were sometimes made of wood or metal in order to be easily moved from scene to scene.
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