Charles O. Baumann (January 20, 1874 – July 18, 1931) was an American film producer, film studio executive, and pioneer in the motion picture industry.
Biography
Career
He was a partner in the
Crescent Film Company formed in 1908 and in the
Bison Life Motion Pictures production company formed in 1909. In 1912, he was a founder and the first president of Universal Film Manufacturing Company (now
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
).
One of his most-successful companies was the
Keystone Film Company, the production unit headed by
Mack Sennett, which produced the first films to feature
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
. Adam Kessel and Baumann's
New York Motion Picture Company
The New York Motion Picture Company was a film production and distribution company from 1909 until 1914. It changed names to New York Picture Corporation in 1912. It released films through several different brand names, including 101 Bison, Kay ...
produced many films under a number of brand names, including Broncho, Domino and
Kay-Bee Pictures
Kay-Bee Pictures was a film company. Its executives included Thomas Ince. The company's mottos included "Every picture a headliner" and "Kay-Bee stands for Kessel and Baumann and Kessel and Baumann stands for quality", referring to Adam Kessel ...
. Other companies formed by Baumann include the 101 Bison Company and
Reliance Motion Picture Corporation
Reliance Film Company (1910–1915) was an early movie production studio in the United States. It was established in 1910 in Coney Island by Adam Kessel Jr. and Charles O. Baumann.
Harry Aitken purchased the Reliance Film Company in 1911 from Cha ...
.
In the mid-1910s, Kessel and Baumann also branched into film distribution with their Mutual Film Corporation, which later was absorbed into
Triangle Film Corporation. Baumann continued in production in the early 1920s as a partner in the Kessel-Baumann Picture Corporation production company.
The Moving Picture World
"Motion Picture Studios in California", March 10, 1917, p.1599-1612
Death
He died on July 18, 1931 of influenza in New York City.
References
Further reading
''The Moving Picture World''
archived issues at Media History Digital Library at archive.org
* Lahue, Kalton (1971); ''Mack Sennett's Keystone: The Man, the Myth and the Comedies''; New York: Barnes & Co.; (p. 17-42, 64, 109, 155, 241, 242, 289)
* MacGowan, Kenneth (1965); ''Behind The Screen: The History and Techniques of the Motion Picture''; New York: Dell Publishing Co. (pg.171, 175, 208)
External links
at Silent Era. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
*
* http://www.fortleefilm.org
Testimony of Charles O. Baumann
in the 1914 Federal hearings into the Motion Picture Patents Company
The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC, also known as the Edison Trust), founded in December 1908 and terminated seven years later in 1915 after conflicts within the industry, was a trust of all the major US film companies and local foreign-bra ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baumann, Charles O.
1874 births
1931 deaths
Businesspeople from New York City
American film producers
American film studio executives
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Cinema pioneers
American film production company founders
NBCUniversal people