Page "History of film" Paragraph 73

Most of the major companies made films in all the genres, but some had a special interest in certain kinds of films.

Once Selig had taken up production in California, they used the ( fairly ) wild animals from the zoo that Colonel Selig had set up there in a series of exotic adventures, with the actors being menaced or saved by the animals.

Essanay specialized in Westerns featuring " Broncho Billy " Anderson, and Kalem sent Sidney Olcott off with a film crew and a troupe of actors to various places in America and abroad to make film stories in the actual places they were supposed to have happened.

Kalem also pioneered the female action heroine from 1912, with Ruth Roland playing starring roles in their Westerns.