Studios and Picture Distributors

92 movies and 3 serials were made by 5 studios and rereleased by 6 other companies (Warner Brothers rereleased some of its own films).

It started with United Artists and Dead End in 1937 and ended in 1958 with In The Money by Allied Artists.

STUDIOS

United Artists

In 1918, Charlie Chaplin could not get his parent company First National Pictures to increase his production budget despite being one of their top producers. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks had their own contracts, with First National and Famous Players–Lasky respectively, but these were due to run out with no clear offers forthcoming. Sydney Chaplin, brother and business manager for Charlie, deduced something was going wrong, and contacted Pickford and Fairbanks. Together they hired a private detective, who discovered a plan to merge all production companies and to lock in "exhibition companies" to a series of five-year contracts.

Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith incorporated United Artists as a joint venture company on February 5, 1919. Each held a 25% stake in the preferred shares and a 20% stake in the common shares of the joint venture, with the remaining 20% of common shares held by lawyer and advisor William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford and cowboy star William S. Hart a year earlier. Already Hollywood veterans, the four stars talked of forming their own company to better control their own work.

Warner Brothers

The Studio's predecessor (and modern Warner Bros. Entertainment as a whole) was founded in 1910 as the Warner Features Company in New Castle, Pennsylvania, by filmmaker Sam Warner and his business partners and brothers, Harry, Albert, and Jack. They produced their first film, the Peril of the Plains in 1912, which Sam directed for the St. Louis Motion Picture Company. In 1918, during World War I, the four Warner brothers produced an adaptation of the book My Four Years in Germany by James W. Gerard as their first full-scale picture, which was a box office hit and helped the brothers to establish themselves as a prestige studio.

On April 4, 1923, Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. was officially established, as the brothers focused entirely on the motion picture industry. In 1927, Warner Bros. Pictures revolutionized the film industry by releasing its first sound film (or "talkie"), The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson.

Universal Pictures

Universal was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane and Jules Brulatour. One story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons, and calculating the day's takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons. For Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Patents Company (or the "Edison Trust") meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Based on the Latham Loop [dubious – discuss] used in cameras and projectors, along with other patents, the Trust collected fees on all aspects of movie production and exhibition and attempted to enforce a monopoly on distribution.

Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures. In June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with his brothers-in-law Abe Stern and Julius Stern. That company quickly evolved into the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), with studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where many early films in America's first motion picture industry were produced in the early 20th century. Laemmle broke with Edison's custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers. By naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as "The Biograph Girl", and actor King Baggot, in what may be the first instance of a studio using stars in its marketing.

The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York City on April 30, 1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the primary figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley, and Brulatour. The company was established on June 8, 1912, formed in a merger of Independent Moving Pictures (IMP), the Powers Motion Picture Company, Rex Motion Picture Manufacturing Company, Champion Film Company, Nestor Film Company, and the New York Motion Picture Company.[14] Eventually all would be bought out by Laemmle. The new Universal studio was a vertically integrated company, with movie production, distribution, and exhibition venues all linked in the same corporate entity, the central element of the Studio system era.

Monogram Pictures

Monogram's antecedent was W. Ray Johnston's Rayart Pictures, specializing in silent western and action features. In 1929 Johnston entered the new field of sound pictures, with Rayart releasing the first feature-length talking western Overland Bound, featuring silent stars Leo Maloney and Allene Ray. Johnston renamed his company Raytone, then Continental Pictures, then Syndicate Pictures, and finally (in March 1931) Monogram Pictures. Johnston was president, with his Rayart colleague Trem Carr as vice president.

Johnston made an honest effort to compete with the larger companies in the early 1930s. When movie programs consisted of a single feature film plus short subjects, Monogram's features could and did compete with major-studio productions on America's screens. Under Johnston, Monogram offered a variety of reasonably priced features for the Depression-era exhibitors, including adaptations of famous books and plays; gangster stories; jungle thrillers; topical comedies; romances; and westerns. During its first few years Monogram could seldom afford big-name movie stars and would employ either former silent-film actors who were idle (Clara Kimball Young, William Farnum, Herbert Rawlinson, William Collier, Sr.) or young featured players (Ray Walker, Wallace Ford, William Cagney, Charles Starrett).

Allied Artists

Producer Walter Mirisch began at Monogram Pictures after World War II as assistant to studio head Samuel "Steve" Broidy. He convinced Broidy that the days of low-budget films were ending, and in 1946, Monogram created a new unit, Allied Artists Productions, to make costlier films.[9] At a time when the average Hollywood picture cost about $800,000 (and the average Monogram picture cost about $90,000), Allied Artists' first release, It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), cost more than $1,200,000.[10] Subsequent Allied Artists releases were more economical but did have enhanced production value, with many being filmed in color. In July 1948 Monogram reported a loss of $978,000. The following year the loss was $850,000, although Broidy thought the company would go into profit the following year.[11] The studio's new policy permitted what Mirisch called "B-plus" pictures, which were released along with Monogram's established line of B fare. In September 1952, Monogram announced that henceforth it would only produce films bearing the Allied Artists name. The studio ceased making movies under the Monogram brand name in 1953 (although it was reactivated by AAI by the millennium).[12] The parent company became Allied Artists, with Monogram Pictures becoming an operating division.

Film Classics

Film Classics was an American film distributor active between 1943 and 1951. Established by George Hirliman and Irvin Shapiro, the company initially concentrated on re-releases of earlier hits by other producers, including Hal Roach, Alexander Korda, Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, and Edward Small, but began to handle new independent productions of a generally low-budget nature, starting in 1944.

George Hirliman left Film Classics in 1944 to enter the new field of television, then still in its experimental stages. Irvin Shapiro also moved on, establishing a film import-export concern. The new company president was Joseph Bernhard; under Bernhard, Film Classics began producing new, original features in 1947.

In October 1947 Film Classics was purchased outright by Cinecolor, to promote its color process in its own feature films. Joseph Bernhard, president of Film Classics, became vice president of Cinecolor. Seven months later, Cinecolor president and founder William Crespinel stepped down, and Bernhard assumed the Cinecolor presidency on May 15, 1948. In 1950, Film Classics merged with Eagle-Lion Films; the new firm, Eagle-Lion Classics, was itself absorbed by United Artists in 1951.

Realart

Realart Pictures was a motion picture distribution company founded in 1948 by Jack Broder and Joseph Harris. The company specialized in reissues of older pictures, particularly from the library of Universal Pictures, but also handled an occasional pickup or import, as well as the films made by Jack Broder Productions.

Savoy

Savoy Pictures Corp. formerly was called Savoy Films Corp., and was one of the subsidiaries owned by Moe Kerman and Joe Felder, the latter the former branch manager of Monogram's New York exchange. At the time of Felder's appointment in 1937, the Boston exchange was being run by Steve Broidy, future president of Monogram.

Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn Productions was an American film production company founded by Samuel Goldwyn in 1923, and active through 1959. Personally controlled by Goldwyn and focused on production rather than distribution, the company developed into the most financially and critically successful independent production company in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

DISTRIBUTORS

RELEASES

UNITED ARTISTS - 1

Dead End (1937)

WARNER BROTHERS - 9 (6 Releases, 3 Rereleases)

Crime School (1938)

Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)

They Made Me A Criminal (1939)

Hell's Kitchen (1939)

Angels Wash Their Faces (1939)

On Dress Parade (1939)

Crime School (1943) Rerelease

They Made Me A Criminal (1944) Rerelease

Angels With Dirty Faces (1948) Rerelease

UNIVERSAL PICTURES - 15

Little Tough Guy (1938)

Little Tough Guys In Society (1938)

Newsboys' Home (1939)

Code of the Streets (1939)

Call A Messenger (1939)

You're Not So Tough (1940)

Junior G-Men

Give Us Wings (1940)

Hit The Road (1941)

Mob Town (1941)

Sea Raiders (1941)

Junior G-Men of the Air (1942)

Tough As They Come (1942)

Mug Town (1942)

Keep 'Em Slugging (1943)

MONOGRAM PICTURES - 50

East Side Kids (1940)

Boys of the City (1940)

That Gang of Mine (1940)

Pride of the Bowery (1940)

Flying Wild (1941)

Bowery Blitzkrieg (1941)

Spooks Run Wild (1941)

Mr. Wise Guy (1942)

Let's Get Tough! (1942)

Smart Alecks (1942)

'Neath Brooklyn Bridge (1942)

Kid Dynamite (1943)

Clancy Street Boys (1943)

Ghosts on the Loose (1943)

Mr. Muggs Steps Out (1943)

Million Dollar Kid (1944)

Follow The Leader (1944)

Block Busters (1944)

Bowery Champs (1944)

Docks of New York (1945)

Mr. Muggs Rides Again (1945)

Come Out Fighting (1945)

Live Wires (1946)

In Fast Company (1946)

Bowery Bombshell (1946)

Spook Chasers (1946)

Mr. Hex (1946)

Hard Boiled Mahoney (1947)

News Hounds (1947)

Bowery Buckaroos (1947)

Angels' Alley (1948)

Jinx Money (1948)

Smuggler's Cove (1948)

Trouble Makers (1948)

Fighting Fool (1949)

Hold That Baby! (1949)

Angels in Disguise (1949)

Master Minds (1949)

Blonde Dynamite (1950)

Lucky Losers (1950)

Triple Trouble (1950)

Blues Busters (1950)

Bowery Battalion (1951)

Ghost Chasers (1951)

Let's Go Navy! (1951)

Crazy Over Horses (1951)

Hold That Line (1952)

Here Come the Marines (1952)

Feudin' Fools (1952)

No Holds Barred (1952)

ALLIED ARTISTS - 20

Jalopy (1953)

Loose In London (1953)

Clipped Wings (1953)

Private Eyes (1953)

Paris Playboys (1954)

The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954)

Jungle Gents (1954)

Bowery To Bagdad (1955)

High Society (1955)

Spy Chasers (1955)

Jail Busters (1955)

Dig That Uranium (1956)

Crashing Las Vegas (1956)

Fighting Trouble (1956)

Hot Shots (1956)

Hold That Hypnotist (1957)

Spook Chasers (1957)

Looking For Danger (1957)

Up In Smoke (1957)

In The Money (1958)

FILM CLASSICS - 3

Dead End (1944)

Junior G-Men (1948)

Mob Town (1948)

REALART PICTURES - 8

Little Tough Guy (1948)

Little Tough Guys in Society (1948)

You're Not So Tough (1948)

Give Us Wings (1948)

Tough As They Come (1948)

Keep 'Em Slugging (1950)

Code of the Streets (1952)

Mug Town (1952)

SAVOY FILMS - 10

East Side Kids (1949)

Boys of the City (1949

That Gang of Mine (1949)

Pride of the Bowery (1949)

Flying Wild (1949)

Bowery Blitzkrieg (1949)

Mr. Wise Guy (1949)

Let's Get Tough!

Smart Alecks

'Neath Brooklyn Bridge

Astor

Astor Pictures was a motion picture distribution company in the United States from 1930 to 1963. It was founded by Robert M. Savini (29 August 1886 – 29 April 1956). Astor specialized in film re-releases. It later released independently made productions, including some of its own films made during the 1950s.

Dominant

Dominant Pictures Corporation was a 1950s film distribution subsidiary of Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.). It operated in the mid-1950s, notably re-releasing classic films such as Dark Passage (1956). The company's library was later absorbed into United Artists.

ASTOR PICTURES - 9

Spook Run Wild (1949)

Kid Dynamite (1949)

Clancy Street Boys (1949)

Ghosts on the Loose (1949)

Million Dollar Kid (1949)

Follow the Leader (1949)

Block Busters (1950)

Bowery Champs (1950)

Dock of New York (1950)

SAMUEL GOLDWYN - 1

Dead End (1954)

DOMINANT PICTURES - 3

Crime School (1956)

Angles With Dirty Faces (1956)

They Made Me A Criminal (1956)