The Kodak camera with its roll of film was a tremendous success. It seemed that everyone in the country and many people in other countries wanted Kodak cameras and film.

George was a business executive now and most people called him Mr. Eastman. He signed his memos to the other workers with his initials, GE. Some people, especially good friends, began calling his GE. GE had earned a lot of money selling his camera and film. He wanted some of that money to go to the people who had worked with him to make the Kodak camera and film a success.

By recapitalizing the company in London in 1898 GE earned almost one million dollars. He took one-third of that and sent it to the men and women who worked with him. The note he included said, "Do not think of this money as a gift. You earned it with your hard work and a job well done."

About that same time Thomas Edison invented a camera that took pictures very very fast--about one hundred in just a minute. Edison used the film that GE’s company made to take these pictures. Other people invented projectors that could show these pictures very very fast on a screen. The pictures appeared to move so Edison called them "motioned pictures" that soon was shortened to "motion pictures." Most people called them "the movies." Movie theaters were built in cities and towns and even villages around the world. Each movie theater had a projector. Each projector used miles and miles of the film that the Eastman Kodak company made in each and every movie. People got together in a place called Hollywood to make these movies. They used miles and miles of Kodak film to make these movies. A bonanza for George Eastman!

GE now had to hire thousands of people to make all this film for the movies. He had to build hundreds of new buildings in a place he called Kodak Park to make all this film for the movies. The Eastman Kodak Company now had as many people working at Kodak Park as live in some cities. The Eastman Kodak Company made money on every roll of movie film it made and sold. In 1912, GE and top company officials decided that in every year the company made extra money, every employee would receive some of this extra money as a wage dividend. People soon called this the Kodak Bonus. Of all the many things that George Eastman did for people during his lifetime he decided that the jobs his business made possible was the most important thing. There are still many thousands of women and men around the world who work for the business that George Eastman started: the Eastman Kodak Company. Each year that the company makes a profit, they get a Kodak bonus.