Gaumont Film Company

Gaumont Pictures was founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont[?]. From 1905 to 1914 its studios at La Villette[?], France, were the largest in the world. The company manufactured its own equipment and mass-produced films until 1907 under Alice Guy[?], the motion picture industry’s first woman director.

Gaumont opened foreign offices and acquired theatre chains and along with its giant competitor, Pathé Frères[?], they dominated the motion-picture industry in Europe until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.