Gaumont Film Company

Gaumont is a French film production company founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont (1864-1946). It is the oldest running film company in the world. Originally dealing in photographic apparatuses, the company began producing short films in 1897 to promote its make of camera-projector. Léon Gaumont's secretary Alice Guy Blaché became the motion picture industry’s first female director. From 1905 to 1914, its studios "Cité Elgé" (from the normal French pronunciation of founder's initials) at La Villette, France, were the largest in the world. The company manufactured its own equipment and mass-produced films until 1907. Then Louis Feuillade became the artistic director of Gaumont. When World War I broke out, he was replaced by Léonce Perret, who continued his career in the United States a few years later. Among some of the most notable films produced were the serials Judex and Fantomas; the comic Onésime series, starring Ernest Bourbon; the comic Bébé series,... full article at wikipedia