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 early years

UA began as a joint venture, featuring three of the country's most popular stars. The original terms called for Pickford, Fairbanks, Griffith and Chaplin to produce five pictures each year. But by the time the company got off the ground, feature-films were becoming more expensive, more polished; running times had settled at around ninety minutes (or eight reels). It was was clear that no one, no matter how popular, could produce and star in five films a year. By 1924, by which time Hart and Griffith had dropped out, the company was facing a crisis: either bring in others to help support a costly distribution system or concede defeat. The veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president; not only had he been producing pictures for a decade, but he brought along commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, and his brother-in-law, Buster Keaton. Contracts were signed with a number of independent producers, especially Samuel Goldwyn, Alexander Korda and Howard Hughes. Schenck also formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name.

Related Topics:
Norma Talmadge - Constance Talmadge - Buster Keaton - Samuel Goldwyn - Alexander Korda - Howard Hughes

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Still, even with a broadening of the company, UA struggled. The coming of sound ended the careers of Pickford and Fairbanks; Chaplin, rich enough to do what he pleased, worked only occasionally. Schenck resigned in 1933 to organize a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, Twentieth Century Pictures, which brought four pictures a years to UA's schedule; Pickford herself produced a few films, and at various times Goldwyn, Korda, Walt Disney, Walter Wanger and David O.Selznick were made "producing partners" (i.e., sharing in the profits), but ownership still rested with the founders. As the years passed and the dynamics of the business changed, these "producing partners" drifted away, Goldwyn and Disney to RKO, Wanger to Universal, Selznick to retirement. By the late 1940s, United Artists had virtually ceased to exist as either a producer or distributor.

Related Topics:
Darryl F. Zanuck - Twentieth Century Pictures - Walt Disney - Walter Wanger - David O.Selznick

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