Jules Brulatour

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Jules Brulatour in 1911
Jules Brulatour in 1911

Pierre Ernest Jules Brulatour (April 7, 1870–October 26, 1946), was a pioneering figure in U.S. silent cinema. Beginning as American distribution representative for Lumiere Freres raw film stock in 1907, he joined producer Carl Laemmle in forming the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company in 1909, effectively weakening the stronghold of the Motion Picture Patents Company, headed by Thomas Edison, a large trust company that was then monopolizing the American film industry through contracts with hand-picked, established studios.

Through the new Sales Company, the growing number of independent filmmakers were able to obtain raw stock from Lumiere, for which Jules Brulatour remained sole US distributor, thereby avoiding strictures imposed by its rival and cutting into profits for Kodak mogul George Eastman, whose film supply was exclusive to the Patents Company. Eastman soon realized he was on the losing side and approached Brulatour with a contract to sell his stock to the independents through the Sales Company. Brulatour accepted and his long association as head of distribution for Eastman Kodak began.

In addition to his position with Kodak and his presidency of the Sales Company, Jules Brulatour launched the Animated Weekly newsreel series and co-founded Peerless Pictures. He was also an advisor and producer for the French-based Eclair Film Company, which opened in 1911 an extensive, state-of-the-art studio at Fort Lee, New Jersey, then the center of the burgeoning American movie industry. Eclair was a leader in technical and artistic advancements afoot in filmmaking at the time, and its American branch was hailed as a mecca for top talent, which Brulatour helped cultivate. In fact, its first leading lady, Dorothy Gibson, already well-known as a model for leading illustrator Harrison Fisher, not only became a big star in Eclair vehicles but she landed the married Brulatour as a boyfriend.

Dorothy Gibson, the second Mrs. Jules Brulatour
Dorothy Gibson, the second Mrs. Jules Brulatour

His mistress proved herself a marketable screen personality, especially as a comedienne in such popular one-reelers as Miss Masquerader (1911) and Love Finds a Way (1912). But her best-known role was that of herself in the drama Saved From the Titanic (1912), based on her real-life experiences as a survivor of the famous maritime disaster. The movie, produced by Brulatour, was the first of many cinematic and theatrical productions about the sinking. It was released 16 May 1912, just over a month after the Titanic went down. Brulatour also produced the first newsreel about the Titanic disaster (Animated Weekly, issue No. 7, released 22 April 1912).

After the success of Saved From the Titanic, Dorothy Gibson retired from Eclair, choosing to study opera which Brulatour encouraged and financed. In 1913 her new career was interrupted when she was involved in a car accident in which a pedestrian was killed. The resulting law suit revealed that the car driven by Dorothy was owned by Jules Brulatour and that she was his lover. Although he was already separated from his wife, Clara Isabelle Brulatour, the court scandal prompted her to initiate a divorce which was finalized in 1915. With Clara he had three children, Claude Jules, Yvonne, and Ruth Marie.

Meantime, Brulatour had teamed up again with Carl Laemmle to form the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, later known as Universal Pictures. This corporation, begun in 1912, drew together competing studios in an unprecedented amalgamation of talent and resources. Serving as Universal's first president, Brulatour was accused of conflict of interest by George Eastman, and although he denied the charge, he resigned. Despite its unfortunate outcome for Brulatour personally, the consolidation of the leading independent filmmakers under the umbrella of Universal was a major turning point in the history of American motion pictures. The merger not only signaled the triumph of a free market in the industry but lead to the creation of the first major Hollywood studio –– Universal City, constructed in 1914–1915 in Los Angeles in an effort by Laemmle to centralize operations.

In 1914 Brulatour funded the construction of larger studios for Peerless Pictures at Fort Lee as well as the rebuilding of Eclair's processing laboratory, storage vault and offices, which had burned, destroying negatives for almost all the firm's films made over the last three years.

Throughout 1915-1916, while his girlfriend appeared with moderate success in Metropolitan Opera House productions, Brulatour was promoted to the presidency of the Eastman Kodak Company. He also helped form another studio at Fort Lee, Paragon Films, for which he built a large facility specifically for the on-site production of Eastman stock.

By 1917 Jules Brulatour was a very rich man, reportedly worth several million dollars, and he was increasingly powerful politically. That year he was appointed to the executive committee of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry. Brulatour chiefly conferred with the group's War Cooperation Subcommittee, which networked with the US government for the promotion of public welfare and propaganda films.

It is believed that his sudden high profile in Washington, D.C. determined him to legitimize his relationship with Dorothy Gibson, whom he finally married on July 6, 1917, a week before his first conference with President Woodrow Wilson and Treasury Department Secretary McAdoo.

The next year Jules Brulatour was invited to join the film division of President Wilson's Committee of Public Information, but this appointment was less fruitful. Arguments and financial troubles arose almost immediately, and allegations flew of undue influence from media baron William Randolph Hearst and even of bribes from Brulatour; nothing was proven but he resigned under pressure.

Privately, Brulatour's life was also unraveling. His marriage to Dorothy infuriated his first wife, who started proceedings against him, claiming the union was illegal since he had obtained a divorce in Kentucky instead of New York, the state of his residency. This was a drawn-out, complicated affair, and the stress ruined his second marriage, which was finally dissolved as an invalid contract in 1919, a humiliated Dorothy Gibson leaving New York shortly thereafter to live in relative peace and anonymity in Paris.

In 1923 Jules Brulatour married a third time. His new wife was starlet Hope Hampton, a Texas-born beauty queen who was just beginning in movies. Though still head of Kodak, Brulatour was increasingly interested in his new bride's career, which he personally managed. Like Dorothy before her, Hope's film work was short-lived, and she took another page from her predecessor's book when she decided to go into opera, urged on and funded by Brulatour.

In 1924 after Kodak was investigated by the Federal Trade Commission Brulatour was severely fined, along with George Eastman, for "conspiracy to hinder and restrain commercial competition."

Jules Brulatour in 1935
Jules Brulatour in 1935

The last 20 years of Jules Brulatour's life were uneventful for the most part. He and Hope were regulars on the New York social circuit; she especially was a magnet for press attention. Giving up acting and singing by the early-1940s, Hope devoted herself to the high-life –– entertaining lavishly, dressing extravagantly and delighting in being dubbed "Duchess of Park Avenue" in the society columns.

But there were a few odd episodes, such as an unsolved shooting incident in 1939, in which Brulatour was wounded by a would-be assassin whom he refused to identify. And in 1941, he and Hope were surprised to learn that Citizen Kane, the hit RKO film directed by and starring Orson Welles, was partly based on Brulatour and his wives.

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