Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith incorporated United Artists on February 5, 1919. Each of them own 20% of the corporation with the remaining 20% by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo serving as general counsel for the founders.
The first agreement allowed the principles to release four pictures a year. A number that soon they found they could not reach. They did turn to others such as Buster Keaton, King Vidor and Samuel Goldwyn to fill the schedule.
One of the reasons, perhaps the single most important reason, was that these artists didn’t like the idea of the movie studios practice of ‘block booking’. This practice required movie houses to take a block of pictures whether they wanted them or not, just to get the pictures they may want. United Artists would deal with the exhibitors by single picture.
The first United Artist released picture was Douglas Fairbanks “His Majesty, the American” on September 1, 1919
By the late 1940s, United Artists existed mostly in name only. Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford was contacted by Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin, two lawyers, in 1951 asking if they could run United Artists. They agreed, even though Chaplin at first was against the idea changing it only after US government revoked his re-entry visa in 1952. Their management and then ownership changed the direction of the corporation, turning them into one of the biggest movie corporation of the 1950s into the 1960s. In 1967 they sold their interests to Transamerica Corporation.
The company now known as United Artists is jointly owned by MGM, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were established in 1927. It was decided that they would create a ceremony to publicize and reward fourteen individuals and movies that were the best artistic examples of film making. The first award ceremony was in 1929 for the period August 1, 1927 to July 31, 1928.
The first acting awards, there were only two one for best actor and another for best actress, were awarded based on total work during the nominating period. Emil Jannings won for his performances in The Way of all Flesh and The Last Command. Janet Gaynor, who was only 23 at the time, won for her roles in Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise.
The first figurines that were handed out were known officially as the Academy Award of Merit and differed little in appearance from today’s Oscars. The original trophy was made of gold-plated bronze and was designed by Cedric Gibbons. Gibbons would win eleven Oscars for art direction. During World War II the presented awards were made of gold-painted plaster. These were exchanged for the metal statuette after the war ended.
Variety magazine initially referred to the Award of Merit as the “Iron Man,”. By 1934 the media was calling it the “Oscar.” and in 1939 The Academy officially recognized the nickname.
Only one award in the first awards ceremony was given for a film that was not silent. The Jazz Singer, the first Talking Picture, received a special award.
The Academy Board of Judges unanimously decided to award Charlie Chaplin a special award for acting, writing, directing, and producing The Circus and remove his name from the competitive classes. In a letter from the Academy to Mr. Chaplin, dated February 19, 1929 they wrote ‘The collective accomplishments thus displayed place you in a class by yourself.’
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Originally published on 6 Things To Consider.
It was towards the end of the Silent Film Era that Oliver Hardy joined Stan Laurel to form the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy. Hardy was in his mid-thirties when the pair joined and had already had a long career in Silent Films.
Oliver Hardy was born on January 18, 1892 in Harlem, Georgia and moved to Florida when he was a child. His birth name was Norvell, but unofficially to his father’s name Oliver when he came of age. To those close to him he was known as Babe, a nickname given to him in those early years.
While his mother wanted him to become a lawyer, Hardy fell in love with the new genre. His show business career began working and then running a movie theatre.
During the early days of film, sunny places were used. Florida became one of those early film locations. Oliver Hardy was hired to appear in those early films due to his large girth and expressive facial features.
He appeared in his first film in 1913. The film was called Outwitting Dad. After that he appeared in a number of series including the Pokes and Jabbs series of comedy shorts, the Plump and Runt series of two reelers, the Jimmy Aubrey series, and as an actor and co-director of comedy shorts for Larry Semon.
When Hal Roach brought Oliver and Hardy together the pair had appeared in the same film. He had a minor part in the 1917 film Lucky Dog that stared Stan Laurel. Although appearing in the same film the two didn’t have any scenes together.
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Also published at 6 Things to Consider.
1) Erich Von Stroheim
Stronheim was an Austrian who had a long career in Silent Films in Hollywood beginning in 1915. His most famous work as a director is Greed, a detailed filming of the novel McTeague by Frank Norris. Stroheim originally edited a nine-hour version of the story, shot mostly at the locations as described in the book, San Francisco and Death Valley. He did cut it to less than three hours but it still was rejected by MGM which cut the film to a little over two hours. Stroheim destroyed the excess footage.
2) F.W. Murnau
Murnau was one of the greats of the Germanic Silent directors. His most famous film was the unauthorized version of Dracula, which he called Nosferatu. Even though he lost the lawsuit brought against him by Stoker’s estate which ruled that all copies of the film was to be destroyed, prints had been saved and now it has been fully restored.
3) King Vidor
Vidor might be best remembered as being a non-credited director of The Wizard of Oz, but he is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest career as a film director. His first in 1913 with Hurricane in Galveston and ending in 1980 with a short documentary on painting entitled The Metaphor. In 1928, Vidor received his first Oscar nomination, for The Crowd. In the same year, he made the classic Show People, the last silent film of Marion Davies, a comedy about the film industry.
4) John Ford
Ford may be best remembered for his westerns starring John Wayne, but came to Hollywood in the 1910’s following his brother and began work as a director in the early 1920’s. Many of his silent films, both as an actor and as a director have been lost.
5) Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock like Ford will be remember for the films he made after sound was put on film, but he began as a director of silent films in England in the mid 1920’s. His first ‘talkie’ Blackmail, his tenth film, was released a month before his final silent film, The Manxman.
6) Cecil B. DeMille
The great filmmaker Cecil B. Demille began in the early days of film. He directed Paramount first film The Squaw Man in 1915. A few of his silent films such as The Ten Commandments he was a able to remake in the sound era.
*****
Originally published at 6 Things to Consider.
Harold Eugene “Hal” Roach, Sr. was born on January 14, 1892.
He had a long career as a producer beginning with Silent Comedies in the 1920s with shorts featuring Harold Lloyd, Will Rogers, Max Davidson, the Our Gang kids, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, Patsy Kelly and Laurel & Hardy.
Roach died on November 2, 1992.
6. The Crowd – 1928 – King Vidor, Director
Cast: Eleanor Boardman [Mary Sims], James Murray [John Sims], Bert Roach [Bert], Estelle Clark [Jane], Daniel G. Tomlinson [Jim], Dell Henderson [Dick], Lucy Beaumont [Mary’s mother], Freddie Burke Frederick [John Sims Jr.], Alice Mildred Puter [daughter]; Sidney Bracey [John’s supervisor], Johnny Downs [John Sims, age 12], Sally Eilers [the party girl at Bert’s Place], Warner P. Richmond [Mr. Sims, John’s father], Virginia Sale [Mary’s sister-in-law], Larry Steers [doctor], Claude Payton
Plot: The life of a man and woman together in a large, impersonal metropolis through their hopes, struggles and downfalls.
5. Greed – 1924 – Erich von Stroheim, Director
Cast: Gibson Gowland [John ‘Mac’ McTeague], ZaSu Pitts [Trina Sieppe McTeague], Jean Hersholt [Marcus Schouler], Dale Fuller [Maria Miranda Macapa], Tempé Piggot [Mother McTeague], Sylvia Ashton [‘Mommer’ Sieppe, Trina’s mother], Chester Conklin [Hans ‘Popper’ Sieppe, Trina’s father], Joan Standing [Selina, Trina’s cousin]; Austin Jewell [August Sieppe, Trina’s little brother], Oscar Gotell [Max Sieppe, Trina’s little twin brother], Otto Gotell [Moritz Sieppe, Trina’s little twin brother], Günther von Ritzau [?] (same as Erich von Ritzau?) [Dr. ‘Painless’ Potter, a traveling dentist], Frank Hayes [Charles W. Grannis, the Modern Dog Hospital owner], Fanny Midgley [Anastasia Baker, a retired dressmaker], Max Tyron [Rudolph Oelbermann, Trina’s uncle and owner of the toy store], Hughie Mack [Mr. Heise], E. ‘Tiny’ Jones (‘Tiny’ Jones) [Mrs. Heise], J. Aldrich Libby [Mr. Ryer], Rita Revela [Mrs. Ryer], Lon Poff [lottery company man], S.S. Simon [Joe Frenna, the saloonkeeper], [?] William Mollemhauer or William Mollenheime? [the palmist], Hugh J. McCauley [the photographer], William Barlow [the minister], Jack McDonald [?] [Placer County sheriff, or Cribbens, a prospector]?, James F. Fulton [?] [Placer County sheriff, or Cribbens, a prospector]?, James Gibson [deputy sheriff], Jimmy Wang [Chinese cook], Erich von Stroheim [balloon vendor], Lita Chevrier, Edward Gaffney, Harold E. Henderson, Cesare Gravina [Zerkow, the junkman (role cut from final film)], Jack Curtis [McTeague Sr. (role cut from final film)], Florence Gibson [old hag at Mike’s Saloon (role cut from final film)]
Plot: The sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.
4. The Gold Rush – 1925 – Charlie Chaplin. Director
Cast: Charles Chaplin [the lone prospector], Georgia Hale [Georgia], Mack Swain [Big Jim McKay], Tom Murray [Black Larsen], Henry Bergman [Hank Curtis], Betty Morissey [Georgia’s friend], Malcolm Waite [Jack Cameron], John Rand, Albert Austin, Heinie Conklin, Allan Garcia, Tom Wood
Plot: The Tramp goes the Klondike in search of gold and finds it and more.
3. City Lights – 1931 – Charlie Chaplin, Director
Cast: Charles Chaplin [the little tramp], Virginia Cherill [the blind girl], Harry Myers, Hank Mann, Florence Lee, Allan Garcia, Henry Bergman, Albert Austin, Stanhope Wheatcroft, John Rand, James Donnelly, Eddie Baker, Robert Parrish, Granville Redmond, Jean Harlow [extra], Ray Erlenborn [newsboy], Anna May the elephant.
Plot:The Tramp struggles to help a blind flower girl he has fallen in love with.
2. Sunrise (A Song of Two Humans) – 1927 – F.W. Murnau, Director
Cast: George O’Brien [the man], Janet Gaynor [the wife], Margaret Livingston [the woman from the city], Bodil Rosing [the maid], J. Farrell MacDonald [the photographer], Ralph Sipperly [the barber], Jane Winton [the manicure girl], Arthur Housman [the obtrusive gentleman], Eddie Boland [the obliging gentleman], Gibson Gowland, F.W. Murnau [man on ferryboat], Sally Eilers, Gino Corrado, Barry Norton, Robert Kortman, Sidney Bracey, Harry Semels, Phillips Smalley.
Plot: A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.
1. The General – 1926 – Buster Keaton, Director
Cast: Buster Keaton [Johnny Gray], Marian Mack [Annabelle Lee], Glen Cavender [Captain Anderson], Jim Farley [General Thatcher], Frederick Vroom [Southern general], Charles Smith [Annabelle’s father], Frank Barnes [Annabelle’s brother], Joseph Keaton [Union general], Mike Donlin [Union general], Tom Nawn [Union general], Jackie Lowe, Jackie Hanlon, Frank Agney, Ross McCutcheon, Charles Phillips, Jack Dempster, Red Thompson, Anthony Harvey, Ray Hanford, Tom Moran, Bud Fine, Jimmie Bryant, Al Hanson
Plot: When Union spies steal an engineer’s beloved locomotive, he pursues it single handedly and straight through enemy lines.
As rated on http://www.silentera.com/info/top100.html
Silent Santa’:
SANTA CLAUS AND THE CHILDREN (1898)
SANTA CLAUS (1899)
SANTA CLAUS FILLING STOCKINGS (1897)
SANTA CLAUS’ VISIT (1900)
WAITING FOR SANTA CLAUS (1901)
AN UNEXPECTED SANTA CLAUS (1908)
A TRAP FOR SANTA CLAUS (1909)
THE ADVENTURE OF THE WRONG SANTA CLAUS (1914)
SANTA CLAUS VS. CUPID (1915)
THE DETECTIVE’S SANTA CLAUS (1924)
SANTA CLAUS (1925)
THERE AIN’T NO SANTA CLAUS (1926, with Charley Chase)
