United Artists

The United Artists Corporation (aka United Artists Associated, United Artists Pictures, and United Artists Films) was formed on February 5, 1919 by five of the leading figures in early Hollywood, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, William S. Hart and D. W. Griffith. They were motivated in part by a desire to control their own pictures, as well as their futures. When he heard of this plan, Richard Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, said, "The inmates are taking over the asylum." The five friends, with advice from former Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo (son-in-law of then-President Woodrow Wilson), formed their distribution company, with Hiram Abrams as its first managing director.

The 1950s and 1960s

In 1951, two lawyers-turned-producers Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin approached Pickford and Chaplin with a wild idea: let them take over United Artists for five years. If, at the end of those five years, UA was profitable, they would be given an option to buy the company. Since UA was barely alive, Pickford saw nothing to lose and agreed; Chaplin, not favorable at first, came around when his circumstances changed abruptly in 1952.

Related Topics:
Arthur Krim - Robert Benjamin

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Hounded by the American Legion and others for years over his left-wing politics and his lurid private life, Chaplin left the country for a vacation in Europe. While he was away, his visa expired; when he asked the State Department for a renewal, he was refused. Never having bothered to become an American citizen though he had lived in the US since 1914, Chaplin found himself rejected by his adopted land on grounds of "moral turpitude." Unable to return home, he was amenable to selling his half of United Artists, as well as his own studio on La Brea Avenue.

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In taking over UA, Krim and Benjamin created the first studio without a "studio." Primarily acting as bankers, they offered money to independent producers. UA leased space at the Pickford/Fairbanks Studio, but did not own a studio lot as such; thus UA did not have the overhead, the maintenance or the expensive production staff which ran up costs at other studios. Among their first clients were Sam Spiegel and John Huston, whose Horizon Productions gave UA two major hits, The African Queen and Moulin Rouge. Others followed, among them Stanley Kramer, Otto Preminger, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, and a number of actors, newly freed from studio contracts and anxious to produce or direct their own films. UA production-head Arnold Picker could do no wrong in selecting the properties which the company would back. With UA's new success, Pickford saw a chance to exit gracefully, though she still held out for top dollar, walking away with $1.5 million in 1955.

Related Topics:
Sam Spiegel - John Huston - Horizon Productions - The African Queen - Moulin Rouge - Arnold Picker

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UA went public the following year, and as the other mainstream studios fell into decline, UA prospered, adding relationships with the Mirisch brothers, Billy Wilder, Joseph E. Levine and others. In the 1960s, UA introduced U.S. audiences to The Beatles by releasing producer Walter Shenson's A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965). At the same time it backed two expatriate Americans in Britain, who had acquired screen rights to Ian Fleming's Bond novels.

Related Topics:
Mirisch - Billy Wilder - Joseph E. Levine - The Beatles - Walter Shenson - A Hard Day's Night - 1964 - Help! - 1965

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For $1 million, UA backed Harry Salzman and Albert Broccoli's Dr. No (which was a sensation in 1962) and served as the launching point for the James Bond series. That franchise has outlived UA's tenure as a major studio, still going forty years later. Other successful projects backed in this period included Blake Edwards's Pink Panther series, which began in 1964, and Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, which made a star of Clint Eastwood.

Related Topics:
Harry Salzman - Albert Broccoli - Dr. No - James Bond - Blake Edwards - Pink Panther - Sergio Leone - Spaghetti westerns - Clint Eastwood

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Borrowing the idea of financial backing for television, UA's television division was responsible for shows like Gilligan's Island, The Fugitive, Outer Limits, The Patty Duke Show, and thirtysomething. The television unit also had begun to build up a substantial -- and profitable --rental library. (See note below at '"The Fall and Slight Rise of UA"' for more on this). There was also a short-lived record division, later sold to Thorn EMI.

Related Topics:
Gilligan's Island - The Fugitive - Outer Limits - The Patty Duke Show - Thirtysomething - Thorn EMI

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On the basis of this fantastic string of hits in the 1960s, the company was an attractive property, and in 1967 Krim and Benjamin sold control of UA to the San Francisco-based insurance giant, Transamerica Corp.

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