Alexander Film Company

The Alexander Film Company is a Colorado-based advertising company notable for producing commercials and trailers on film in television and theaters.

The Alexander Film Company was founded in 1919 in Spokane, Washington and later based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It produced films that were shown during the intermission at movie theaters. These films were a mixture of announcements and paid advertisements.

History

The Alexander Film Company was once the world's largest producer of theater film advertising for a time during its earlier years. In today's movie theaters, theater film advertising is what is shown before the trailers which are shown before the featured film. While the Alexander Film Co. only made a whopping $2.50 in its first year, the use of advertisements in local movie theaters quickly gained acceptance from theater owners and businesses nationwide. The use of theater advertising grew so rapidly in the early twenties that Alexander Film Co. decided to relocate to a larger studio in Englewood, Colorado in 1923 and then again in 1928 to an even larger lot in Colorado Springs. Although Alexander received major success for a little while, it wasn't until the popularity of the Filmack Trailer Company, which would officially become the nation's largest producer of both theatrical and commercial film advertising by 1937.

By the early-1950s, Alexander produced an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 advertisement films a year and had a library covering over 8,200 different subjects. Alexander competed against other giant theater advertising companies, such as Filmack, National Screen Service, United Film Services, and Summit Screen Services, among others. In its heyday, Alexander Film Company's lot hosted 32 full-size motion picture sets, modern film, and audio laboratories, a sound recording department, an art department capable of creating cartoon animation, stop motion, backgrounds, and other special movie effects, an engineering department, and a full-service print shop. To run this massive complex, Alexander employed over 600 people locally and the annual payroll exceeded $2.5 million. A client list included a "who's who" of the nation's leading manufacturers including General Motors, Ford, U.S. Rubber, Philco, and Seven-Up. Regional offices were established in Dallas, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

1950年代後半、テレビの普及と全国各地の多くの地方映画館の閉鎖により、アレクサンダー映画社は劇的な崩壊を迎えました。しかし、最も大きな打撃となったのは、アレクサンダー社が非組合会社であったことです。そのため、業界関係者から「ブラックリスト」に載せられ、全国規模の広告主はアレクサンダー社制作のCMを使用できなくなりました。生き残った従業員によると、1960年代半ばにアレクサンダー映画社が組合を結成した後、工場は従業員と経営陣の間にかつて存在していた家族的な雰囲気をほとんど失ってしまいました。

参考文献

• 現在の会社の企業サイトからの履歴
• もう一つの歴史
• パイクスピーク図書館地区特別コレクション記事