Universal Studios (sometimes called
Universal Pictures or
Universal City Studios), a subsidiary of
NBC Universal, is a major Global American
motion picture company. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in
Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are based in New York City. Universal Pictures is the World's second longest-lived American studio in
San Fernando Valley (
Viacom-owned
Paramount Pictures is the oldest by a month).
History
The founder of Universal was
Carl Laemmle pronounced|ˈlɛmliː
), a German
Jewish immigrant from
Laupheim who settled in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he managed a clothing store. On a 1905 buying trip to
Chicago, Illinois, he was struck by the popularity of
nickelodeons. One story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the take for the day. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, he gave up
dry goods to buy the first of several nickelodeons. For Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the
Edison-backed
Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for any Trust-produced film they showed. On the basis of Edison's patent on the electric motor 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.
It was believed that the productions were meant to be used for another company but they turned it down.
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 partners Abe and Julius Stern. That company quickly evolved into the
Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP). Laemmle broke with Edison's custom of refusing credit to actors. By naming the stars of films, he was able to attract many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he actively promoted
Florence Lawrence, then known as "The Biograph Girl," in what may be the first instance of a studio using a film star in its marketing.
On June 8, 1912, Laemmle merged IMP with eight smaller companies to form the
Universal Film Manufacturing Company--the first appearance of the word "universal" in the organization's name. Laemmle was the primary figure in a partnership that included Mark Dintenfass,
Charles Baumann,
Adam Kessel, and
Pat Powers. Eventually all would be bought out by Laemmle. Baumann and Kessel later partnered with
Mack Sennett for their highly successful
Keystone Film Company. The new Universal studio was a
horizontally integrated company, with both movie production and distribution capacity (the company lacked a major circuit of exhibition venues, ownership of which would become a central element of film industry integration in the following decade). The company was incorporated as
Universal Pictures Company, Inc. in 1925.
Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its production efforts in the
Hollywood area. Its first logo was an Earth with a Saturn-like ring and the text in a bold Kentucky font. In later years it was replaced by a model to ultimately to today's
CGI animation. In 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, on a 230-acre (0.9-km²) converted farm just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood. Studio management now became the third facet of Universal's operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists. Universal became the biggest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in small towns, producing mostly inexpensive
melodramas westerns, and
serials.
Despite Laemmle's role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals
Adolph Zukor,
William Fox, and
Marcus Loew, Laemmle chose not to develop a theater chain. He also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. This policy nearly bankrupted the studio when actor-director
Erich von Stroheim insisted on excessively lavish production values for his films
Foolish Wives and
Blind Husbands, but Universal shrewdly got some of its money back by launching a sensational ad campaign that attracted moviegoers. Character actor
Lon Chaney became a huge drawing card for Universal in the 1920s, appearing steadily in dramas. His two biggest hits for Universal were
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and
The Phantom of the Opera (1925). During this period Laemmle entrusted most of the production policy decisions to
Irving Thalberg. Thalberg had been Laemmle's personal secretary, and Laemmle was impressed by Thalberg's cogent observations of how efficiently the studio could be operated. Promoted to studio chief, Thalberg was giving Universal's product a touch of class, something it seldom had during the silent era.
Louis B. Mayer lured Thalberg away from Universal with a promise of better pay. Without his guidance Universal became a second-tier studio, and would remain so for several decades.
In 1926, Universal opened a production unit in Germany, Deutsche Universal-Film AG, under the direction of
Joe Pasternak. This unit produced three to four films per year until 1936, migrating to Hungary and then Austria in the face of
Hitler's increasing domination of central Europe. With the advent of sound, these productions were made in the German language or, occasionally, Hungarian or Polish. In the U.S., Universal Pictures did not distribute any of this subsidiary's films, but at least some of them were exhibited through other, independent, foreign-language film distributors based in New York, without benefit of English subtitles. Nazi persecution and a change in ownership for the parent Universal Pictures organization resulted in the dissolution of this subsidiary.
"Oswald" fallout gives rise to "Mickey Mouse" and Disney empire
Contentious business dealings involving Universal over the drawing of a cartoon character may very well have affected the course of animation history.
In 1927,
Charles B. Mintz, a film producer and distributor, took control over Margaret J. Winkler's
Winkler Pictures after marrying Winkler. He commissioned an all new all-animated series for production that would be distributed through Universal Pictures. The series,
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was created by animator
Ub Iwerks, an original partner of famed studio magnate
Walt Disney. A young Disney, in the years before gaining worldwide acclaim with his own studio, earlier entered into a creative contract with Winkler for producing cartoon shorts like "Oswald." Disney tried negotiating a higher fee for the shorts he was making.
Yet while Iwerks created the "Oswald" character, which had enjoyed a successful theatrical run, Universal - and not Disney - owned the rights to it. This gave Mintz leverage in actually demanding that Disney accept a lower fee for producing the property or he would produce the films with his own group of animators. In the end, Disney refused the offer. As an alternative, he and Iwerks created what became Disney's flagship trademark,
Mickey Mouse, which contained some of Oswald's features and soared to popularity following the duo's producing of its first talking short,
Steamboat Willie. This moment effectively launched the Disney empire, while Universal became a relatively minor player in movie animation after Oswald.
In 2006, after almost 80 years, NBC Universal sold all Disney-produced Oswald cartoons back to Disney, in return for the release of then-
ABC TV sportscaster
Al Michaels from his contract so he could work on
NBC's
Sunday night NFL football package. However, Universal kept the Oswald cartoons that
Walter Lantz produced for them from 1929 to the mid-1930s.
Keeping leadership of the studio in the family
In 1928, Laemmle, Sr. made his son,
Carl, Jr. head of Universal Pictures as a 21st birthday present. Universal already had a reputation for
nepotism—at one time, 70 of Carl, Sr.'s relatives were on the payroll. Many of them were nephews, resulting in Carl, Sr. being known around the studios as "Uncle Carl."
Ogden Nash famously quipped in rhyme, "Uncle Carl Laemmle/Has a very large faemmle."
To his credit, "Junior" Laemmle persuaded his father to bring Universal up to date. He bought and built theaters, converted the studio to sound production, and made several forays into high-quality production. His early efforts included the 1929
part-talkie version of
Show Boat, the lavish musical
Broadway (1929) which included
Technicolor sequences; the first all-color musical feature (for Universal),
King of Jazz (1930); and
All Quiet on the Western Front, winner of the "
Best Picture"
Academy Award for 1930. Laemmle, Jr. also created a successful niche for the studio, beginning a long-running series of monster movies, affectionately dubbed
Universal Horror, among them
Frankenstein,
Dracula, and
The Mummy. The 1931 six-sheet (81-by-81-inch) poster for
Frankenstein is considered to be the most valuable movie poster in the world. There is only one copy of this poster known to exist. Other Laemmle productions of this period include
Imitation of Life and
My Man Godfrey.
The Laemmles lose control
Ironically, Universal's forays into high-quality production nearly broke the company. Taking on the task of modernizing and upgrading a film conglomerate in the depths of the depression was risky, and for a time Universal slipped into
receivership. The theater chain was scrapped, but Carl, Jr. held fast to distribution, studio and production operations. The end for the Laemmles came with a lavish remake of its 1929 success
Show Boat, featuring several stars from the
Broadway stage version, which began production in late 1935. However, Carl, Jr.'s spending habits alarmed company stockholders, especially after the costly flop of the western epic
Sutter's Gold earlier in the year. They would not allow production to start on
Show Boat unless the Laemmles obtained a loan. Universal was forced to seek a $750,000 production loan from the
Standard Capital Corporation, pledging the Laemmle family's controlling interest in Universal as collateral. It was the first time in Universal's 26-year history that it had borrowed money for a production. Production problems resulted in a $300,000 overrun. When Standard called the loan in, a cash-strapped Universal couldn't pay. Standard foreclosed and seized control of the studio on April 2, 1936. Universal's version of
Show Boat was released in 1936 and is widely considered to be one of the greatest film musicals of all time. However, it was not enough to save the Laemmles, who were unceremoniously removed from the company they had founded.
Standard Capital's
J. Cheever Cowdin took over as president and chairman of the board of directors, and instituted severe cuts in production budgets. Gone were the big ambitions, and though Universal had few big names under contract, those it had been cultivating, like
William Wyler and
Margaret Sullavan, now left. By the start of World War II, the company was concentrating on smaller-budget productions: westerns, melodramas, serials and sequels to the studio's horror classics.
Producer Joe Pasternak, who had been successfully producing light musicals with young sopranos for Universal's German subsidiary, came to America and repeated his tried-and-true formula. Teenage singer
Deanna Durbin starred in Pasternak's first American film,
Three Smart Girls (1936). The film made a fortune and restored the studio's solvency. If any one star can be said to have kept Universal in business during the late 1930s, it was Durbin, despite her often being woefully miscast as a young teenager when she was, clearly, a fully adult woman. As Durbin outgrew her screen persona and pursued more dramatic roles, the studio signed 13-year-old
Gloria Jean for her own series of Pasternak musicals; she went on to star with
Bing Crosby,
W. C. Fields, and
Donald O'Connor.
Universal could seldom afford its own stable of stars, and often borrowed talent from other studios, or hired freelance actors.
James Stewart,
Marlene Dietrich,
Margaret Sullavan, and
Bing Crosby were some of the major names that made a couple of pictures for Universal during this period. Some stars came from radio, including W. C. Fields,
Edgar Bergen, and the comedy team of
Abbott and Costello (
Bud Abbott and
Lou Costello). Abbott and Costello's military comedy
Buck Privates (1941) hit like a bombshell, catapulting the former burlesque comedians to unprecedented popularity. They became the biggest movie stars in America, improving Universal's bottom line even more than Durbin's glossy productions had.
During the war years Universal did have a co-production arrangement with producer
Walter Wanger and his partner, director
Fritz Lang, but their pictures were a small bit of quality in a schedule dominated by the likes of
Cobra Woman and
Frontier Gal. Universal's customer base was still the neighborhood movie theaters, and the studio continued to please the general public with low- to medium-budget comedies, musicals, adventures, westerns, and serials. The studio also fostered a number of series:
The Dead End Kids and
Little Tough Guys action features and serials (1938-43), the comic adventures of infant Baby Sandy (1938-41),
Hugh Herbert comedies (1938-42), horror thrillers with
Frankenstein,
Dracula,
The Wolfman,
The Invisible Man, and
The Mummy (1939-45),
Basil Rathbone and
Nigel Bruce in
Sherlock Holmes mysteries (1942-46), teenage musicals with Gloria Jean, Donald O'Connor, and
Peggy Ryan (1942-43), and screen adaptations of radio's
Inner Sanctum Mysteries (1943-45). Since Universal made mostly low-budget films for many years, it was one of the last major studios to begin using full
Technicolor. The studio first made use of the three-strip process in 1942, when it released the entertaining
Arabian Nights, the first of a series of Technicolor spectaculars starring
Jon Hall and
Maria Montez. Technicolor was also used in Universal's 1944 remake of the classic melodrama,
Phantom of the Opera with
Claude Rains and
Nelson Eddy.
Universal-International
In 1945 the British entrepreneur
J. Arthur Rank, hoping to expand his American presence, bought into a four-way merger with Universal, the independent company International Pictures, and producer Kenneth Young. The new combine, United World Pictures, was a failure and was dissolved within one year. Rank and International remained interested in Universal, however, culminating in the studio's reorganization as Universal-International.
William Goetz, a founder of International, was made head of production at the renamed Universal-International Pictures Inc., which also served as an import-export subsidiary, and copyright holder for the production arm's films. Goetz, a son-in-law of
Louis B. Mayer decided to bring "prestige" to the new company by stopping the studio's low-budget production of
B pictures (films under 65 minutes) such as musicals, comedies, and westerns as well as serials, and curtailed Universal's famous "monster" and "
Arabian Nights" series. Distribution and copyright control remained under the name of Universal Pictures Company Inc.
Goetz set out an ambitious schedule. Universal-International became responsible for the American distribution of Rank's British productions, including such screen classics as
David Lean's
Great Expectations and
Laurence Olivier's
Hamlet. Broadening its scope further, Universal-International branched out into the lucrative nontheatrical field, buying a majority stake in home-movie dealer
Castle Films in 1947, and taking the company over entirely in 1951. For three decades, Castle would offer "highlights" reels from the Universal film library to home-movie enthusiasts and collectors.
Goetz sold Universal's pre Universal-International film library to Jack Broeder's
Realart Pictures for cinema rerelase but Realart was not allowed to show the films on television.
The production arm of the studio still struggled. While there were to be a few hits like
The Egg & I,
The Killers, and
The Naked City, Universal-International's new theatrical films often met with disappointing response at the box office. By the late 1940s, Goetz was out, and the studio reverted once more to the low-budget fare it knew best. The inexpensive
Francis the Talking Mule and
Ma and Pa Kettle series became mainstays of the new company. Once again, the films of Abbott and Costello, including
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, were among the studio's top-grossing productions. But at this point Rank lost interest and sold his shares to the investor
Milton Rackmil, whose
Decca Records would take full control of Universal in 1952. As well as Abbott and Costello, the studio retained the
Walter Lantz cartoon studio whose product was released with Universal-International's films.
In the 1950's Universal-International brought back a series of Arabian Nights films, many starring
Tony Curtis. The studio also had a success with monster and
science fiction films produced by
William Alland with many directed by
Jack Arnold. Other successes were big budget
melodramas produced by
Ross Hunter and directed by
Douglas Sirk. Amongst Universal-International's stable of stars were
Rock Hudson,
Tony Curtis,
Jeff Chandler,
Audie Murphy and
John Gavin.
Though Decca would continue to keep picture budgets lean, it was favored by changing circumstances in the film business, as other studios let their contract actors go in the wake of the 1948
U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures, et al. case. Leading actors were increasingly free to work where and when they chose, and in 1950
MCA agent
Lew Wasserman made a deal with Universal for his client
James Stewart that would change the rules of the business. Wasserman's deal gave Stewart a share in the profits of three pictures in lieu of a large salary. When one of those films,
Winchester '73 proved to be a hit, Stewart became a rich man. This kind of arrangement would become the rule for many future productions at Universal, and eventually at other studios as well.
MCA takes over
By the late 1950s, the motion picture business was in trouble. The combination of the studio/theater-chain break-up and the rise of
television saw the mass audience drift away, probably forever. The
Music Corporation of America (better known as MCA), mainly a talent agency, had also become a powerful television producer, renting space at
Republic Studios for its
Revue Productions subsidiary. After a period of complete shutdown, a moribund Universal agreed to sell its (by now) 360-acre (1.5 km²) studio lot to MCA in 1958, for $11 million, renamed
Revue Studios. Although MCA owned the studio lot, but not Universal Pictures, it was increasingly influential on Universal's product. The studio lot was upgraded and modernized, while MCA clients like
Doris Day,
Lana Turner,
Cary Grant, and director
Alfred Hitchcock were signed to Universal Pictures contracts.
The actual, long-awaited takeover of Universal Pictures by MCA, Inc. finally took place in mid-1962 as part of MCA -
Decca Records merger (Universal's then parent company), with MCA as surviving corporation. Universal-International Pictures, the production subsidiary reverted in name back to Universal Pictures. As a last gesture before getting out of the talent agency business, virtually every MCA client was signed to a Universal contract. In 1964 MCA formed Universal City Studios, Inc. to take over the motion pictures and television arms of Universal Pictures Company and Revue Productions (officially renamed
Universal Television in 1966). And so, with MCA in charge, for a few years in the 1960s Universal became what it had never been: a full-blown, first-class movie studio, with leading actors and directors under contract; offering slick, commercial films; and a studio tour subsidiary (launched in 1964). But it was too late, since the audience was no longer there, and by 1968, the film-production unit began to downsize. Television now carried the load, as Universal dominated the American networks, particularly
NBC (which later merged with Universal to form NBC Universal;
see below), where for several seasons it provided up to half of all
prime time shows. An innovation of which Universal was especially proud was the creation in this period of the made-for-television movie.
Though Universal's film unit did produce occasional hits, among them
Airport,
The Sting,
American Graffiti,
Earthquake, and a blockbuster that restored the company's fortunes,
Jaws, Universal in the 1970s was primarily a television studio. Weekly series production was the workhorse of the company. There would be other film hits like
E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial,
Back to the Future, and
Jurassic Park, but overall the film business was still hit-and-miss. In the early 1970s, Universal teamed up with
Paramount Pictures to form
Cinema International Corporation, which distributed films by Paramount and Universal worldwide. It was replaced by
United International Pictures in 1981, when
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer joined the fold. UIP began distributing films by start-up studio
DreamWorks in 1997, and MGM subsequently dropped out of the venture in 2001, letting
20th Century Fox internationally distribute its films. In 1990, MCA created MCA/Universal Home Video Inc. to enter the lucrative
videotape and later
DVD sales industry.
Matsushita and Vivendi
Anxious to expand the company's broadcast and cable presence, longtime MCA head
Lew Wasserman sought a rich partner. He located
Matsushita Electric, the Japanese electronics manufacturer. Around this time, the production subsidiary was renamed Universal Studios Inc. Matsushita provided a cash infusion, but the clash of cultures was too great to overcome, and five years later Matsushita sold control of MCA/Universal to Canadian liquor distributor
Seagram. Hoping to build a media empire around Universal, Seagram bought
PolyGram in 1999 and other entertainment properties, but the fluctuating profits characteristic of Hollywood were no substitute for the reliable income stream of hard liquor.
To raise money, Seagram head
Edgar Bronfman Jr. sold Universal's television holdings, including cable network
USA, to
Barry Diller. (These same properties would be bought back later at greatly inflated prices.) In June 2000, Seagram itself was sold to French water utility and media company
Vivendi(which owns
StudioCanal). The
media conglomerate became
Vivendi Universal. Afterward, Universal Pictures acquired the United States distribution rights of several
StudioCanal's films, such as
Mulholland Drive (which received an
Oscar nomination) and
Brotherhood of the Wolf (which became the second-highest-grossing
French-language film in the United States in the last two decades). Universal Pictures and
StudioCanal also co-produced several films, such as
Love Actually(an $40 million-budgeted film that went on grossing $246 million worldwide
[1]).
NBC Universal
Burdened with debt, in 2004 Vivendi Universal sold 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (including the studio and theme parks) to
General Electric, parent of NBC. The resulting media super-conglomerate was renamed
NBC Universal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. Though some expressed doubts that regimented, profit-minded GE and high-living Hollywood could coexist; as of 2007 the combination has worked. The reorganized "Universal" film conglomerate has enjoyed several financially successful years. As presently structured, GE owns 80% of NBC Universal; Vivendi holds the remaining 20%, with an option to sell its share in 2006.
In late 2005, Viacom's
Paramount Pictures swooped in to acquire
DreamWorks SKG after acquisition talks between GE and DreamWorks stalled. Universal's long time chairman, Stacey Snider, left the company in early 2006 to head up DreamWorks. Snider was replaced by then-Vice Chairman Marc Shmuger and Focus Features head David Linde.
Over the years, Universal has made deals to distribute and/or co-finance films with various small companies, such as
Imagine Entertainment,
Amblin Entertainment,
Morgan Creek Productions,
Working Title Films (and DreamWorks),
StudioCanal,
Shady Acres Entertainment, Mark Platt Productions, and Beacon Communications LLC.
Universal's library
Universal, like any other major movie studio, owns a considerable library. It owns almost every feature and short produced by the company with the following exceptions:
- Most of Universal's silent film output (some under copyright, others in the public domain), are now at the hands of other independent companies.
- The 1931 version of Waterloo Bridge and the 1936 version of Show Boat, both of which now belong to Warner Bros./Turner Entertainment.
- The 1947 film A Double Life, and all Cary Grant films originally released by Universal, belonging to Republic/Paramount Pictures, with CBS Television Distribution handling TV rights and Lionsgate handling the video rights.
- Watchers, now owned by StudioCanal, the successor-in-interest to original producer Carolco Pictures.
- All the ITC Entertainment films originally distributed by Universal in conjunction with Associated Film Distribution, such as On Golden Pond and Sophie's Choice--successor Granada International now owns ancillary rights, with theatrical distribution handled by MGM, with the exception of The Dark Crystal, whose theatrical rights have been retained by Universal, and The Great Muppet Caper, now owned by The Muppets Holding Company/The Walt Disney Company.
- The television rights to The Last Starfighter (those rights are owned by Warner Bros. Television, successor-in-interest to production partner Lorimar) and 1941 (those rights now stand with Sony Pictures Television, whose sister company, Columbia Pictures, co-produced the film with Universal).
- The international theatrical and domestic television rights to Flash Gordon--those are respectively owned by StudioCanal and MGM.
Through subsidiary
NBC Universal Television Distribution, they own the following:
- Almost all TV shows vanica
/Universal made, except
The Millionaire, and the black-and-white episodes of
My Three Sons (those rights now stand with
CBS).
- Almost all of the pre-1950 sound features originally made by Paramount Pictures—these films came under Universal ownership in 1962, when MCA bought US Decca - MCA, in turn, had purchased the films in 1957 via its in-name only division EMKA, Ltd. (This library also includes the 1948 MGM film State of the Union, which was acquired by Paramount after its purchase of Liberty Films)
- Much of the post-1973 NBC library of shows and made-for-TV movies.
- Most of the Jack Webb produced shows which carry the "Mark VII Productions" logo, with the exception of Pete Kelly's Blues, and , which are owned by Warner Bros.
The company also owns the libraries of:
It also owns several films made by others, including some pre-1952
United Artists material, an Alfred Hitchcock feature originally released by
Warner Bros. -
Rope, and the UK rights to most of the
RKO Pictures library. Through its Focus Features division, Universal owns most ancillary rights to
The Return of the Pink Panther (originally a UA release). Universal also owns the film rights to the Hanna-Barbera characters of The Jetsons, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear and Dick Dastardly and Muttley. They also own a theme park character license for Scooby-Doo.
Logo variations
The basic Universal logo is a world globe fronted or encircled by the word "Universal". An earlier version, introducted in the 1930s, had a biplane circling the globe. There have been several variations on these logos, and the nature of them allows for "playing" with them in individual films. The airplane circling the globe was used at the beginning of the film
Xanadu, with the airplane changing to an increasingly modern design on each orbit. The film
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial also took an unusual approach. By then, the logo consisted of the camera zooming in on the earth from outer space, with "Universal" coming into view. For
E.T., the logo was run in reverse - "Universal" slid back behind the earth, and the camera seemingly pulled away and into space.
A more in-depth study of the logos of Universal and other well-known film studios is at this site:
[2]
List of films
International Distribution
Universal releases were distributed worldwide by
Alliance Films in Canada,
United International Pictures in UK, USA, Australia, etc.,
Bonton Film in Czech Republic and
Odeon in Cyprus and Greece.
Early partners
Universal was created from the merger of Laemmle's IMP with several smaller film-production businesses. These companies (and their proprietors) included:
For several years some of these junior partners carried considerable weight within Universal; inevitably factions and rivalries were the rule. At least one version of corporate history claims that the twenty-year-old Irving Thalberg rose so quickly because he told subordinates that he alone spoke for Carl Laemmle in making production decisions, while the others were more concerned with battling among themselves.
See also
Notes
Reflist
