Motion Picture Pioneer, Film Executive, Film Producer. Co-founder of Universal Pictures, he was an important figure in the history of motion pictures. Born Pierre Ernest Jules Brulatour in New Orleans, Louisiana, he was raised in New Orleans by his parents Thomas and Marie Brulatour, his grandfather Pierre E. Brulatour was a wine importer from Bordeaux, France. In 1898, Jules moved to New York City, New York to work for the Manhattan Optical Company, which was based in Cresskill, New Jersey, as a sales representative. In 1907, he became sales chief for the Lumiere Brothers North American Company. Photography pioneer George Eastman appointed him as head of distribution for Eastman Kodak. Brulatour met Carl Laemmle in 1909 while working in Fort Lee, New Jersey, leading to the formation of the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company which went against the film monopoly of the Edison Trust (Motion Pictures Patent Company) overseen by Thomas Edison. Brulatour was also President of The Motion Pictures Sales Company, co-founder of Peerless Pictures, the Animated Weekly newsreel films. He even found time to be a producer-advisor for Eclair Film Company in France. Brulatour and Laemmle reunited in 1912 to form Universal Film Manufacturing Company later known as Universal Pictures or Universal Studios with Adam Kessel and Charles O. Baumann, Robert H. Cochrane, Pat Powers, William Swanson, Mark Dintenfass and David Horsley as fellow co-founders. Brulatour was Universal's first president and resigned from Kodak during this time. The merger of leading independent filmmakers under the Universal brand was a major turning point in the history of film industry. It led to the building of the first major Hollywood studio, Universal City in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Universal City's construction was completed in 1915 with a Grand Opening. In 1914, Brulatour financed the building of a studio backlot for Peerless Pictures in Fort Lee along with the rebuilding of Eclair's film processing laboratory, film storage vaults and offices, which had previously burned in a fire, destroying film negatives for almost all the company's films. Brulatour was married three times, first to Clara Isabelle Blouin from 1894 to 1915, actress-singer Dorothy Gibson from 1917 to 1919 and actress-producer Hope Hampton from 1923 until his death in 1946. He had three children with Clara: Claire, Marie and Claude.