The American Feature Film Company

Before he became a photographer of movie stars, Nelson Evans' first venture in show business was as a film exchange man.  Beginning around 1903, film exchanges were the distributors of movies, acting as a middleman between film producers and exhibitors.  An exchange would typically handle films from specific producers or, as in the case of Evan's business, specialize in a certain type of film.

Despite naming his exchange The American Feature Film Company, Evans distributed only foreign films.  Ads show that he was handling films from countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.

The first mention of The American Feature Film Company was in the October 5th 1912 issue of The Motion Picture World.  In the "Doings at Los Angeles" column, Evans' mishandling of submitting a film to the local censor board is told.  The board had made a special arrangement to view a film (The Yellow Peril from Germany) he was trying to rent to a local theater, but Evans was apparently unaware of the special meeting and failed to show up.  The board did watch the film the next day at their regular meeting and passed it with a few cuts.  The delay, however, cost Evans 3 days of business on the film.

This incident probably took place sometime in the late summer of 1912, as the Evans family had moved to Toledo, Ohio by September of that year.  It is unknown exactly when this first iteration of The American Feature Film Company began, but it does show that Evans' interest in the film business began during his first stay in Los Angeles.

After a few months in Toledo, Evans restarted the business in January of 1913.  From his base in northeast Ohio, Evans' territory covered not only Ohio, but Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky as well.  To cover the southern part of this area, the company also had an office in Cincinnati.  By early 1914, Evans appears to have sold the business, which continued as the Lake Erie Film Brokers, and began another film exchange in Cleveland.

Evans partnered with two Cincinnati businessmen, I.W. McMahon and Jerome Jackson, as well as his partner in the American Feature Film Co., W. J. Findlay, and his father Charles, to create the Independent Feature Film Company.  The company was formed with capital stock of $25,000 (very roughly around $500,000 in today's money). 

For whatever reason, the Independent Feature Film Company, or at least Evans' involvement, was short-lived.  In the fall of 1914, several press releases and full-page ads announced the creation of the Standard Program Association, a conglomeration of several film exchanges, with the intention of distributing a standard package of films across the country.  Evans was named as one of the vice presidents of the association, which is impressive for a 25 year old with less than 5 years experience in the business.  The Standard Program was set to begin in January of 1915, but according to some sources (not yet verified), Evans had already returned to Los Angeles and started his career as a photographer in the last months of 1914 (however, the ad below, from December 1914, still has him listed as a vice-president).  As for the Standard Program Association, it's ultimate fate is unknown, the last mention of it in trade magazines being in the very month it was to begin.

 Information is still sketchy concerning the end of Evans' career in the film exchange business and his subsequent return to Los Angeles.  Did his business go under?  Did he just tire of it?  Were there health reasons?  Perhaps the lure of a job in the film industry, which had begun it's exodus westward by this time, pulled him back.  Like most of the questions that come up in my research, we will never be able to answer them.