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Western Film Exchange was founded in Milwaukee in July 1906 by John R. Freuler and Harry E. Aitken for the purpose of mass producing and distributing Western films to movie theaters throughout the American midwest. One of over 100 such "exchanges," Western Film proved to be more successful than most, opening branch offices in several midwestern cities, including Chicago, St. Louis, and Joplin, Missouri. Exchanges would negotiate with film studios for the rights to a completed film production, and would distribute the product to nickelodeon movie theaters.

This business model, however, came to a halt in 1908 when the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC; commonly known as the Edison Trust) launched a wave of lawsuits against independent film studios on patent infringement grounds. Most studios did not have the means to stand against the Trust's onslaught, and were forced out of business. With fewer films being produced, Freuler and Aitken were soon faced with financial difficulties. In order to keep Western Film afloat, they formed a succession of independent studios expressly for the purpose of keeping Western Film supplied with new pictures. The first of these studios was the American Film Manufacturing Company, founded in 1910, which was soon joined by Majestic Film. Both Western Film and its various affiliated studios were targeted by the MPPC to little avail: so successful were Freuler and Aitken's ventures that in 1912 they founded a new corporation to unite all of their holdings. By 1914 this new company, Mutual Film Corporation, had superseded all branches of the Western Film Exchange, which effectively ceased to exist.

• Larry Widen. "John Freuler and Harry Aitken: Local Boys Make Good." Milwaukee History. 2000. Accessed on March 3, 2005.
• Robert Sklar (1994). Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75549-7.