Independent film New York. During the Edison era of the early 1900s, many Jewish immigrants had found jobs in the U.S. film industry. Under the Edison Trust, they were able to make their mark in a brand-new business: the exhibition of films in storefront theaters called nickelodeons. Within a few years, ambitious men like Samuel Goldwyn, Carl Laemmle, Adolph Zukor, Louis B. Mayer, and the Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack) had switched to the production side of the business. After hearing about Biograph's success in Hollywood, in 1913 many such would-be movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by
Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company The Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company (also known as Helme Tobacco Company) of Wheeling, West Virginia was a tobacco company. They were best known for their Mail Pouch chewing tobacco. Mail Pouch was a popular chew advertised on over 20,000 barns, most of which were located in the rural Ohio River Valley. Each barn had an end or side painted with the familiar Mail Pouch lettering and advertising, "Treat yourself to the best." The brothers began manufacturing cigars in 1879 as a side-line to Samuel Bloch's wholesale grocery business. It was discovered that the left-over cigar clippings