Thomas Edison was instrumental in the creation of the Hollywood film industry.
He invented many of the most important components needed to make a motion picture, and held the patents on still more. Then he created the Motion Picture Patent Company and invcentivized the owners of all the other components (like Eastman Kodak, which owned the patent on raw film stock) to join. Which gave him a virtual monopoly on the motion picture business (at least on the east coast). And if the courts were slow to enforce Edison’s insistence on being paid royalties for outsiders using his patented products, he hired gangsters to speed up the process.
So independent film makers fled New York and environs for southern California, where communication with the east was slow, travel by Washington officials was slower, and judges were notably lenient about enforcing eastern-held patents for fear it would quash local economic development.
If not for Edison’s tight-fistedness, the film industry today might still be headquartered in NYC or Orange, NJ.
It also helped that California had almost year-round beautiful weather and beautiful scenery, while the Northeast does not. Limits the shooting days.
The Jooos! took full advantage of that. And good on them. Where would John Wayne, Tom Mix and other western greats be without our conspiracy. But where’s my cut?