Western Film Exchange was founded in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

in July 1906 by John R. Freuler and Harry E. Aitken for the purpose of mass-producing and distributing

Western film The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

s to movie theaters throughout the American midwest. One of over 100 such "exchanges," Western Film proved to be more successful than most, opening branch offices in several midwestern cities, including

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

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, and

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. Exchanges would negotiate with film studios for the rights to a completed film production, and would distribute the product to

nickelodeon movie theater The Nickelodeon was the first type of indoor exhibition space dedicated to showing projected motion pictures in the United States and Canada. Usually set up in converted storefronts, these small, simple theaters charged five cents for admissi ...

s. This business model came to an end in 1908 when 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-bran ...

(MPPC; commonly known as the Edison Trust) sued independent film studios on grounds of patent infringement. Most studios did not have the means to stand against the Trust and were forced out of operation. With fewer films being produced, Freuler and Aitken were soon faced with financial difficulties. In order to keep Western Film afloat, they formed a succession of independent studios expressly for the purpose of keeping Western Film supplied with new pictures. The first of these studios was the

American Film Manufacturing Company The American Film Manufacturing Company, also known as Flying “A” Studios, was an American motion picture production company. In 1915, the formal name was changed to the American Film Company. History The American Film Manufacturing Comp ...

, founded in 1910, which was soon joined by

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. Both Western Film and its various affiliated studios were targeted by the MPPC to little avail: so successful were Freuler and Aitken's ventures that, in 1912, they partnered with the Shallenberger brothers (Wilbert E. and William Edgar), Crawford Livingston, and Charles J. Hite to found a new company,

Mutual Film Corporation Mutual Film Corporation was an early American film conglomerate that produced some of Charlie Chaplin's greatest comedies. Founded in 1912, it was absorbed by Film Booking Offices of America, which evolved into RKO Pictures. Founding Mutual's ...

, which eventually came to replace the Western Film Exchange.

References

* Larry Widen.
John Freuler and Harry Aitken: Local Boys Make Good

2000. Accessed on March 3, 2005. * Film distributors of the United States Film production companies of the United States History of film Mass media companies established in 1906 1906 establishments in Wisconsin Mass media companies disestablished in 1912 1912 disestablishments in Wisconsin {{US-film-company-stub