People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Harry E. Aitken

Died 1 August 1956 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Brother of executive Roy Aitken.

Harry E. Aitken was a partner (with Roy Aitken) in the Western Film Exchange of New York during the earliest years of his motion picture career. Aitken and his partners created a number of film production and distribution companies during the 1910s: the Film Supply Company of America (1911), Majestic Motion Picture Company (1911), Mutual Film Corporation (1912), and Triangle Film Corporation (1915).

Continental Feature Film Corporation was formed by Aitken in 1914 to distribute feature-length films not contractually controlled by Mutual. The Epoch Producing Corporation was created in early 1915 with director D.W. Griffith to produce and market The Birth of a Nation (1915). Aitken was squeezed out of Mutual Film Corporation in May 1915. In response, Aitken and partners Adam Kessel and Charles O. Baumann created Triangle Film Corporation in July 1915.

In 1923, Aitken continued efforts in film distribution with Tri-Stone Pictures, Incorporated.

References: Miller-Comedies pp. 8-9; Slide-FineArts p. 1.