The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.
Events
- Carl Laemmle founds the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP).[1]
- Selig Polyscope Company establish the first permanent movie studio in Los Angeles in Edendale, Los Angeles.
- The New York Motion Picture Company is founded and also open a movie studio in Edendale. The studio was later used by Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and then Mascot Pictures who became part of Republic Pictures
- May 12 - Mr. Flip is released and is the first film to feature someone being hit in the face with a pie.
- May 23 - The first news cinema, The Daily Bioscope, opens in London.
- June 17 - In the Sultan's Power is the first film ever completely made in Los Angeles, California. It was filmed by director Francis Boggs.
- October 25 - IMP release their first film, Hiawatha, based on the 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.[2]
- December 2 - Matsunosuke Onoe, who would become the first superstar of Japanese cinema, appears in his first film, Goban Tadanobu.
- December 20 - James Joyce opens the Volta Cinematograph, the first cinema in Dublin.[3]
Films released in 1909
Georges Méliès
- The Count's Wooing
- Le Locataire diabolique (The Diabolical Tenant)
- The Doctor's Secret
- Le papillon fantastique
Others
- The Adventures of Lieutenant Rose
- The Airship Destroyer (originally titled Der Luftkrieg Der Zukunft, also titled "The Aerial Torpedo", "The Battle of the Clouds" {UK} and "The Battle in the Clouds" {US}), directed by Walter R. Booth
- The Cowboy Millionaire, directed by Francis Boggs and Otis Turner
- Entrevista de los Presidentes Díaz-Taft (Mexico), a documentary directed by the Alva Brothers
- The Fitzsimmons-Bill Lang Fight
- Hiawatha, directed by William V. Ranous based on the 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the first film produced by Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures.[2]
- Les Joyeux microbes, directed by Émile Cohl
- Macbeth, directed by André Calmettes
- Mr. Flip, directed by Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson
- Nerone, directed by Luigi Maggi
- Teddy Roosevelt in Africa, directed by Cherry Kearton
Births
- January 1 - Dana Andrews, actor (died 1992)
- January 3 - Victor Borge, musician, actor (died 2000)
- January 8
- January 15 - Gene Krupa, musician, actor (died 1973)
- January 22 - Ann Sothern, actress (died 2001)
- January 24 - Ann Todd, actress (died 1993)
- February 2 - Frank Albertson, actor (died 1964)
- February 6 - Aino Talvi, Estonian actress (d. 1992)
- February 9
- February 11
- February 16 - Jeffrey Lynn, actor (died 1995)
- March 19 - Louis Hayward, actor (died 1995)
- March 26 - Chips Rafferty, actor (died 1971)
- April 4 - Bobby Connelly, child actor (died 1922)
- April 29 - Tom Ewell, actor (died 1994)
- May 15 - James Mason, actor (died 1984)
- May 16 - Margaret Sullavan, actress (died 1960)
- May 30 - Benny Goodman, musician, actor (died 1986)
- June 7 - Jessica Tandy, actress (died 1994)
- June 8 - Robert Carson, actor (died 1979)
- June 14 - Burl Ives, actor (died 1995)
- June 20 - Errol Flynn, actor (died 1959)
- July 1 - Madge Evans, actress (died 1981)
- July 12 - Curly Joe DeRita, actor (died 1993)
- August 18 - Marcel Carné, director (died 1996)
- August 22 - Lucille Ricksen, actress (died 1925)
- August 25
- September 7 - Elia Kazan, director (died 2003)
- October 6 - Robert Carson, screenwriter (died 1983)
- October 20 - Carla Laemmle, actress (died 2014)
- November 11 - Robert Ryan, actor (died 1973)
- November 26 - Frances Dee, actress (died 2004)
- December 9 - Douglas Fairbanks Jr., actor (died 2000)
- December 12 - Karen Morley, actress (died 2003)
- December 20 - Diane Ellis, actress (died 1930)
Deaths
- January 27 - Benoît-Constant Coquelin, actor, Cyrano de Bergerac (born 1841)
- September 4 - Clyde Fitch, author & playwright whose works have been adapted into films. (born 1865)
