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Metro Pictures

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Metro Pictures Corporation
IndustryFilm studio
PredecessorSolax Studios
FoundedJune 23, 1915 (1915-06-23)
FounderRichard A. Rowland
George Grombacker
Louis B. Mayer
DefunctApril 17, 1924; 98 years ago (1924-04-17)
FateMerged with Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
SuccessorsStudio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Library:
Warner Bros.
HeadquartersHeidelberg Building, ,
Key people
Richard A. Rowland (President)
Louis B. Mayer (secretary)

Metro Pictures Corporation was a motion picture production company founded in early 1915 in Jacksonville, Florida. It was a forerunner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The company produced its films in New York, Los Angeles, and sometimes at leased facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey.[1] It was purchased in 1919.

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Film

Film

A film – also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick – is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and to the art form that is the result of it.

Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico; Alabama to the northwest; Georgia to the north; the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean to the east; and the Straits of Florida and Cuba to the south. It is the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. With a population exceeding 21 million, it is the third-most populous state in the nation as of 2020. It spans 65,758 square miles (170,310 km2), ranking 22nd in area among the 50 states. The Miami metropolitan area, anchored by the cities of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, is the state's largest metropolitan area with a population of 6.138 million, and the state's most-populous city is Jacksonville with a population of 949,611. Florida's other major population centers include Tampa Bay, Orlando, Cape Coral, and the state capital of Tallahassee.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924, and based in Beverly Hills, California.

Fort Lee, New Jersey

Fort Lee, New Jersey

Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop The Palisades.

New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is the most densely populated U.S. state. A coastal state, New Jersey is situated at the center of the Northeast megalopolis, the most populous American urban agglomeration. The state lies within both the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. New Jersey is bordered on its north and east by the state of New York; on its east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on its west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on its southwest by Delaware Bay and the state of Delaware. At 7,354 square miles (19,050 km2), New Jersey is the fifth-smallest state in land area, but with close to 9.3 million residents as of the 2020 United States census, its highest decennial count ever, ranks 11th in population. The state capital is Trenton, and the most populous city is Newark. New Jersey is the only U.S. state in which every county is deemed urban by the U.S. Census Bureau, with 13 counties included in the New York metropolitan area, seven counties in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, and with Warren County constituting part of the rapidly industrializing Lehigh Valley metropolitan area.

History

Advertisement for The Right of Way (1915) with William Faversham
Advertisement for The Right of Way (1915) with William Faversham
Lobby card for Eye for Eye (1918)Poster for Convict 13 (1920)Poster for Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920)Poster for The Off-Shore Pirate (1921)Poster for Peacock Alley (1922)
Lobby card for Eye for Eye (1918)
Lobby card for Eye for Eye (1918)Poster for Convict 13 (1920)Poster for Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920)Poster for The Off-Shore Pirate (1921)Poster for Peacock Alley (1922)
Poster for Convict 13 (1920)
Lobby card for Eye for Eye (1918)Poster for Convict 13 (1920)Poster for Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920)Poster for The Off-Shore Pirate (1921)Poster for Peacock Alley (1922)
Poster for Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920)
Lobby card for Eye for Eye (1918)Poster for Convict 13 (1920)Poster for Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920)Poster for The Off-Shore Pirate (1921)Poster for Peacock Alley (1922)
Poster for The Off-Shore Pirate (1921)
Lobby card for Eye for Eye (1918)Poster for Convict 13 (1920)Poster for Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920)Poster for The Off-Shore Pirate (1921)Poster for Peacock Alley (1922)
Poster for Peacock Alley (1922)

Metro Pictures was founded as a film distribution company in February 1915 by a number of "exchange men" with Richard A. Rowland as president, George Grombacher as vice-president and Louis B. Mayer as secretary.[2] Grombacher owned exchanges in Portland and Seattle. Rowland and Metro's 2nd vice president James B. Clark were from the Roland & Clark company based in Pittsburgh. Metro was capitalized with $300,000 in cash and founded for the purpose of controlling movie productions for the exchanges.[3] Rowland had been an investor in Alco Films which was a distribution company for a coalition of production companies. Mayer convinced Rowland to set up Metro to replace Alco to avoid being picked up by Paramount, Mutual Film, or Universal. Metro had Rolfe Photoplays, Inc. and Popular Plays and Players moving over from Alco to Metro. Additional production companies working with Metro were Columbia (1915–1917 [not the current Columbia], subsequently CBC Sales until 1918), Quality Picture Corporation, and Dyreda.[4] Mayer left to form his own production unit in 1918.[5]

In 1919, Metro established its Hollywood studio at Lillian Way and Eleanor St. while building its huge studio covering 4 city blocks at Romaine St. and Cahuenga Blvd, which opened in 1920. Its back lot was established in 1920 in Hollywood on N. Cahuenga Boulevard between Willoughby Avenue and Waring Avenue bound by Lillian Way on the east (today home to Red Studios Hollywood).[6]

Metro's first release on March 29, 1915 was Satan Sanderson, a film produced by Rolfe Photoplays which was originally to be distributed by Alco Film Company.[7] Sealed Valley was Metro's first production released on August 2, 1915.[8] William Frederick Jury distributed Metro's films in Britain.

In 1920, the company was purchased by Marcus Loew as a supplier of product for his theater chain. However, Loew was not satisfied with the amount or quality of Metro's output. A few years later in 1924, Loew merged it with the struggling Goldwyn Pictures and shortly Louis B. Mayer Productions then renamed the new entity Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that year with Mayer in charge (who was never an owner, and was only ever an employee).[9]

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Convict 13

Convict 13

Convict 13 is a 1920 two-reel silent comedy film starring Buster Keaton. It was written and directed by Keaton and Edward F. Cline.

Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920 film)

Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920 film)

Alias Jimmy Valentine is a 1920 American silent crime drama film starring Bert Lytell, directed by Edmund Mortimer and Arthur Ripley, and released through Metro Pictures.

Peacock Alley (1922 film)

Peacock Alley (1922 film)

Peacock Alley is a 1922 American silent drama film starring Monte Blue and Mae Murray. The film was directed by Murray's husband at the time, Robert Z. Leonard. An incomplete print survives at the Library of Congress.

Richard A. Rowland

Richard A. Rowland

Richard A. Rowland was an American studio executive and film producer.

Louis B. Mayer

Louis B. Mayer

Louis Burt Mayer was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industry's most prestigious movie studio, accumulating the largest concentration of leading writers, directors, and stars in Hollywood.

Alco Films

Alco Films

Alco Films, established as Alco Film Corporation, was a short-lived American film distributor established in New York City during the silent film era in 1914. It was co-founded by Al Lichtman. The company worked to establish exclusive distribution deals with movie theater networks for its films. It entered bankruptcy proceedings in 1915 after internal strife, but the shareholders reorganized as Metro Pictures in January 1915.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global. It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States, and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles.

Mutual Film

Mutual Film

Mutual Film Corporation was an early American film conglomerate that produced some of Charlie Chaplin's greatest comedies. Founded in 1912, it was absorbed by Film Booking Offices of America, which evolved into RKO Pictures.

Rolfe Photoplays

Rolfe Photoplays

Rolfe Photoplays Inc. was an American motion picture production company established by musical entertainer B.A. Rolfe. Its productions were primarily filmed on the East Coast, usually in and around Fort Lee, New Jersey, although the company also filmed in California. Its films were distributed through an agreement with Louis B. Mayer's Metro Pictures Corporation.

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony.

Red Studios Hollywood

Red Studios Hollywood

Red Studios Hollywood, formerly Desilu Cahuenga Studio and Ren-Mar Studios, is a rental studio located at 846 N. Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood, California, on premises that were formerly the home of Desilu Productions. Originally it was the site of Metro Pictures Back Lot #3 in 1920. In 1947 it was rebuilt as a 9-stage studio called Equity Pictures and became Motion Picture Center Studios a year later. It has been used for a wide variety of film and television production, and the studio has been known by many different names.

Marcus Loew

Marcus Loew

Marcus Loew was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the motion picture industry who formed Loew's Theatres and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio (MGM).

Stars

Metro's biggest stars during the World War I period were the romantic teams of Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne and Harold Lockwood and May Allison. Also in top echelons of importance were actresses Mae Murray and Viola Dana and from the stage Lionel and Ethel Barrymore, Emmy Wehlen and Emily Stevens. Before merging into MGM in 1924, Metro's star roster had expanded to include Lillian Gish, Buster Keaton, Jackie Coogan, Marion Davies, Ramon Novarro, Wallace Beery and Lewis Stone.

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Francis X. Bushman

Francis X. Bushman

Francis Xavier Bushman was an American film actor and director. His career as a matinee idol started in 1911 in the silent film His Friend's Wife. He gained a large female following and was one of the biggest stars of the 1910s and early 1920s.

Beverly Bayne

Beverly Bayne

Beverly Bayne was an American actress who appeared in silent films beginning in 1910 in Chicago, Illinois, where she worked for Essanay Studios.

Harold Lockwood

Harold Lockwood

Harold A. Lockwood was an American silent film actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most popular matinee idols of the early film period during the 1910s.

Mae Murray

Mae Murray

Mae Murray was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen".

Lionel Barrymore

Lionel Barrymore

Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul (1931), and remains best known to modern audiences for the role of villainous Mr. Potter in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.

Ethel Barrymore

Ethel Barrymore

Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Barrymore was a stage, screen and radio actress whose career spanned six decades, and was regarded as "The First Lady of the American Theatre". She received four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, winning for None but the Lonely Heart (1944).

Emmy Wehlen

Emmy Wehlen

Emily "Emmy" Wehlen (1887–1977) was a German-born Edwardian musical comedy and silent film actress who vanished from the public eye while in her early thirties.

Emily Stevens (actress)

Emily Stevens (actress)

Emily Stevens was a stage and screen actress in Broadway plays in the first three decades of the 20th century and later in silent films.

Lillian Gish

Lillian Gish

Lillian Diana Gish was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema.

Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" as having made him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies". In 1996, Entertainment Weekly recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director, writing that "More than Chaplin, Keaton understood movies: He knew they consisted of a four-sided frame in which resided a malleable reality off which his persona could bounce. A vaudeville child star, Keaton grew up to be a tinkerer, an athlete, a visual mathematician; his films offer belly laughs of mind-boggling physical invention and a spacey determination that nears philosophical grandeur." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him as the 21st-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema.

Jackie Coogan

Jackie Coogan

John Leslie Coogan was an American actor and comedian who began his film career as a child actor in silent films.

Lewis Stone

Lewis Stone

Lewis Shepard Stone was an American film actor. He spent 29 years as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was best known for his portrayal of Judge James Hardy in the studio's popular Andy Hardy film series. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1929 for his performance as Russian Count Pahlen in The Patriot. Stone was also cast in seven films with Greta Garbo, including in the role of Doctor Otternschlag in the 1932 drama Grand Hotel.

Motion Picture Studios

Although the Metro film library and stars were merged into MGM in 1924, a portion of Rowland's Los Angeles film studio continued with a life of its own. Originally spanning four city blocks, one block continued as a studio known simply as Motion Picture Studios through the 1940s, and as General Service Studios and Desilu Studios through the 1950s and 1960s. It became Ren-Mar Studios in 1974. In January 2010, Ren-Mar Studios was bought by Red Digital Cinema Camera Company. The complex was renamed "Red Studios Hollywood". It is located on Cahuenga Blvd. north of Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, directly behind the Musicians AFM Local 47 on Vine Street.

David E. Kelley filmed several of his TV series there, including Picket Fences, Ally McBeal, and The Practice.

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David E. Kelley

David E. Kelley

David Edward Kelley is an American television writer, producer, and former attorney. He has created and/or produced a number of television series including Doogie Howser, M.D., Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice and its spin-off Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Goliath, Big Little Lies, and Big Sky. Kelley is one of very few screenwriters to have created shows that have aired on all four top commercial U.S. television networks as well as cable giant HBO.

Picket Fences

Picket Fences

Picket Fences is an American family drama television series about the residents of the town of Rome, Wisconsin, created and produced by David E. Kelley. The show ran from September 18, 1992, to June 26, 1996, on the CBS television network in the United States. It sometimes struggled to maintain a stable primetime audience and had fluctuating ratings, due in part to its Friday night death slot. In its first season on the air it placed 63rd in the prime-time Nielsen ratings and in its second season it moved to 61st. The show's exteriors were shot in the L.A. suburb of Monrovia, California, with many of the townspeople appearing in the background of episodes.

Ally McBeal

Ally McBeal

Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy drama television series, originally aired on Fox from September 8, 1997, to May 20, 2002. Created by David E. Kelley, the series stars Calista Flockhart in the title role as a lawyer working in the Boston law firm Cage and Fish, with other lawyers whose lives and loves are eccentric, humorous, and dramatic. The series received critical acclaim in its early seasons, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 1998 and 1999, and also winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1999. As of August 2022, a revival is in development at ABC.

The Practice

The Practice

The Practice is an American legal drama television series created by David E. Kelley centering on partners and associates at a Boston law firm. The show ran for eight seasons on ABC, from March 4, 1997, to May 16, 2004. It won an Emmy in 1998 and 1999 for Outstanding Drama Series, and spawned the spin-off series Boston Legal, which ran for five more seasons.

Filmography

A 1965 fire in an MGM Archive #7 storage facility destroyed original negatives and prints, including the best-quality copies of every Metro picture and Louis B. Mayer Picture produced prior to 1924; over half of MGM's feature films from before 1930 are completely lost. On March 25, 1986, Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting System purchased pre-May 1986 MGM films (including Metro Pictures films) from Kirk Kerkorian for $600 million.

Filmed in Fort Lee, NJ

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List of Metro Pictures films

List of Metro Pictures films

Metro Pictures Corporation was a motion picture production company founded in 1915 in the United States. It was, along with Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation, one of the forerunners of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The company produced its films in New York, Los Angeles, and sometimes at leased facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Metro Pictures was founded as a film distribution company in February 1915 by a number of "exchange men" with Richard A. Rowland as president, George Grombacher as vice-president and Louis B. Mayer as secretary. It soon also began producing its own films, with Sealed Valley being Metro's first production, which was released on August 2, 1915.

1965 MGM vault fire

1965 MGM vault fire

On August 10, 1965, a fire erupted in Vault 7, a storage facility, at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio (MGM) backlot in Culver City, California. It was caused by an electrical short explosively igniting stored nitrate film. The initial explosion reportedly killed at least one person, and the resulting fire destroyed the entire contents of the vault, archived prints of silent and early sound films produced by MGM and its predecessors. The only known copies of hundreds of films were destroyed.

Lost film

Lost film

A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection or public archive.

Kirk Kerkorian

Kirk Kerkorian

Kirk Kerkorian was an Armenian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was the president and CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California. Kerkorian was one of the important figures in the shaping of Las Vegas and, with architect Martin Stern Jr., is described as the "father of the mega-resort". He built the world's largest hotel in Las Vegas three times: the International Hotel, the MGM Grand Hotel (1973) and the MGM Grand (1993). He purchased the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio in 1969.

The Eternal Question

The Eternal Question

The Eternal Question is a lost 1916 American silent drama film drama starring Olga Petrova and directed by Burton L. King. It was produced by the production company known as Popular Plays and Players and released through the newly formed Metro Pictures.

The Divorcee (1919 film)

The Divorcee (1919 film)

The Divorcee is a 1919 American society drama starring Ethel Barrymore in her last silent feature film. The film is based on a 1907 play, Lady Frederick by young Somerset Maugham, which had starred Barrymore on Broadway. The play was already quite dated when this film was made, but the actress was always comfortable with this kind of soap-operish melodramatic material. Herbert Blaché directed, and June Mathis wrote the scenario based on Maugham's play. The film was produced and distributed by the Metro Pictures company.

Source: "Metro Pictures", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 16th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Pictures.

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References
  1. ^ a b "Studios and Films". Fort Lee Films.org. Fort Lee Film Commission. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  2. ^ Eyman, S. (2008). Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. Simon & Schuster. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-4391-0791-1. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  3. ^ "The Metro Corporation", Motography, XIII (8): 278, February 20, 1915, retrieved December 5, 2013
  4. ^ McMahan, Alison (August 22, 2014). Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 179. ISBN 9781501302695. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  5. ^ "Louis B. Mayer". The Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  6. ^ Monush, Barry; Sheridan, James (June 1, 2011). Lucille Ball FAQ: Everything Left to Know About America's Favorite Redhead. Applause Theatre & Cinema. ISBN 9781557839336. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  7. ^ "Satan Sanderson". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  8. ^ a b "Sealed Valley". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  9. ^ International Directory of Company Histories. Vol. 25. St. James Press. 1999. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
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