Gaumont was a French company (owned by Leon Gaumont, an engineer and photographer) which started making films in 1897. By 1912, Gaumont was a major distributor, second only to
, with a chain of cinemas and patents for its own sound system and color film. (Although these worked, and many sound movies were made, they were not at the time commercially viable.)
They started a London Office in the early 1900s and in 1915 they opened a studio at Lime Grove in Shepherds Bush, London. (Lime Grove Studios had a venerable career: many British films were made there during the 1930's and 40's. In 1949, it was bought by the BBC- initially as a temporary measure while their new Television Centre was being built at the nearby White City, but they continued to use it until 1991.)
They also opened a New York Office in the first decade of the 20th century. When Alice Guy Blaché (Leon Gaumont's secretary, who had persuaded him to go into film production, and had directed over 100 films at their French Studios) and her husband moved to America (around 1910) she set up her own production company,
Solax, to make films specifically for the American audiences to be released through Gaumont's American Office. She built a state-of-the-art studio complex at Fort Lee, New Jersey.
So, by the nineteen 'teens', Gaumont (the parent company in France) had spun off two more studios:
Gaumont British and
Gaumont American.
In 1922,
Gaumont British was taken over by the Ostrer Brothers, hyphenated to
Gaumont-British, and became totally independent from its French parent. In 1929, it was taken over by Michael Balcon, and run in parallel with his other company
Gainsborough. At this time two other companies were set up:
G-B Instructional for making educational films, and
Gaumont-British News for newsreel production. In the 1940's,
Gaumont-British became part of the Rank empire, and a third spin-off company was set up:
G-B Animation.
