Independent Moving Pictures

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The Independent Motion Picture Company, was founded by Carl Laemmle in 1909, and was located in Manhattan at Eleventh Avenue and 53rd Street. In 1910 IMP began production in Los Angeles, and had a studio at Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street, which became known as "Gower Gulch" due to the actors dressed as cowboys and Indians waiting on that corner to be cast in western films. IMP was absorbed into Universal Pictures in 1912.

From the very beginning, the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) was fought by the unlicensed independents (dubbed "pirates" or "outlaws"), led by Carl Laemmle. Others who fought the MPPC included Harry E. Aitken (Majestic Films), William Fox (founder of the Fox Film Corporation), and Adolph Zukor (Famous Players, the precursor to Paramount). The flexible, stealthy, and adventurous independents avoided coercive MPPC restrictions (the requirement to use only Trust film stock and projectors, for example) by using unlicensed equipment, obtaining their own film materials, and making films on the sly. Soon, they moved to California and opened up a rival film-making industry.