In my opinion, nothing is of greater importance to the success of the motion
picture interests than films of good moral tone.
-Thomas Edison, Moving Picture World, 21 December 1907

In 1909, summarizing the history of the Motion Picture Patents Company in the first six months of its existence, the Moving Picture World indicated that "for three or four years prior to December last the moving picture business occupied in public esteem a position so offensive, so contemptible, and in many respects so degrading, that respectable people hesitated to have their names associated with it." A few months earlier, the World claimed that "many men... apologized for their business in their social life."¹

A similar picture was given by Albert J. Gillingham, an exchange manager in Michigan who testified for the defense in the Motion Picture Patents Company case. When he entered the...