The firm, as Compagnie Générale des Éstablissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes, invented the cinema newsreel with Pathé-Journal.

After military service, in 1889, at 25, he began working as a meat merchant but soon took his savings, and with the help of his brothers and his sister, embarked for Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the aim of setting up in business.

Pathé tried to establish himself in various trades including a laundry service based on industrial washing machines that turned out to be unsuccessful.

After a final failure of trying to deal in exotic parrots, when he and his business partner were stricken with yellow fever, Pathé returned to France in poor health.

From 1902 to 1904, Pathé opened branches in Europe and in the United States, with their trademark Gallic cock logo created in 1905, recognized as heralding one of the world's most significant filmmakers.

By using trick photography, the one-minute short was notable in being the first aviation film, predating the flight by the Wright Brothers by two years.

At the end of 1906, assisted by the Spaniard Segundo de Chomón's photography and special effects, Zecca continued to experiment.

[4] Pathé Frères filmed numerous short subjects, the majority of which are sensational criminal adventures, melodramatic love stories, and comedies.

In 1909 Pathé produced his first feature or "long film," Les Misérables, a four-reel screen version of the novel by Victor Hugo.

In 1914, Pathé Frères studios in the United States released the first episodes of The Perils of Pauline, one of the earliest and best remembered screen serials.