At first glance the title of this book seems rather overstated, yet the more one reads the contents, the truer the claim appears that “Colonel” William Selig (1864–1948) did, in some ways, invent Hollywood. His innovations included creating the first American studio complex in Chicago and the first permanent film studio in Los Angeles, and producing the first feature-length dramas in the US. In terms of genres his achievements were equally impressive: he pioneered westerns, serials, the jungle adventure genre, and aspects of newsreels and the horror film. Andrew Erish, after listing these and other achievements, concludes that “everybody followed Selig, not only by imitating film and business practices, but also by trailing after him to Los Angeles” (3).

It seems that factors of self-interest by other filmmakers and mythmaking by earlier historians have served to diminish Selig's standing as a pioneer. In more recent decades the rightful rehabilitation has probably been delayed due to the huge research challenge of analyzing over twenty linear feet of Selig papers held in the Academy (Los Angeles). Andrew Erish has now had the tenacity to do this work, along with examining many other sources, and the evidence of his hard work is in his endnotes and acknowledgements. Despite the wealth of detail, the main text of the book is readable and accessible, largely because Erish has organized the material so well. It is arranged mainly by subject, albeit with a good sense of chronological development within chapters and over the whole volume.

After a suitably titled introduction, “The Forgotten Pioneer,” Erish takes us into an account of Selig's earlier life in magic performance, and then recounts how from 1896 he became involved with motion pictures in Chicago. The second chapter describes Selig's forays into filmmaking in the US West, in actualities and then dramas. Following on naturally is a chapter on early cowboy films, dealing especially with Tom Mix and his skills as a stuntman (and also as a parodist of the movies). Chapter 4 examines the beginnings of the producer's operations in Los Angeles – he visited in 1906 and created a studio three years later – and the infamous murder of his key director there, Francis Boggs. Next is an account of what was arguably Selig's most original genre creation, the jungle adventure (which began when he faked Theodore Roosevelt's African safari), and from this a sideline developed: running a zoo. Chapter 6 deals with the large-scale international distribution of Selig films, and the effect of the First World War on these operations. The next chapter covers Selig's production of actualities, newsreels and expedition films. Then chapter 8 describes the origin and development of feature films and of serials, Selig reaching the pinnacle of his success in 1914 thanks to films of these types. Finally, the book recounts Selig's later years, still making some important films such as Ravished Armenia (1919), but thereafter winding down through the 1920s, when he became increasingly reliant for income on selling rights to story properties that he had acquired earlier.

I have a few minor misgivings about this book. The Lumière cinématographe was not based on Edison or Armat designs (10). Erish gives no description of the mechanisms of Selig's own camera and Polyscope projector, although these were crucial to his early film career and he took out several patents on them (14). A couple of Italian words are wrongly spelt (Itala and Società). I think Erish somewhat overplays the qualities of The Ne'er Do Well (1916) against those of The Spoilers (1914) and at recent screenings in Pordenone I found the earlier film to be more effective in some respects. The filmography of surviving Selig films and their archival locations will be helpful to future researchers, but the index, which misses several mentioned names, less so. I would have liked more statistical data, which might have helped give a wider view of the nature and size of Selig's operations in the USA and elsewhere.

Overall, though, it is hard to find much to criticize. This is a thoroughly researched, well-organized, carefully written book. It contains a mass of fresh information, and makes interesting new claims about the early cinema and about Selig's achievements and “firsts.” The author is not averse to pointing out (politely) the errors of previous film historians, and due to his evident depth of knowledge of the subject I am inclined to believe him. Few scholarly works are ever “the last word,” and I might suggest one smaller follow-up: a study of Selig's distribution operation run by E. H. Montagu from London, which Erish so usefully outlines here.