Solax Studios was an American motion picture studio founded in 1910 by executives from the Gaumont Film Company of France. Alice Guy-Blaché, her husband Herbert, and a third partner, George A. Magie established The Solax Company. Herbert Blaché managed production for the new company, while Alice Guy-Blaché, in addition to being a mother, was artistic director and the director for many of its films. They built the first studio in Flushing, New York but, as Solax prospered they invested more than $100,000 in a modern production plant in 1912 in Fort Lee, New Jersey, a place that was quickly becoming the film capital of America and home to many major film studios. 1910 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Gaumont Pictures were founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont (1864-1946). ... Alice Guy-Blaché (July 1, 1873–March 24, 1968) was a pioneer filmmaker who was the first female director in the motion picture industry and is considered to be the first ever director of a fiction film. ... Flushing is a section of the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. ... Map highlighting Fort Lees location within Bergen County. ... A movie studio is a location, room, building, or group of buildings and/or sound stages, offices and storage facilities, which may include a backlot, where movies are made. ...

This was a time when the American film industry was rapidly changing from little more than a scientific curiosity to an important sector of the economic engine driving the economy. In this environment, Solax studios was conceived as an all-in-one operation with its own film processing laboratory and state of the art stages built under a glass roof. In addition to the administrative offices, the production facilities included dressing rooms, a set fabrication workshop, and a costume design department with sewing room.

In 1912, Solax Studios made a short film titled A Fool And His Money that was directed by Alice Guy-Blaché. It is believed to be the first film ever made with a cast comprising only African-American actors. The film is now at the National Center for Film and Video Preservation at the American Film Institute. The new Metro Pictures, (now MGM), began its business life in 1916 primarily as a distributor of successful Solax films. Several emerging stars appeared in Solax films including John and Ethel Barrymore, Claire Whitney, Olga Petrova, and Billy Quirk. African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or Black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to West and sub-Saharan Africa. ... The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. ... Metro Studios, Culver City, CA. in 1918 Metro Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company founded in 1916 by Richard A. Rowland (1880-1947) and Louis B. Mayer (1885-1957). ... MGM logo Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM, is a large media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of cinema and television programs. ... John Sidney Blythe (February 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942), better known as John Barrymore, became famous as a Shakespearean actor, lauded for his Hamlet. ... In the play Carrots, c. ... Olga Petrova born May 10, 1884 - died November 30, 1977, was an actress, screenwriter and playwright. ...

In between their own productions, the Blachés leased the studios to other production companies such as Goldwyn Picture Corporation and Selznick Picture Corp. However, Solax and the rest of the East Coast film industry rapidly declined throughout the 1920s as a result of the phenomenal growth of motion picture facilities in Hollywood, California that offered lower costs and a climate that accommodated year-round filming. In 1916 Samuel Goldfish partnered with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using a combination of both names to call their movie-making enterprise the Goldwyn Picture Corporation. ... The East Coast (also known as the Eastern Seaboard) is a term referencing the easternmost coastal states in the United States of America. ... Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that extends from Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to south boundary east of La Brea Avenue...