Carl Elias Milliken was a U.S. Republican and Progressive Party

Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

The Progressive Party of 1912 was an American political party. It was formed after a split in the Republican Party between President William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt....

 politician, 51st governor of Maine. An early notable figure in the motion picture industry.

A native of Pittsfield, Maine, Milliken graduated from Bates College

Bates College

Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...

 in 1897. He went on to receive his masters degree from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1899, before moving to Island Falls, Maine

Island Falls, Maine

Island Falls is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 793 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water...

 to enter the lumber business. During the next six years, Milliken held positions as general manager of two lumber companies and an axe manufacturer and as president of a local telephone company.

His political career began in 1905, when he was elected to the Maine House of Representatives

Maine House of Representatives

The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 members representing an equal amount of districts across the state. Each voting member of the House represents around 8,450 citizens of the state...

. Milliken moved up to the Maine State Senate in 1909, and was president of that body from 1913 to 1915.

Running for Governor of Maine

Governor of Maine

The governor of Maine is the chief executive of the State of Maine. Before Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts and the governor of Massachusetts was chief executive....

 as a Progressive Party candidate in 1916, Milliken easily defeated the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 incumbent, Oakley C. Curtis

Oakley C. Curtis

Oakley C. Curtis was an American politician and the 50th Governor of Maine.- Early life :Curtis was born in Portland, Maine on March 29, 1865. He studied at the local schools. He worked in the banking industry...

. He was reelected in 1918, this time by a smaller margin over Bertrand McIntire. Milliken was the first Governor to be nominated by direct primary. As Governor, he strictly enforced state and federal alcohol prohibition laws, which he strongly supported.

Milliken left office on January 5, 1921. The following year, he became executive secretary and chief spokesman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (later the Motion Picture Association of America

Motion Picture Association of America

The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...

), the movie industry’s first self-censorship body. Milliken served as executive secretary for more than two decades, retiring in 1947.

After stepping down from the MPAA, Milliken served as the managing trustee of Teaching Film Custodians, a trust for educational films, and also served a term as president of the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society.

Milliken married twice. His first wife, the former Emma Chase, died in 1930. He then married her sister, Caroline Chase. With his first wife, Milliken had one son and six daughters.

Trivia

• Milliken was Maine's governor during World War I
  World War I
  World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
  
  . During that war, the 103rd Infantry Regiment (of the 26th Division
  26th Infantry Division (United States)
  The 26th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army. As a major formation of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, it was based in Boston, Massachusetts for most of its history...
  
   of the American Expeditionary Force
  American Expeditionary Force
  The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...
  
  ), which was composed of Maine residents, was nicknamed the "Milliken Regiment".
• A residential house on the campus of Bates College is named after Milliken. The house was known in the 1980s for hosting rowdy alcohol-available parties; ironic, given Milliken's stance on prohibition.

Sources

• "Ex-Gov. Milliken of Maine was 83." New York Times, 2 May 1961: 37.
• Senate Presidents - Maine Legislature - Carl E. Milliken