Today, the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollywood is synonymous with the film industry the world over; 100 years ago it was a dusty agricultural settlement with no ambition to be the world's media hub. That all changed in the Fall of 1911.
For all intents and purposes "Hollywood" should still be centered in New York where Edison Studios, The Eastman Kodak Company, Kalem Company, and many other film production companies and key suppliers were located. Furthermore, if you compare the economies of New York and Los Angeles after the first decade of the 20th century, there is seemingly no explanation for film's production and distribution to have moved. New York enjoyed a large port that remained free of ice throughout the year and was several days closer to European markets than the port of Los Angeles. The population of New York - 4.5 million strong - consisted of more skilled manufacturers, bankers and lawyers than LA's, which numbered only 500,000. Capitalists, individuals whose net worth exceeded $10,000 (or about $245,000 in today's dollars), preferred residing in New York over LA by a 11 to 1 ratio. New York also had the distribution advantage with 6 times more train cars traveling from its stations than its west coast counterpart. However, Los Angeles had the deck's one wild card: the Ninth District Court of Appeals.
A cartel of the industry's most important patent-holders formed in New York in 1908 under the name the Motion Picture Patent Company (MPPC). By pooling 16 patents relating to film projection equipment, cameras and the Latham Loop, the 10 companies formed a trust hellbent on legally attacking any other company from producing, distributing or exhibiting film. Thomas Edison's choke hold on the infant industry reached a boiling point and by 1911 would-be competitors were searching for a friendly court to give them haven from Edison and his trust's patents. That haven was the Ninth District Courts of Appeals, who governed over the court systems of Los Angeles and took a less hardline approach on patent protection. It was this factor, not the often cited good weather one, that allowed Los Angeles to benefit from being the home of Hollywood.
Under the Sherman Act, the Federal government eventually broke up the film industry trust in the United States v. MPPC (1915) Supreme Court ruling, but the damage was already done. A handful of non-MPPC studios had already set up small production companies along the streets of Hollywood.
You can't help but wonder if not for the patent-busting judges of the Ninth District Courts of Appeals would the plots of land on Melrose Avenue, Culver Boulevard and Pico Avenue still be producing bananas and strawberries instead of the billion dollar film and television franchises?
