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'Those Awful Hats' (1909)
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2018Jul 2
Directed by D.W. Griffith Cinematographer: G.W. Bitzer Released January 25, 1909 by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company Features an early use of what would become the Williams Process of traveling matte photography. Featured Players: Mack Sennett (in checkered coat), Flora Finch (in largest hat) and Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl (in audience). Some history about the first "star", Florence Lawrence. Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl, was fired from Biograph when it was learned that she was negotiating with Carl Laemmle. Carl Laemmle started IMP (Independent Motion Picture Company) in late 1909, and refused to join the monopolistic Motion Picture Trust (D.W. Griffith, Thomas Edison and others). The Trust took action, both legal and otherwise, to discourage Carl Laemmle from producing films on his own. Florence Lawrence and her husband, director Harry Solter, signed on as IMP's first featured players. In 1910 Carl Laemmle, partly out of anger over the Trust's actions, such as hiring thugs to attack his film crews and wreck his equipment, decided to advertise the fact that he had Miss Lawrence. This was the first time a motion picture player was billed by name and the beginning of the "star system".

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