[2] Ince revolutionized the motion picture industry by creating the first major Hollywood studio facility and invented movie production by introducing the "assembly line" system of filmmaking.

In September 1911, Ince walked into the offices of actor-financier Charles O. Baumann (1874–1931) who co-owned the New York Motion Picture Company (NYMP) with actor-writer Adam Kessel, Jr. (1866–1946).

Ince's aspirations soon led him to leave the narrow confines of Edendale and find a location that would give him greater scope and variety.

and Pacific Coast Highway in the Santa Monica Mountains, (the present-day location of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine) which he rented by the day.

[11][13] The "Miller 101 Bison Ranch Studio", which the Millers dubbed "Inceville" (and was later re-christened "Triangle Ranch") was the first of its kind in that it featured silent stages, production offices, printing labs, a commissary large enough to serve lunch to hundreds of workers, dressing rooms, props houses, elaborate sets, and other necessities – all in one location.

While the site was under construction, Ince also leased the 101 Ranch and Wild West Show from the Miller Bros., bringing the whole troupe from Oklahoma out to California via train.

The show consisted of 300 cowboys and cowgirls; 600 horses, cattle and other livestock (including steers and bison) and a whole Sioux tribe (200 of them in all) who set up their teepees on the property.

According to Katherine La Hue in her book, Pacific Palisades: Where the Mountains Meet the Sea: Ince invested $35,000 in building, stages and sets ... a bit of Switzerland, a Puritan settlement, a Japanese village ... beyond the breakers, an ancient brigantine weighed anchor, cutlassed men swarming over the sides of the ship, while on the shore performing cowboys galloped about, twirling their lassos in pursuit of errant cattle ...

Supplies of every sort were needed to house and feed a veritable army of actors, directors and subordinates.While the cowboys, Native Americans and assorted workmen lived at "Inceville", the main actors came from Los Angeles and other communities as needed, taking the red trolley cars to the Long Wharf at Temescal Canyon, where buckboards conveyed them to the set.

By enabling more than one film to be made at a time, Ince decentralized the process of movie production to meet the increased demand from theaters.

Even though he was the first producer-director and directed most of his early productions, by 1913 Ince eventually ceased full-time directing to concentrate on producing,[16] transferring this responsibility to such proteges as Francis Ford and his brother John Ford, Jack Conway, William Desmond Taylor, Reginald Barker, Fred Niblo, Henry King and Frank Borzage.

[18] Portentously, on January 16, 1916, a few days after the opening of his first Culver City studio, a fire broke out at "Inceville", the first of many that eventually destroyed all of the buildings.

La Hue writes that "the place was virtually a ghost town when the last remnants of "Inceville" were burned on July 4, 1922, leaving only a "weatherworn old church, which stood sentinel over the charred ruins."

Taking Culver's advice, Ince left NYMP and on July 19 partnered with D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett to form The Triangle Motion Picture Company based on their prestige as producers.

They attracted directors and stars of the day, including Pickford, Lillian Gish, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.

One of his important pictures as a director was Civilization (1916), an epic plea for peace and American neutrality set in a mythical country and dedicated to the mothers of those who died in World War I.

Although many believe that such classics as Gone with the Wind and King Kong were later filmed on that same lot, those movies in fact had been shot at 9336 West Washington Blvd at the Thomas H. Ince Studios.

Plans submitted to him by architects Meyer & Holler, included having a whole front administrative building made into a replica of George Washington's home at Mount Vernon.

That same year, President Woodrow Wilson took a tour of the studios as did the King and Queen of Belgium, along with their son, Prince Leopold, among much pomp and ceremony.

Accompanied by Dr. Goodman, a licensed though non-practicing physician, Ince traveled by train to Del Mar, where he was taken to a hotel and given medical treatment by a second doctor and a nurse.

[26] Nell said that Ince had been treated for chest pains caused by angina, but years later his son William became a physician and said that his father's illness resembled thrombosis.

[26] The front page of the Wednesday morning Los Angeles Times supposedly sensationalized the story: '"Movie Producer Shot on Hearst Yacht!

On November 20, the Times published Ince's obituary citing heart disease as the cause of death along with his failing health from an automobile accident two years earlier.

[29] A month later, the New York Times reported that the San Diego district attorney had announced that Ince's death was caused by heart failure and no further investigation was necessary.

[5] However, several conflicting stories circulated about the incident, often revolving around a claim that Hearst shot Ince in the head after mistaking him for Charlie Chaplin.

[33] Contrary to these accounts, during Ince's funeral, the Los Angeles Times reported that his casket would remain open for one hour "to afford friends and studio employees to pass for one last glimpse of the man they loved and respected", with no witnesses ever mentioning a bullet wound.

[34][35] Ince's body was cremated on November 21 in Hollywood Forever Cemetery and the ashes returned to his family on December 24, 1924, who reportedly scattered them at sea.

[36] Hearst movie columnist Louella Parsons' name also figured into the Ince scandal, with some speculating that she had been aboard Oneida during the reported shooting.

However, other sources show that Parsons did not gain her position with Hearst as part of "hush money" but had been the motion picture editor of the Hearst-owned New York American in December 1923 and her contract was signed a year before Ince's death.

However, Nell was left a very wealthy woman and the Château Élysée was an apartment she had already owned and had built on the grounds where the Ince estate once stood.