Stay on Top of Enterprise Technology Trends Get updates impacting your industry from our GigaOm Research Community

A few weeks ago, we both read an article by Paul Graham, rallying Silicon Valley to “kill Hollywood.” And indeed, many companies in Silicon Valley are trying to free the entertainment industry from Hollywood’s death grip. But anyone who wants to “kill Hollywood” deserves a history lesson in its tenacious will to live.

Hollywood has risen from the dead time and again, and it will continue to do so no matter who tries to destroy it. Let’s take a look a closer look at Hollywood’s many reincarnations.

Hollywood 1.1 (Thomas Edison), c. 1900-1913

Root business: Manufacturing cameras and other film equipment. In the beginning, films weren’t so much entertainment as fodder for Thomas Edison’s New Jersey-based patent and hardware business, Edison Manufacturing Company. Edison entered the content business simply to create demand for his projectors and cameras (he owned most of the patents). Just as today’s technology moguls use every trick in the book to crush nascent competitors, Edison similarly used patent law to drive out upstarts, whose non-Edison equipment violated Edison’s legal stranglehold. Early filmmakers fled the East Coast for Southern California as much for the distance from Edison’s patent enforcers as for the sunshine.

Manufacturing cameras and other film equipment. In the beginning, films weren’t so much entertainment as fodder for Thomas Edison’s New Jersey-based patent and hardware business, Edison Manufacturing Company. Edison entered the content business simply to create demand for his projectors and cameras (he owned most of the patents). Just as today’s technology moguls use every trick in the book to crush nascent competitors, Edison similarly used patent law to drive out upstarts, whose non-Edison equipment violated Edison’s legal stranglehold. Early filmmakers fled the East Coast for Southern California as much for the distance from Edison’s patent enforcers as for the sunshine. Target demographic: Professionals and prosumers

Professionals and prosumers Killed: When Edison Manufacturing Company’s patents expired in 1913

When Edison Manufacturing Company’s patents expired in 1913 Driven by: Hardware and infrastructure