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“Universal Studios”
Universal Studios (Universal Pictures) is the second largest Hollywood studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal and is included in more than a dozen studios in the world. Universal was founded on the base of one of its predecessors – “Yankee Film Company” (1909). Founder of Universal are Carl Lemley, and Abe and Julius Stern.
In 1908 Thomas Edison created “Motion Pictures Trust”, which collected payments from all aspects of the film business – from production to the show – because he owned a patent for an electric motor used in cameras and a film projector, and a monopoly on distribution. Lemly and other theater owners saw the way in getting rid of Edison’s monopoly in the production of original films, which led to the fact that Lemley with partners in June 1909, created a “Yankee Film Company”.
Soon, the company has become a “Independent Moving Pictures Company”, and from 8 June 1912, it became known as “Universal Film Manufacturing Co”. The main areas of activity were Universal film production and distribution.
Very important for the development and success of the company was commemoration in the titles the names of the actors, that allowed the company to sign contracts with many famous artists of that time. In addition, it helped to create the so-called star system – a system of “stars”.
Thus, in 1910, Lemley is actively promoted Florence Lawrence, until the well-known as Biograph Girl, what can be considered the first ever case of name actor in the marketing company’s film studio.
In 1915, Lemley has opened the world’s largest film studios – “Universal City Studios”, that had an area of 0.9 km² on the Cahuenga Pass near Hollywood. Management Studio was a third area of activity of the company.
In 1926, Universal opened a studio in Germany – Deutsche Univarsal-Film AG, which was headed by Joe Pasternak. Until 1936, the unit produced 3-4 films a year, but under pressure of the growing influence of Hitler in Europe, it had to migrate first to Austria and then to Hungary. With the advent of sound in cinema, this studio was to make films in German, Hungarian and Polish languages. Universal did not showed these films in the U.S., but they still fall into the American Rental efforts of independent distributors.
Then the studio made such famous films as: “Show Boat” (1929), a rich musical “Broadway” with the first color scenes, “The King of Jazz” (1930) and “On the Western Front”, which brought the studio an Oscar for the best film of 1930. Also was made a series of films about monsters – Universal Horror films – this is “Frankenstein,” “Dracula” and “The Mummy”. (Scott, 2005)
By the beginning of the Second World studio returned to its recent specialization: Romance, cheap western and classic horror sequel to the studio.
In 1950, the company’s agent, Lew Wasserman, MCA and Universal Studios produced a veritable revolution in the American movie business: Wasserman signed the contract with the studio, under which his client – the great James Stewart – receives no fee, and the portion of the profits from the rental of 3 films with his participation, which were supposed to withdraw to Universal. When one of those films – “Winchester 73” – became a mega hit rolled, Stewart became the first truly rich American actor. Soon this form of payment for the actor’s work was firmly established in the practice of American and international film business.
In the late 50-ies of XX century studio, and the whole movie business in general, was undergoing yet another difficult period associated with the development of television. The company MCA, which was the actor’s agency, became a powerful television producer, and in 1958 for $ 11 million acquired Universal Pictures with it’s studio area of 1.5 km2. Although formally Universal remained independent producer, the effect of MCA on the nature of film removed at the studio was very significant. However, MCA not only significantly upgraded the capacity of the studio, but signed for Universal contracts with such prominent actors like Doris Day, Lana Turner and Cary Grant.buy research paper
In the 70 years of the last century, despite the fact that the studios made such hits as “Airport”, “The Sting,” “American Graffiti,” “Jaws,” “ET”, “Back to the Future” and “Jurassic Park period”, the main magic wand for the studio were films made for television. In the early 70’s Universal combined its efforts on the world distribution of his films with Paramount Pictures, but in 1981 they have been joined by “Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer”: so there appeared a company “United International Pictures”, which since 1997 also distributed films of Dreamworks. (Scott, 2005)
In the 90 years Universal had repeatedly changed owners, that led to the creation of one of the largest U.S. and global media conglomerates – NBC Universal.
Warner Brothers
The American company, which is one of the largest producers of film and television entertainment.
Warner Bros. includes several subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, DC Comics and The CW Television Network.
The company is named in honor of the four Warner brothers who founded in 1904 the Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company (the precursor to Warner Bros.), which distribute films. For several years, the territory in which they worked for the company, expanded to include a four-state area.
By the beginning of the First World War the brothers began producing films, and in 1918 opened a studio Warner Bros. Studio, situated on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack Warner produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert were engaged in finance in New York. In 1923 they formally merged into a corporation Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
The company prospered, allowing the brothers in 1924 to get a loan on Wall Street. This money was acquired by “Vitagraph Company”, which had a nationwide distribution network, and bought several radio stations and built new theaters.
In the 1920’s company began to actively develop the film with sound and in 1926 began producing films with sound and sound effects. In 1927 it released the film “The Jazz Singer” with dialogue, and the film became a sensation, and inaugurated an era of “talking pictures”.
In 1928 the company acquired one of the largest networks of cinemas – Stanley Company. Later, in 1929, the brothers acquired its main rival – First National Pictures. The court allowed the two companies merge under the name Warner, provided that prior to 1938 the brothers will be releasing several films a year under the name First National Pictures.
In 1928 the brothers released in theaters now “Lights of New York” (born Lights of New York) with a full sound track. Since then, the entire film industry finally turned to movies with sound: by the end of 1929 all the major studios released only sound films.
In 1929 Warner Bros. released their first full-color film “On with the Show”. The second color film “Gold Diggers of Broadway”, that had become so popular that was shown in cinemas for over ten years- thus began the era of color film.
In the period from 1929 to 1931, Warner released a set of color films (“Sally”, “Bright Lights”, “Song of the flame”, “Song of the West”, “Under the moon of Texas” and others). Most of them were musicals, and audience quickly got tired of them, so the studio had to withdraw from this genre.
Under the guidance of Darryl Zanuck in the 1930 studio famed for its gangster movie, and then to melodrama. Around 1934 the company has problems with the censors, so it switched to making of historical films.
In 1930 it established an independent company Warner’s cartoon, under the direction of Leon Schlesinger cartoon creation. In 1931, it established a new series of cartoons – Looney Tunes – humorous sketches with a jazz soundtrack. In 1933, new artists came to the studio (Jack King, Freeze Freeling et al), who produced the famous Buddy (born Buddy). Studio has acquired a recognizable style that made its work extremely popular. Among them were rabbit Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
During the Second World War studio became very rich thanks to increased demand for movies. In these years the company opened a lot of actors who were celebrities: Joan Crawford, Doris Day, etc. (Scott, 2005)
In January 5, 1948 Warner Bros. released the first color newsreel, the Night of Roses Parade, that was a significant contribution to the development of the cinema.
In 1948 the Supreme Court of the United States, considering the antitrust disputes, issued a decision that made Warner Bros. and four other major film companies of the country separate from the film industry of their networks cinemas. Without the possibility of wide translating, there was no longer need to produce 30 films a year, so the brothers began to turn their production and ultimately sold the company to bank syndicate.
For some time the company was engaged in adaptation of the popular plays, as well as a very good showing in creating a television series (“individualist” and others). In 1958 began its work the record company “Warner Bros. Records”, but the production of films at that time was in decline. In 1967, Warener Bros. was sold to Canadian company Seven Arts Productions – for 78 million dollars, and the studio was renamed to “Warner Bros.-Seven Arts”. (Scott, 2005)
Two years later the studio was sold again, this time – to the Kinney National Company and its new leader was Ted Ashley, studio i was again renamed the Warner Bros. Pictures.
1970-1980-s were not very successful for all the film companies, but the new leadership of the studio had successfully overcome the depression by staking to work with the “stars”: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, etc. The owner of the studio, Kinney National Company, gradually declined from other business areas and changed its name to Warner Communications. In 1976, the company acquired a manufacturer of computer games Atari, and later – a network of thematic parks “Seven Flags” (born Six Flags theme parks). To the surprise of many, a highly successful Warner Communications in 1989 merged with the company “Time, Inc.”, Formed the company “Time Warner”.(Scott, 2005)
In 1995, the company, focusing on the teenage audience, launched its television network – WB Network. This channel showed the most popular in the U.S. TV series (“Seventh Heaven”, “Smallville” and others). In 2006 Warner and CBS Corporation decided to close its television networks and create a new – CW Television Network. In 2001 the company “Time Warner Inc” buying corporation “AOL”, changing the name to “AOL Time Warner Inc.”, but due to a sharp decline in revenues in 2002, the word “AOL” was removed from the name of the company.
So during the 20th century Warner Brothers Company was one of the leading companies in the Hollywood.