1909 in film

The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• Carl Laemmle founds the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP).^[1]
• Selig Polyscope Company establish the first permanent film studio in Los Angeles in Edendale, Los Angeles.
• The New York Motion Picture Company is founded and also open a film studio in Edendale. The studio is later used by Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and then Mascot Pictures, which become part of Republic Pictures.
• February 4 – The Paris Film Congress begins, an attempt by leading European producers to form a cartel similar to that of the Motion Picture Patents Company in the United States.
• February 26 – Kinemacolor is shown to the public for the first time in the Palace Theatre in London.^[2]
• March 16 – Charles Urban forms the Natural Color Kinematograph Company.
• May 12 – Mr. Flip is released, the first film to feature someone being hit in the face with a pie.
• May 23 – The first news cinema, The Daily Bioscope, opens in London.
• June 17 – In the Sultan's Power, directed by Francis Boggs, is the first film ever completely made in Los Angeles, California.
• October 25 – IMP release their first film, Hiawatha, based on the 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.^[3]
• November 5 - A Nature Movie by Arthur C. Pillsbury using film to explore the wonders of Yosemite. This first showing was for John Muir, a friend and associate of Pillsbury. Included was footage of the Hetch Hetchy. This film was then shown for the 1910 season at the Pillsbury Studio in Yosemite, advertised using postcards.^[4]
• December 2 – Matsunosuke Onoe, who will become the first superstar of Japanese cinema, appears in his first film, Goban Tadanobu.
• December 20 – James Joyce opens the Volta Cinematograph, the first cinema in Dublin.^[5]

Notable films released in 1909

United States unless stated

PLAY The Airship Destroyer; runtime 00:06:41.

A

• The Airship Destroyer, directed by Walter R. Booth – (GB)
• At the Altar, directed by D. W. Griffith

C

PLAY The Curtain Pole; runtime 00:08:00.

• A Corner in Wheat, directed by D. W. Griffith
• The Country Doctor, directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Mary Pickford
• The Cowboy Millionaire, directed by Francis Boggs and Otis Turner, starring Tom Mix
• The Curtain Pole, directed by D. W. Griffith

D

• The Death Disc: A Story of the Cromwellian Period, directed by D. W. Griffith
• The Diabolic Tenant (Le Locataire diabolique), directed by Georges Méliès^[6] – (France)
• The Doctor's Secret (Hydrothérapie fantastique), directed by Georges Méliès^[7] – (France)
• A Drunkard's Reformation, directed by D. W. Griffith

E

• Edgar Alln Poe, directed by D. W. Griffith

F

• The Fitzsimmons-Bill Lang Fight
• Fools of Fate, directed by D. W. Griffith
• Fortune Favors the Brave (Le Génie des cloches ou le Fils du sonneur) (lost), directed by Georges Méliès^[7] – (France)

G

• The Golden Louis, directed by D. W. Griffith

H

• Hansel and Gretel, directed by J. Searle Dawley, based on the 1812 fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm^[8]
• The Hessian Renegades, directed by D. W. Griffith
• Hiawatha, directed by William V. Ranous, based on the 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow^[3]

I

• The Invisible Thief (Le voleur invisible), directed by Segundo de Chomón, based on the 1897 novel The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells^[8] – (France)

L

• Lady Helen's Escapade, directed by D. W. Griffith
• The Life of Moses , directed by J. Stuart Blackton
• The Lonely Villa, directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Mary Pickford

M

PLAY A Midsummer Night's Dream; runtime 00:11:07.

• Macbeth, directed by André Calmettes, based on the 17th-century play by William Shakespeare – (France)
• The Merry Microbes (Les joyeux Microbes), directed by Émile Cohl – (France)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Charles Kent and J. Stuart Blackton, based on the 16th-century play by William Shakespeare
• Les Misérables, directed by J. Stuart Blackton, based on the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo
• Moscow Clad in Snow, directed by Joseph-Louis Mundwiller – (France)
• Mr. Flip, directed by Broncho Billy Anderson

N

• Nerone (Nero, or the Fall of Rome), directed by Luigi Maggi and Arturo Ambrosio – (Italy)

O

• Oliver Twist, directed by J. Stuart Blackton, based on the 1838 novel by Charles Dickens^[9]

P

• Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy, directed by J. Stuart Blackton

R

PLAY Resurrection; runtime 00:12:11.

• The Red Man's View, directed by D. W. Griffith
• Resurrection, directed by D. W. Griffith, based on the 1899 novel by Leo Tolstoy

S

• The Sealed Room, directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Mary Pickford
• Slippery Jim (Pickpock ne craint pas les entraves), directed by Segundo de Chomón – (France)
• The Spider and the Butterfly (Le papillon fantastique), directed by Georges Méliès – (France)

T

• Theodore Roosevelt in Africa, directed by Cherry Kearton
• Those Awful Hats, directed by D. W. Griffith
• A Trap for Santa Claus, directed by D. W. Griffith

V

• Viy (lost), directed by Vasily Goncharov^[10] – (Russia)

Y

• The Yiddisher Boy, directed by Siegmund Lubin

Births

• January 1 – Dana Andrews, actor (died 1992)
• January 3 – Victor Borge, musician, actor (died 2000)
• January 8 - Willy Millowitsch, actor (died 1999)
• January 15 – Gene Krupa, musician, actor (died 1973)
• January 22 – Ann Sothern, actress (died 2001)
• January 24 – Ann Todd, actress (died 1993)
• January 29 – Alan Marshal, actor (died 1961)
• February 2 – Frank Albertson, actor (died 1964)
• February 6 – Aino Talvi, Estonian actress (d. 1992)
• February 9
  • Carmen Miranda, singer, actress (died 1955)
  • Heather Angel, actress (died 1986)
• February 11
  • Max Baer – boxer, actor (died 1959)
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz – director, screenwriter, producer (died 1993)
• February 16
  • Hugh Beaumont, actor, director, writer (died 1982)
  • Jeffrey Lynn, actor (died 1995)
• March 19 – Louis Hayward, actor (died 1995)
• March 26 – Chips Rafferty, actor (died 1971)
• April 4 – Bobby Connelly, child actor (died 1922)
• April 22– Ralph Byrd, actor (died 1952)
• April 29 – Tom Ewell, actor (died 1994)
• May 4 – Howard Da Silva, actor, director (died 1986)
• May 15 – James Mason, actor (died 1984)
• May 16 – Margaret Sullavan, actress (died 1960)
• May 30 – Benny Goodman, musician, actor (died 1986)
• June 7 – Jessica Tandy, actress (died 1994)
• June 8 – Robert Carson, actor (died 1979)
• June 14 – Burl Ives, actor (died 1995)
• June 20 – Errol Flynn, actor (died 1959)
• June 26- Wolfgang Reitherman, director, producer, animator (died 1985)
• July 1 – Madge Evans, actress (died 1981)
• July 11
  • Irene Hervey, actress (died 1998)
  • John 'Dusty' King, actor, singer (died 1987)
• July 12 – Curly Joe DeRita, actor (died 1993)
• July 23 – Helen Martin, American actress (died 2000)
• July 24 - Sydney Bromley, English character actor (died 1987)
• August 25
  • Ruby Keeler, singer, actress (died 1993)
  • Michael Rennie, actor (died 1971)
• August 26 – Jim Davis, American actor (died 1981)
• September 7 – Elia Kazan, director (died 2003)
• September 27 - Amerigo Tot, Hungarian actor (died 1984)
• October 6 – Robert Carson, screenwriter (died 1983)
• October 20 – Carla Laemmle, actress (died 2014)
• October 29 – Douglass Montgomery, actor (died 1966)
• November 11 – Robert Ryan, actor (died 1973)
• November 26 – Frances Dee, actress (died 2004)
• December 9 – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., actor (died 2000)
• December 12 – Karen Morley, actress (died 2003)
• December 20 – Diane Ellis, actress (died 1930)
• December 22 - Patricia Hayes, English character actress (died 1998)

Deaths

• January 27 – Benoît-Constant Coquelin, actor, Cyrano de Bergerac (born 1841)
• September 4 – Clyde Fitch, author & playwright whose works have been adapted into films. (born 1865)

Film debuts

• Fatty Arbuckle – Ben's Kid (as Roscoe Arbuckle)
• Ethel Clayton – Justified (short)
• Dolores Costello (as a child) – A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Helene Costello (as a child) – Les Misérables (Part I) (short)
• Marie Dressler – Marie Dressler (short)
• Francis Ford – The Stolen Wireless
• Annette Kellerman – The Bride of Lammermoor: A Tragedy of Bonnie Scotland
• James Kirkwood – The Heart of an Outlaw (short)
• Florence La Badie – The Politician's Love Story
• Tom Mix – The Cowboy Millionaire
• Mary Pickford – Mrs. Jones Entertains
• Billy Quirk – The Heart of an Outlaw
• William A. Russell – Tag Day (short)
• William Stowell – The Cowboy Millionaire
• Blanche Sweet – A Man with Three Wives
• Rose Tapley – The Way of the Cross (short)
• Clara Kimball Young – Washington Under the American Flag (short)