General Film Company

The General Film Company was an American motion picture distribution company formed in 1909 as part of the Edison Trust's effort to control the emerging film industry, distributing pictures on behalf of the Motion Picture Patents Company through patent leverage and aggressive competitive tactics. Between 1909 and 1920 it distributed almost 12,000 silent era motion pictures, but independent competitors had already emerged by 1912 and the U.S. Justice Department brought antitrust proceedings against the company and the Patents Company under the Sherman Act. It was sold on March 30, 1918 to the Lincoln and Parker Film Company of Worcester, Massachusetts, and after that firm's bankruptcy Thomas Edison reacquired its assets before selling them to producer Robert L. Giffen in October 1919.