By the Sea (Essanay, 1915). Very Good/Fine on Paper. One Sheet (27.5" X 41.75").. ...

Description

By the Sea (Essanay, 1915). Very Good/Fine on Paper. One Sheet (27.5" X 41.75").
This Chaplin comedy was released at an incredibly fraught time in the American film industry, particularly as far as the distribution and exhibition of movies was concerned. The slapstick comedian's popularity was still rising at the beginning of 1915, when he signed with Essanay and began producing his short subjects under its banner, such that theatres around the country were exhausting their prints of his Keystone comedies and constantly clamoring for new product. Soon after the debut of By the Sea, the Motion Picture Patents Company (the first incarnation of today's Motion Picture Administration), of which Essanay was a member, attempted to stymie the rampant, uncontrolled distribution of Chaplin comedies by acquiring exclusive rights to distribution of his Essanay subjects with their distribution arm, the General Film Company and requiring that all exhibitors seeking to screen a Chaplin-Essanay film, which constituted roughly 99% of all U.S. theatres, arrange to lease prints through General Film. Chaplin's Essanay comedies then quickly became the lynchpin in the battle for film distribution control in the U.S., pitting General Film and thus the entire M.P.P.C. (or the "Trust") against a collective of then-smaller studios spearheaded by the Fox Film Corporation. The smaller studios won out, leading to the demise of the "Trust" by the end of that same year and beginning many of the practices that would mature into the Hollywood system of studio-controlled distribution and exhibition for much of the next two decades. The one sheet for By the Sea offered here thus not only represents a key moment in Chaplin's history in him starting to gain some independence, but also marks a turning point for much of the American film industry. Very few one-sheets are known to exist from any of Chaplin's Essanay films, and this one has a great close smiling image of Chaplin as his signature character, the Tramp! The poster has been nicely restored to address staining throughout with the paper backing, as well as touchup to chips throughout and in most of the crossfolds and to tears, fold separations, and fold and edge wear in the borders and image of Chaplin.


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