Keystone Film Company

Movie companies The Keystone Film Company, later
Triangle-Keystone, was founded by Mack Sennett, born Mikall
Sinnottco (1880/01/17-1960/11/05) in Edendale, California in
1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio with Adam Kessel Jr. and
Charles O. Baumann. In 1915 Kessel and Baumann were billed as
the managers, in 1916 they were billed as executives. Kessel
and Bauman were experienced independent producers and owners
of the New York Motion Picture Company, merged with Universal
Film Manufacturing Company in 1912. The company filmed in and
around Glendale and Silver Lake for several years. The New
York Motion Picture Co. controlled Bison Life Motion Pictures
Adam Kessel and Charles Baumann, operators of the New York
Motion Picture Company, were associated with both the Triangle
Film Corporation and the Willat Studios, Inc., a laboratory
and studio facility which "Doc" Willat opened at the corner of
Main Street and Linwood Avenue in 1914. 1909 14 April, New
York : the New York Motion Picture Co. Founded by Adam Kessel
Jr. and Charles Baumann, who had previously run the Empire
Film Exchange, together with cameraman Fred Balshofer, they
have already begun shooting their first film, Disinherited
Son's Loyalty, which is due to be released next month.
Apparently, when the three men met over dinner to set up their
new business, they had not yet decided on a name or trademark
for their production arm. Then Kessel spotted an American
buffalo on the $10 bill, and Bison Films was born. Also known
as "Bison" Life Motion Pictures, the new logo fits in well
with plans to include many Westerns among their future
productions. 1912 On June 8, 1912, Universal Film
Manufacturing Company is founded, the result of a merger of
IMP (Carl Laemmle), Powers Motion Picture Co. (Pat Powers),
Rex Motion Picture Company (William Swanson), Champion Film
Company (Mark Dintenfass), Nestor Film Co. (David Horsley),
and the New York Motion Picture Co. (Charles Baumann and Adam
Kessel). Adam Kessel and Charles O. Baumann, founders of the
New York Motion Picture corporation, and later Kay-Bee At
first, Lillian St. Cyr (Princess Red Wing) and James Young
Deer worked mainly with the New York Motion Picture Company,
founded in 1909 by Adam Kessel, Charles Baumann and Fred J.
Balshofer. When Balshofer moved to Bison Pictures, Red Wing
and Young Deer joined him there. Adam Kessel and Charles
Baumann's Bison Life Motion Pictures Harry E. Aitken
accumulated a personal fortune from The Birth of a Nation. He
then organized the illustrious Triangle Pictures Corporation.
Triangle was envisioned as a prestige studio based on the
producing abilities of ace filmmakers D. W. Griffith, Thomas
Ince, and Mack Sennett. Aitken offered smaller partnerships in
Triangle to Adam Kessel and Charles Baumann, producers of the
Kay Bee films. In one swift stroke, Aitken crippled Mutual by
taking their top directors and over half of their major
film-producing companies.

He Did and He
Didn't (Triangle-Keystone, US 1916) Directed by Roscoe
Arbuckle; ph: Elgin Lessley; cast: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle,
Mabel Normand, William Jefferson, Al St. John, Joe Bordeau.
rel. 30.1.1916. 35mm, 2 rls., Library of Congress.

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