William Wadsworth Hodkinson

William Wadsworth Hodkinson called WW Hodkinson ( born August 16, 1881 in Pueblo (Colorado), † June 2, 1971 in Los Angeles, California ) was an American film entrepreneur the pioneering days of cinema.

Hodkinson opened in 1907 in Ogden (Utah ) his first film rental. In the following years, he became a representative of the Motion Picture Patents Company by Thomas Alva Edison in Salt Lake City and later in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles he developed before the beginning of the movie studio time in 1915 a nationwide rental structure that helped the film industry to the final break. The Hodkinson system demanded by each film distributors an upfront payment, which was to be paid to the film producers, so the cost for the production of films were covered. The Hodkinson system has, despite some changes and adjustments over the years in the United States still exists today.

In 1912 the sales company Hodkinson Progressive Company, which drove the films of producers such as Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn and Cecil B. DeMille. In 1914 he changed the name of his company Paramount Pictures. Zukor and Lasky immediately signed a five -year contract with the new company. Zukors company Famous Players Film Company went on to Paramount Pictures. Under Hodkinson Paramount became the first nationally successful film distribution. For Zukor and Lasky, however, Hodkinson was too powerful and they found themselves dependent on Hodkinsons distribution system. By 1916 they reached a majority of the shares of Paramount and felt from now on again as an independent film producer. Hodkinson left the company and founded new film distribution companies, including the First National 1917. Until 1929 he was still active in the movie business.

In the 1930s, he tried his hand as aircraft manufacturer and led a flight company in Latin America, which he gave up in 1936, however, after a few flight accidents.

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