United Artists

325 Pages·2020·10.901 MB·English

by  Peter Krämer, Gary Needham, Yannis Tzioumakis, Tino Balio

UNITED ARTISTS
Established in 1919 by Hollywood’s top talent United Artists has had an
illustrious history, from Hollywood minor to industry leader to a second-tier
media company in the shadow of MGM. This edited collection brings
together leading film historians to examine key aspects of United Artists’ cen-
tennial history from its origins to the sometimes chaotic developments of the
last four decades. The focus is on several key executives – ranging from
Joseph Schenck to Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise – and on many of the
people making films for United Artists, including Gloria Swanson, David O.
Selznick, Kirk Douglas, the Mirisch brothers and Woody Allen. Drawing on
a wide range of primary sources, individual case studies explore the mutually
supportive but also in places highly contentious relationships between United
Artists and its producers, the difficult balance between artistic and commercial
objectives, and the resulting hits and misses (among them The General, the
Pink Panther franchise, Heaven’s Gate, Cruising and Hot Tub Time Machine).
The second volume in the Routledge Hollywood Centenary series, United
Artists is a fascinating and comprehensive study of the firm’s history and
legacy, perfect for students and researchers of cinema and film history, media
industries, and Hollywood.
Peter Krämer is Senior Research Fellow in Cinema and TV in the Leicester
Media School at De Montfort University, and Senior Fellow in the School of
Art, Media and American Studies at the University of East Anglia. He is the
author or editor of ten academic books, including the BFI Film Classic on The
General.
Gary Needham is Senior Lecturer in Film and Media at the University of Liv-
erpool. He is the author of a book on Brokeback Mountain and co-editor of col-
lections on Queer TV and the films of Andy Warhol. He is currently writing
a book on the Andy Warhol/Edie Sedgwick films for Bloomsbury and co-edits
the Routledge Hollywood Centenary series with Yannis Tzioumakis.
Yannis Tzioumakis is Reader in Film and Media Industries at the University
of Liverpool. He is the author of five books, most recently of Acting Indie: Indus-
try, Aesthetics and Performance (2020, with Cynthia Baron) and co-editor of five
collections, including The Hollywood Renaissance: Revisiting American Cinema’s
Most Celebrated Era (2018). He co-edits the Routledge Hollywood Centenary
and the Cinema and Youth Cultures book series.
Tino Balio is Professor Emeritus of Film in the Department of Communication
Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of numerous
books and articles on the American film industry, including two monographs on
the history of United Artists: United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars
(1976) and United Artists: The Company that Changed the Film Industry (1987). He
is also the author of MGM (2018), part of the Routledge Hollywood Centenary
series.
Routledge Hollywood Centenary
Series Editors: Yannis Tzioumakis and Gary Needham
The eleven-year period 2012‒2023 marks the centennial anniversary of all seven
Hollywood major studios: Universal, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner
Bros., Columbia, Disney, and MGM. Originally self-run organizations operating
within a clearly defined film industry, from the 1960s onwards these companies
have become divisions of various conglomerates during a long period of corpor-
ate consolidation and, more recently, of media convergence driven by the
advent of digital technology and changes in distribution and consumption. The
Routledge Hollywood Centenary book series provides a detailed and authorita-
tive history of these long-standing organizations, aiming to chart their hundred-
year development and their transition from film studios to divisions of global
entertainment conglomerates.
Each individual volume examines in detail the evolution of the major Holly-
wood players over the course of a hundred-year period. With some of the stu-
dios having been divisions of conglomerates for more than fifty years and as
they have continued to evolve under changing corporate ownership and increas-
ing media convergence, the Routledge Hollywood Centenary volumes assess
how this evolution, and its periodization, impacts our understanding of Holly-
wood film history. From the ‘studio’ to the ‘post-studio’ era, from ‘Classical
Hollywood’ to ‘Conglomerate Hollywood’, through changes in ownership and
management regimes, and through collaborations with ever changing clusters of
talent each Hollywood studio has been a major contributor to the ways in
which American cinema acquired a particular identity at different historical junc-
tures. The Routledge Hollywood Centenary series volumes examine in detail
how each studio has put an indelible stamp on American cinema and beyond.
MGM
Tino Balio
United Artists
Peter Krämer, Gary Needham, Yannis Tzioumakis and Tino Balio
For more information about the series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
The-Routledge-Hollywood-Centenary-Series/book-series/RHC.

UNITED ARTISTS
Edited by Peter Krämer, Gary Needham,
Yannis Tzioumakis and Tino Balio
Firstpublished2020
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BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Krämer,Peter,1961-editor.|Needham,Gary,editor.|
Tzioumakis,Yannis,editor.|Balio,Tino,editor.
Title:UnitedArtists/editedbyPeterKrämer,GaryNeedham,Yannis
TzioumakisandTinoBalio.
Description:London;NewYork:Routledge,2020.|
Series:RoutledgeHollywoodcentenary|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2019044818(print)|LCCN2019044819(ebook)|
Subjects:LCSH:UnitedArtistsCorporation–History.|MGM/UA
EntertainmentCo.–History.|UnitedArtists(Firm)–History.|Motion
picturestudios–California–LosAngeles–History.|Motionpicture
industry–UnitedStates–History.
Classification:LCCPN1999.U5U552020(print)|LCCPN1999.U5
(ebook)|DDC384/.80979494–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019044818
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019044819
ISBN:978-0-367-17898-7(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-367-17900-7(pbk)
ISBN:978-0-429-05833-2(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
bySwales&Willis,Exeter,Devon,UK
CONTENTS
Listoffigures x
Listofcontributors xii
Serieseditors’preface xv
TheRoutledgeHollywoodCentenaryadvisoryboard xix
Introduction:UnitedArtistsinfilmhistory 1
TinoBalio
PART1
IntroductiontoPart1 15
YannisTzioumakis
1 ‘OneoftheUnitedArtists’:BusterKeaton,JosephSchenckand
UnitedArtists 19
PeterKrämer
2 Declarationsofindependence:GloriaSwansonatUnitedArtists,
1925–1933 38
MikeMashon
3 Goingindependentin1930sHollywood:Freelancestarand
independentproducercollaborationsatUnitedArtists 57
EmilyCarman
viii Contents
4 Thetramp,thedictatorandtheknight:UnitedArtistsandthe
roadshowingofprestigepicturesinthe1930sand1940s 75
SheldonHall
5 ‘Look,ma,I’macorporation!’:UnitedArtistsandKirkDouglas’Bryna
Productions,1955–1959 94
JamesFenwick
6 ThemagnificentsevenMirischcompanies:Competitivestrategyand
corporateauthorship 112
PaulKerr
7 Anartistundertheinfluence:UnitedArtistsandWoodyAllen 132
MichaelPetitti
8 Noshotinthedark:DevelopingthePinkPantherfranchise 150
OliverGruner
PART2
IntroductiontoPart2 169
YannisTzioumakis
9 UnitedArtists,fourthquarter1980:TherhetoricofHollywoodfailure
andsuccess 173
JustinWyatt
10 ‘Cruisingisapicturewesincerelywishwedidnothavetoshow’:
UnitedArtists,ratings,blindbiddingandthecontroversyofWilliam
Friedkin’sCruising(1980) 192
GaryNeedham
11 FromHeaven’sGatetoRockyIV:ReconfiguringauteurisminUnited
Artists’transitiontoMGM/UAinthe1980s 211
NicholasGodfrey
12 Thenextstep:OrionPicturesasthenewUnitedArtists,1978–1985 231
YannisTzioumakis
13 UnitedArtistsFilms:Re-enteringthespecialtymarket,1999–2005 251
LisaDombrowski
Contents ix
14 Fromstar-producertoexecutive:TomCruiseand/atUnitedArtists,
2006–2012 270
SarahE.S.Sinwell
Generalindex 287
Indexoftitles 297