# 1909 in film

The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.

## Events

* Carl Laemmle founds the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP).
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.

## Notable films released in 1909

United States unless stated

### A

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

### C

* 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 – (France)
* The Doctor's Secret (Hydrothérapie fantastique), directed by Georges Méliès – (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 – (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
* 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

### I

* The Invisible Thief (Le voleur invisible), directed by Segundo de Chomón, based of the 1897 novel The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells – (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

* 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

### P

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

### R

* 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 – (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)