The Moguls During the Early Motion Picture Industry
The men and women who pioneered the Movie industry.
They were an interesting breed. Part showmen, part gambler, part entrepreneur, part renegade, and 100% risk-takers.
They were characters, oddballs, inventors, and businessmen. Many were immigrants with an entrepreneurial spirit. They made their money by the seat of their pants, not on superior business skills or outstanding movie making. They did everything by instinct, opportunism, exploitation, and, many times, on just a whim. Most of them failed miserably, some of them succeeded, and some built empires that endure to this day.
Nearly all of them have faded into history, just a footnote in some obscure book or website.  Though mostly forgotten, their stories, their work, their studios are the stuff that legends are made of, and are the foundation on which the entire entertainment industry is built.
Before we forget who they were, let's memorialize them and their stories.
Featured Moguls
Complete Moguls List
Click a Mogul to view his biography (not all are clickable)
Gilbert M. "Bronco Billy" Anderson
Robert Aldrich
Fred Balshoffer
Sam Bishoff
Alice Guy Blache
J. Stuart Blackton and Albert Smith
Herbert Brenon
Steve Broidy
Jules Brolatour
Trem Carr
Charles Chaplin
Christie Brothers
Harry Conn, Jack Cohn, Joe Brand
Cecil B. DeMille
Dickson
Mark Dintenfass
Walt Disney
Thomas Edison
Francis Ford
William Fox
John Freuler
John Jasper
Phil Goldstone
Samuel Goldwyn (Goldfish)
William Randolf Hearst
David Horsley
Samuel Hutchinson
Charles Hite
Thomas Ince
Ray Johnson
Sam Katzman
Adam Kessel and Charles Bauman
George Kleine
Stanley Kramer
Carl Laemmle
Jesse Lasky
Henry Lehrman
Sol Lesser
Nat Levine
Ralph M. Like
Samuel Long
Sigmund Lubin
Lumiere Brothers
Marcus Loew
Charles Pathe
Leo Maloney
Frank Marion
Louis B. Mayer
Leo McCarey
Georges Méliès
Oscar Micheaux
Eadweard Muybridge
Sigmund Neufel
Marshall Neilan
Richard Norman
Nasser Brothers
Nassour Brothers
Sydney Olcott (Kalem)
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks
Charles Ray
Hal Roach
B.A. Rolf
Richard Rowland
B. P. Schulberg
Nicholas Schenck
David O. Selznick
Myron Selznick
Lewis J. Selznick
Mack Sennett
William Selig
John Stahl
Stern Brothers
Ruth Stonehouse
Thomas Tally
Irving Thalberg
King Vidor
Walter Wanger
Jack Warner, Sam Warner, Harry Warner,
Orson Welles
Ted and Leo Wharton
Doc Willlat
Irvin Willat
Daryl Zannuck
Adolpf Zukor