Abstract

This article reassesses Thomas Edison's role in the early film industry, combining archival research with technical and legal analysis. It highlights William Dickson’s historical inventions – the kinetoscope and an early sound film produced in Edison’s laboratory – while examining Edison’s commercial drive, his selective appropriation of European innovations, and the fraught relationship with contemporaneous American producers. The study also traces the legal dismantling of Edison’s attempted film monopoly, culminating in the 1915 Supreme Court decision and Edison’s eventual withdrawal from the business in 1918.