# Film Studio logo in background in silent film?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-studio-logo-in-background-in-silent-film/273690>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 8, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-studio-logo-in-background-in-silent-film/273690 "2004-11-08T18:47:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jkirkman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@jkirkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkirkman)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-studio-logo-in-background-in-silent-film/273690/1 "2004-11-08T18:47:16Z")

</div>

I was watching “The Country Doctor” (1909) on TCM this weekend, and noticed that the film studio logo:

[http://www.ex.ac.uk/bill.douglas/Griffith/Griffith%201/Ambio.html](http://www.ex.ac.uk/bill.douglas/Griffith/Griffith%201/Ambio.html)

was prominently placed on the set in the backgrounds of both interior bedside sets. I don’t mean superimposed—the logo had been physically made part of the sets.

Was this a form of copyright protection embedding ownership information into the film? Advertising? Inside joke?

Did other studios besides American Biograph do this?

It was a pretty good print, btw…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-studio-logo-in-background-in-silent-film/273690/2 "2004-11-08T19:20:48Z")

</div>

Most studios did this in the very early days, to prevent other studios from stealing clips from their films and using them in their own films. Notice it’s only done in “important” scenes, not brief linking ones.

I did notice the “AB” (American Biograph) logo on the walls of the two houses in _The Country Doctor_, thought it amusing—“Oh, they must only have one interior decorator in that town!”