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Monogram Pictures

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Monogram Pictures
IndustryEntertainment
FoundedSouthern California (1931)
predecessor-in-interest to Allied Artists Pictures Corporation (1946)
FoundersW. Ray Johnston
Trem Carr
DefunctSouthern California (1953)
Allied Artists Pictures Corporation (1979)
FatePresently dormant
SuccessorsLibrary:
Paramount Pictures
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Warner Bros. Pictures
Headquarters
Key people
Kim Richards, Chairman and CEO, Robert Fitzpatrick, President
ProductsMotion Pictures, Television Production, Music, Music Publishing, Entertainment, Television Syndication, Online games, Mobile Entertainment, Video on demand, Digital distribution
Websitemonogrampictures.com

Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios in the golden age of Hollywood, generally referred to collectively as Poverty Row. Lacking the financial resources to deliver the lavish sets, production values, and star power of the larger studios, Monogram sought to attract its audiences with the promise of action and adventure.

The company's trademark is now owned by Allied Artists International.[1] The original sprawling brick complex which functioned as home to both Monogram and Allied Artists remains at 4376 Sunset Drive, utilized as part of the Church of Scientology Media Center (formerly KCET's television facilities).[2]

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Film studio

Film studio

A film studio is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production company. Most firms in the entertainment industry have never owned their own studios, but have rented space from other companies.

Classical Hollywood cinema

Classical Hollywood cinema

Classical Hollywood cinema is a term used in film criticism to describe both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking which first developed in the 1910s to 1920s, during the latter years of the silent film era. It then became characteristic of American cinema during the Golden Age of Hollywood, between roughly 1927 and 1969. It eventually became the most powerful and pervasive style of filmmaking worldwide.

Poverty Row

Poverty Row

Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small B movie studios. Although many of them were based on today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did not necessarily refer to any specific physical location, but was rather a figurative catch-all for low-budget films produced by these lower-tier studios.

Allied Artists International

Allied Artists International

Allied Artists International, Inc. (AAI) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment corporation headquartered in Glendale, California, United States, producing and distributing motion pictures, recorded music, broadcast television, online streaming, video games, and other media products. The company is the successor to Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. In the year 2000, AAI divided its media products into three distinct wholly owned divisions, Allied Artists Film Group (AAFG), Allied Artists Music Group (AAMG) and Allied Artists Music & Video Distribution (AAMVD). Then, around 2020, AAI reorganized itself into four divisions: Allied Artists Music Group, Allied Artists Film Group, Allied Artists Films & Monogram Pictures, & Allied Artists Broadcasting & Allied Artists Music & Video Distribution. Allied Artists Pictures is known for having produced and released such historic motion pictures as Cabaret, starring Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli; Papillon, starring Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen; and The Betsy, starring Laurence Olivier, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall, and Katharine Ross.

Church of Scientology

Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. The movement has been the subject of a number of controversies, and the Church of Scientology has been described by government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, scholars, law lords, and numerous superior court judgements as both a dangerous cult and a manipulative profit-making business. In 1979, several executives of the organization were convicted and imprisoned for multiple offenses by a U.S. Federal Court. The Church of Scientology itself was convicted of fraud by a French court in 2009, a decision upheld by the supreme Court of Cassation in 2013. The German government classifies Scientology as an unconstitutional sect. In France, it has been classified as a dangerous cult. In some countries, it has attained legal recognition as a religion.

KCET

KCET

KCET is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV. The two stations share studios at The Pointe in Burbank; KCET's transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains.

History

Monogram was created in the early 1930s from two earlier companies; W. Ray Johnston's Rayart Productions (renamed Raytone when sound pictures came in) and Trem Carr's Sono Art-World Wide Pictures. Both specialized in low-budget features, a policy which continued at Monogram Pictures, with Carr in charge of production. Another independent producer, Paul Malvern, released 16 Lone Star western productions (starring John Wayne) through Monogram.[3]

The backbone of the studio's early days was a father-son partnership: writer/director Robert N. Bradbury and cowboy actor Bob Steele (born Robert A. Bradbury). Bradbury wrote almost all of the early Monogram and Lone Star westerns and directed many of them himself. Monogram offered a selection of film genres, including action melodramas, classics, and mysteries.[4] In its early years, Monogram could seldom afford big-name movie stars and would employ either former silent-film actors who were idle (Herbert Rawlinson, William Collier Sr.) or young featured players (Ray Walker, Wallace Ford, William Cagney, Charles Starrett).

In 1935, Johnston and Carr were wooed by Herbert Yates of Consolidated Film Industries; Yates planned to merge Monogram with several other smaller independent companies to form Republic Pictures. After a brief period under this new venture, Johnston and Carr clashed with Yates and left. Carr moved to Universal Pictures, while Johnston reactivated Monogram in 1937.[5]

Poster for the movie Wife Wanted (1946), featuring star Kay Francis and other cast members
Poster for the movie Wife Wanted (1946), featuring star Kay Francis and other cast members
Bela Lugosi appeared in a string of Monogram productions throughout the 1940s.
Bela Lugosi appeared in a string of Monogram productions throughout the 1940s.
Bela Lugosi appeared in a string of Monogram productions throughout the 1940s.
Bela Lugosi appeared in a string of Monogram productions throughout the 1940s.

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Trem Carr

Trem Carr

Tremlet C. Carr was an American film producer, closely associated with the low-budget filmmaking of Poverty Row. In 1931 he co-founded Monogram Pictures, which developed into one of the leading specialist producers of B pictures in Hollywood.

Sono Art-World Wide Pictures

Sono Art-World Wide Pictures

Sono Art-World Wide Pictures was an American film distribution and production company in operation from 1927 to 1933. Their first feature film was The Rainbow Man (1929), while one of their most prominent was The Great Gabbo (1929) starring Erich von Stroheim and directed by James Cruze for James Cruze Productions, Inc. One of the last films distributed by the company was A Study in Scarlet (1933) starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes.

Paul Malvern

Paul Malvern

Paul William Malvern was an American film producer, child actor, and stuntman. He produced more than 100 films.

John Wayne

John Wayne

Marion Robert Morrison, professionally known as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood's Golden Age, especially through his starring roles in Western and war movies. His career flourished from the silent era of the 1920s through the American New Wave, as he appeared in a total of 179 film and television productions. He was among the top box-office draws for three decades, and he appeared with many other important Hollywood stars of his era. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Wayne as one of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.

Bob Steele (actor)

Bob Steele (actor)

Bob Steele was an American actor. He also was billed as Bob Bradbury Jr..

Herbert Rawlinson

Herbert Rawlinson

Herbert Banemann Rawlinson was an English-born stage, film, radio, and television actor. A leading man during Hollywood's silent film era, Rawlinson transitioned to character roles after the advent of sound films.

Ray Walker (actor)

Ray Walker (actor)

Warren Reynolds "Ray" Walker was an American actor, born in Newark, New Jersey, who starred in Baby Take a Bow (1934), Hideaway Girl (1936), The Dark Hour (1936), The Unknown Guest (1943) and It's A Wonderful Life (1946).

Charles Starrett

Charles Starrett

Charles Robert Starrett was an American actor, best known for his starring role in the Durango Kid western series.

Consolidated Film Industries

Consolidated Film Industries

Consolidated Film Industries was a film laboratory and film processing company and was one of the leading film laboratories in the Los Angeles area for many decades. CFI processed negatives and made prints for motion pictures and television. The company and its employees received many Academy Awards for scientific or technical achievements.

Republic Pictures

Republic Pictures

Republic Pictures Corporation was an American film studio corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, based in Los Angeles, California. It had production and distribution facilities in Studio City, as well as a movie ranch in Encino. Republic was best-known for specializing in Westerns, cliffhanger serials, and B-films emphasizing mystery and action. Republic was also notable for developing the motion picture careers of John Wayne, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers. The studio was also responsible for the financial management and distribution of few big-budget feature films directed by John Ford, as well as one Shakespeare film, Macbeth (1948), directed by Orson Welles. Under the leadership of founder Herbert J. Yates, Republic was considered a mini-major film studio.

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures is an American film production and distribution company owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of NBCUniversal.

Kay Francis

Kay Francis

Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star and highest-paid actress at Warner Bros. studio. She adopted her mother's maiden name (Francis) as her professional surname.

Film series

In 1938, Monogram began a long and profitable policy of making series and hiring familiar players to star in them. Frankie Darro, Hollywood's foremost tough-kid actor of the 1930s, joined Monogram and stayed with the company until 1950. Comedian Mantan Moreland co-starred in many of the Darro films and continued to be a valuable asset to Monogram through 1949. Juvenile actors Marcia Mae Jones and Jackie Moran co-starred in series of homespun romances, and then joined the Frankie Darro series.

Boris Karloff contributed to the Monogram release schedule with his Mr. Wong mysteries. This prompted producer Sam Katzman to engage Bela Lugosi for a follow-up series of Monogram thrillers.

Katzman's street-gang series The East Side Kids was an imitation of the then-popular Dead End Kids features. The first film cast six juveniles who had no connection with the Dead End series, but Katzman signed Dead End Kids Bobby Jordan and Leo Gorcey, and soon added Huntz Hall and Gabriel Dell from the original gang. The East Side Kids series ran from 1940 to 1945. East Side star Gorcey then took the reins himself and transformed the series into The Bowery Boys, which became the longest-running feature-film comedy series in movie history (48 titles over 12 years). During this run, Gorcey became the highest-paid actor in Hollywood on an annual basis.

Monogram continued to experiment with film series with mixed results. Definite box-office hits were Charlie Chan, The Cisco Kid, and Joe Palooka, all proven movie properties abandoned by other studios and revived by Monogram. Less successful were the comic-strip exploits of Snuffy Smith, the mysterious adventures of The Shadow, and Sam Katzman's comedy series teaming Billy Gilbert, Shemp Howard, and Maxie Rosenbloom. Other series included the Bomba, the Jungle Boy adventures starring Johnny Sheffield (formerly "Boy" of the Tarzan films); the "Henry" series of small-town comedies co-starring Raymond Walburn and Walter Catlett; the Roddy McDowall series, with the juvenile lead forsaking child roles for dramatic and action vehicles; and the Bringing Up Father comedies based on the George McManus comic strip, featuring Joe Yule and Renie Riano as "Jiggs and Maggie."

Many of Monogram's series were westerns. The studio released sagebrush sagas with Bill Cody, Bob Steele, John Wayne, Tom Keene, Tim McCoy, Tex Ritter, and Jack Randall before hitting on the "trio" format teaming veteran saddle pals. Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and Raymond Hatton became The Rough Riders; Ray (Crash) Corrigan, John "Dusty" King, and Max Terhune were The Range Busters, and Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson, and Bob Steele teamed as The Trail Blazers. When Universal Pictures allowed Johnny Mack Brown's contract to lapse, Monogram grabbed him and kept him busy through 1952.

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Film series

Film series

A film series or movie series is a collection of related films in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series.

Frankie Darro

Frankie Darro

Frankie Darro was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist. He is perhaps best known for his role as Lampwick, the unlucky boy who turns into a donkey in Walt Disney's second animated feature, Pinocchio (1940). In early credits, his last name was spelled Darrow.

Jackie Moran

Jackie Moran

Jackie Moran was an American movie actor who, between 1936 and 1946, appeared in over thirty films, primarily in teenage roles.

Boris Karloff

Boris Karloff

William Henry Pratt, known professionally as Boris Karloff, was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film Frankenstein (1931) established him as a horror icon, and he reprised the role for the sequels Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). He also appeared as Imhotep in The Mummy (1932), and voiced the Grinch in, as well as narrating, the animated television special of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), which won him a Grammy Award.

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, known professionally as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic Dracula, Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956.

Dead End Kids

Dead End Kids

The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York City who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play Dead End in 1935. In 1937, producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film. They proved to be so popular that they continued to make movies under various monikers, including the Little Tough Guys, the East Side Kids, and the Bowery Boys, until 1958.

Bobby Jordan

Bobby Jordan

Robert G. Jordan was an American actor, most notable for being a member of the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids, and The Bowery Boys.

Leo Gorcey

Leo Gorcey

Leo Bernard Gorcey was an American stage and film actor, famous for portraying the leader of a group of hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids and, as adults, The Bowery Boys. Gorcey was famous for his use of malapropisms, such as "I depreciate it!" instead of "I appreciate it!"

Huntz Hall

Huntz Hall

Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall was an American actor and comedian who appeared in the popular "Dead End Kids" movies, including Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), and in the later "Bowery Boys" movies, during the late 1930s to the late 1950s.

Gabriel Dell

Gabriel Dell

Gabriel Dell was an American actor and one of the members of what came to be known as the Dead End Kids, then later the East Side Kids and finally The Bowery Boys.

Charlie Chan

Charlie Chan

Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes and villains like Fu Manchu. Many stories feature Chan traveling the world beyond Hawaii as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes.

Joe Palooka

Joe Palooka

Joe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher. The strip debuted on April 19, 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers. It was cancelled in 1984.

Monogram's stars

The studio was a launching pad for new stars (Preston Foster in Sensation Hunters, Randolph Scott in Broken Dreams, Ginger Rogers in The Thirteenth Guest, Lionel Atwill in The Sphinx, Alan Ladd in Her First Romance, Robert Mitchum in When Strangers Marry. The studio was also a haven for established stars whose careers had stalled: Edmund Lowe in Klondike Fury, John Boles in Road to Happiness, Ricardo Cortez in I Killed That Man, Simone Simon in Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Kay Francis and Bruce Cabot in Divorce.

Monogram did create and nurture its own stars. Gale Storm began her career at RKO Radio Pictures in 1940 but found a home at Monogram. Storm had been promoted from Monogram's Frankie Darro series and was showcased in crime dramas (like The Crime Smasher (1943) opposite Richard Cromwell and radio's Frank Graham in the title role) and a string of musicals to capitalize on her singing talents (like Campus Rhythm and Nearly Eighteen (both 1943), as well as Swing Parade of 1946 featuring The Three Stooges). Another of Monogram's finds during this time was British skating star Belita, who conversely starred in musical revues first and then graduated to dramatic roles, including Suspense (1946), an A-budget King Brothers Productions picture released under the Monogram name.

Eduardo Ciannelli in Dillinger
Eduardo Ciannelli in Dillinger

In the mid-1940s Monogram very nearly hit the big time with Dillinger, a sensationalized crime drama that was a runaway success in 1945. Filmed by King Brothers Productions, it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Monogram tried to follow Dillinger immediately (with several "exploitation" melodramas cashing in on topical themes), and did achieve some success, but Monogram never became a respectable "major" studio like former poverty-row denizen Columbia Pictures.

The only Monogram release to win the Academy Award was Climbing the Matterhorn, which won the Best Short Subject (Two Reeler) Oscar in 1947. Other Monogram films to receive Oscar nominations were King of the Zombies for Academy Award for Best Music (Music Score of a Dramatic Picture) in 1941 and Flat Top for Best Film Editing in 1952.

Monogram filmed some of its later features in Cinecolor, mostly outdoor subjects like County Fair, Blue Grass of Kentucky, and The Rose Bowl Story, as well as the science-fiction film, Flight to Mars (1952).

Creation of Allied Artists Productions

Producer Walter Mirisch began at Monogram after World War II as assistant to studio head Steve Broidy. He convinced Broidy that the days of low-budget films were ending, and in 1946 Monogram created a new unit, Allied Artists Productions, to make costlier films. The new name was meant to mirror the name of United Artists by invoking images of "creative personnel uniting to produce and distribute quality films".[6]

At a time when the average Hollywood picture cost about $800,000 (and the average Monogram picture cost about $90,000), Allied Artists' first release, the Christmas-themed comedy It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), cost more than $1,200,000.[7] It was rewarded with an estimated $1.8 million box office return.[8] Subsequent Allied Artists releases were more economical, but were filmed in color.

The studio's new policy permitted what Mirisch called "B-plus" pictures, which were released along with Monogram's established line of B fare. Mirisch's prediction about the end of the low-budget film had come true thanks to television, and in September 1952 Monogram announced that henceforth it would only produce films bearing the Allied Artists name. The Monogram brand name was retired in 1953, and the company was now known as Allied Artists Pictures Corporation.[9]

Allied Artists retained a few vestiges of its Monogram identity, continuing its popular Stanley Clements action series (through 1953), its B-Westerns (through 1954), its Bomba, the Jungle Boy adventures (through 1955), and especially its breadwinning comedy series with The Bowery Boys (through 1958, with Clements replacing Leo Gorcey). For the most part, Allied Artists was heading in new, ambitious directions under Mirisch.

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Preston Foster

Preston Foster

Preston Stratton Foster, was an American actor of stage, film, radio, and television, whose career spanned nearly four decades. He also had a career as a vocalist.

Randolph Scott

Randolph Scott

George Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned the years from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals, adventure tales, war films, and a few horror and fantasy films. However, his most enduring image is that of the tall-in-the-saddle Western hero. Out of his more than 100 film appearances over 60 were in Westerns. According to editor Edward Boscombe, "...Of all the major stars whose name was associated with the Western, Scott [was] most closely identified with it."

Broken Dreams (1933 film)

Broken Dreams (1933 film)

Broken Dreams is a 1933 drama film, directed by Robert G. Vignola. It starred Randolph Scott and Martha Sleeper. It was produced and distributed by Monogram Pictures.

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Kitty Foyle (1940), and performed during the 1930s in RKO's musical films with Fred Astaire. Her career continued on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century.

Lionel Atwill

Lionel Atwill

Lionel Alfred William Atwill was an English stage and screen actor. He began his acting career at the Garrick Theatre. After coming to the U.S., he subsequently appeared in various Broadway plays and Hollywood films. Some of his more significant roles were in Captain Blood (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939) and To Be or Not to Be (1942).

Alan Ladd

Alan Ladd

Alan Walbridge Ladd was an American actor and film producer. Ladd found success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s, particularly in films noir and Westerns. He was often paired with Veronica Lake in films noir, such as This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), and The Blue Dahlia (1946). Whispering Smith (1948) was his first Western and color film, and Shane (1953) was noted for its contributions to the genre. Ladd also appeared in ten films with William Bendix; both actors coincidentally died in 1964.

Her First Romance (1940 film)

Her First Romance (1940 film)

Her First Romance is a 1940 American musical comedy film directed by Edward Dmytryk. based on Gene Stratton-Porter's novel Her Father's Daughter.

Edmund Lowe

Edmund Lowe

Edmund Dantes Lowe was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film.

Klondike Fury

Klondike Fury

Klondike Fury is a 1942 American drama film directed by William K. Howard, produced by the King Brothers, and released through Monogram. It stars Edmund Lowe.

John Boles (actor)

John Boles (actor)

John Boles was an American singer and actor best known for playing Victor Moritz in the 1931 film Frankenstein.

I Killed That Man

I Killed That Man

I Killed That Man is a 1941 American film directed by Phil Rosen that was a remake of his 1933 film The Devil's Mate. It starred Ricardo Cortez and was produced by the King Brothers.

Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a 1944 American comedy/romance film starring Simone Simon, James Ellison, William Terry, and featuring Robert Mitchum in an early role. Produced by King Brothers Productions, it was co-written by Philip Yordan and directed by the German-American director Joe May, and constitutes the final film directed by Joe May. It was based on a short story purchased by the King Brothers. The film has fantasy elements, with the main character being followed by a gremlin.

Interstate/Allied Artists Television

Monogram cautiously entered the field of television syndication. Every studio except Paramount avoided putting its own name on its television subsidiary, fearing adverse reaction from its movie-theater customers. Monogram followed suit, christening its TV arm as Interstate Television Corporation. Interstate's biggest success was the Little Rascals series (formerly Hal Roach's "Our Gang" comedies, which had been reissued for theaters by Monogram). In later years Interstate TV became Allied Artists Television.

Allied Artists' television library was sold to Lorimar's TV production and distribution arms in 1979. Lorimar was acquired by Warner Bros. Television, which now controls the library.

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Allied Artists' major productions

For a time in the mid-1950s, the Mirisch family held great influence at Allied Artists, with Walter as executive producer, his brother Harold as head of sales, and brother Marvin as assistant treasurer. They pushed the studio into big-budget filmmaking, signing contracts with William Wyler, John Huston, Billy Wilder and Gary Cooper. When their first big-name productions, Wyler's Friendly Persuasion which was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Wilder's Love in the Afternoon were box-office flops in 1956–57, studio head Broidy reverted to the kind of pictures Monogram had previously been known for: low-budget action pictures and thrillers, such as Don Siegel's science-fiction film Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Allied Artists and The Mirisch Company released some (but not all) of their late-1950s films through United Artists.

Studio chief Steve Broidy retired in 1965. Allied Artists ceased production in 1966 and became a distributor of foreign films, but restarted production with the release of Cabaret (1972) and followed it with Papillon (1973). Both were critical and commercial successes, but high production and financing costs meant they were not big moneymakers for the company. Allied raised financing for their adaptation of The Man Who Would Be King (1975) by selling the European distribution rights to Columbia Pictures and the rest of the backing came from Canadian tax shelters.[10] King was released in 1975, but received disappointing returns. That same year, the company distributed the French import Story of O, but spent much of its earnings defending itself from obscenity charges.[10]

In 1976, Allied Artists attempted to diversify when it merged with consumer producers Kalvex and PSP, Inc. The new Allied Artists Industries, Inc. manufactured pharmaceuticals, mobile homes, and activewear in addition to films.[10]

Demise

Monogram/Allied Artists continued until 1979, when runaway inflation and high production costs pushed it into bankruptcy.

Film library fate

The post-1945 Monogram/Allied Artists library was bought by television production company Lorimar in 1980 for $4.75 million;[11] today a majority of this library belongs to Warner Bros. Pictures (via their acquisition of Lorimar in 1989). The pre-1946 Monogram library was sold in 1954 to Associated Artists Productions, which itself was sold to United Artists in 1958 (it merged with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1981). The pre-1946 Monogram library was not part of the deal with Ted Turner. (The rights to many of the later films are now owned by MGM; others, such as The Big Combo, lapsed into the public domain.) A selection of post-1938 Monogram films acquired by M&A Alexander Productions and Astor Pictures were later incorporated into Republic Pictures' library, today a part of Paramount Global-owned Paramount Pictures. Most Monogram Pictures films released before 1942 are in the public domain.

Jean-Luc Godard dedicated his film Breathless (1960) to Monogram.[12]

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John Huston

John Huston

John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics, including The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), The Misfits (1961), Fat City (1972), The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and Prizzi's Honor (1985). During his 46-year career, Huston received 15 Academy Award nominations, winning twice. He also directed both his father, Walter Huston, and daughter, Anjelica Huston, to Oscar wins.

Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hollywood cinema. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director eight times, winning twice, and for a screenplay Academy Award 13 times, winning three times.

Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, as well as an Academy Honorary Award in 1961 for his career achievements. He was one of the top-10 film personalities for 23 consecutive years and one of the top money-making stars for 18 years. The American Film Institute (AFI) ranked Cooper at number 11 on its list of the 25 greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema.

Friendly Persuasion (1956 film)

Friendly Persuasion (1956 film)

Friendly Persuasion is a 1956 American Civil War drama film produced and directed by William Wyler. It stars Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton, Phyllis Love, Mark Richman, Walter Catlett and Marjorie Main. The screenplay by Michael Wilson was adapted from the 1945 novel The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West. The film tells the story of a Quaker family in southern Indiana during the American Civil War and the way the war tests their pacifist beliefs.

Love in the Afternoon (1957 film)

Love in the Afternoon (1957 film)

Love in the Afternoon is a 1957 American romantic comedy film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn and Maurice Chevalier. The screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is based on the 1920 Claude Anet novel Ariane, jeune fille russe. The story explores the relationship between a notorious middle-aged American playboy business magnate and the 20-something daughter of a private detective hired to investigate him. The supporting cast features John McGiver and Lise Bourdin.

Don Siegel

Don Siegel

Donald Siegel was an American film and television director and producer.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 American science fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. The black-and-white film was shot in Superscope and in the film noir style. Daniel Mainwaring adapted the screenplay from Jack Finney's 1954 science fiction novel The Body Snatchers. The film was released by Allied Artists Pictures as a double feature with the British science fiction film The Atomic Man.

Cabaret (1972 film)

Cabaret (1972 film)

Cabaret is a 1972 American musical period drama film directed by Bob Fosse and written for the screen by Jay Presson Allen. It stars Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Marisa Berenson, Fritz Wepper and Joel Grey. Set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic in 1931, under the presence of the growing Nazi Party, the film is an adaptation of the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret by Kander and Ebb, which was based on Christopher Isherwood's semi-autobiographical novel The Berlin Stories (1945) as well as John Van Druten's 1951 play I Am a Camera, which was itself adapted from Isherwood's novel. Multiple numbers from the stage score were used for the film, which also featured three other songs by Kander and Ebb, including two written for the adaptation.

Papillon (1973 film)

Papillon (1973 film)

Papillon is a 1973 epic historical drama prison film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr. was based on the 1969 autobiography by the French convict Henri Charrière. The film stars Steve McQueen as Charrière ("Papillon") and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega. Because it was filmed at remote locations, the film was quite expensive for the time, but it earned more than twice that in its first year of release. The film's title is French for "Butterfly," referring to Charrière's tattoo and nickname.

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.

Associated Artists Productions

Associated Artists Productions

Associated Artists Productions, Inc. (a.a.p.) later known as United Artists Associated was an American distributor of theatrical feature films and short subjects for television. Associated Artists Productions was the copyright owner of the Popeye shorts by Paramount Pictures, and the pre-1950 Warner Bros. film library, notably the pre-1948 color Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated shorts, and the black-and-white Merrie Melodies shorts from Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising sans "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!"

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.

Studios

Sunset Boulevard

Allied Artists had its studio at 4401 W. Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, on a 4.5-acre lot. The longtime home (since 1971) of former PBS television station KCET,[13] the station sold the studios to the Church of Scientology in April 2011.[14][15]

Monogram Ranch

Monogram Pictures operated the Monogram Ranch, its movie ranch in Placerita Canyon near Newhall, California, in the northern San Gabriel Mountains foothills. Tom Mix had used the Placeritos Ranch for location shooting for his silent western films. Ernie Hickson became the owner in 1936 and reconstructed all the "frontier western town" sets, moved from the nearby Republic Pictures Movie Ranch (present day Disney Golden Oak Ranch), onto his 110-acre (0.45 km2) ranch. A year later Monogram Pictures signed a long-term lease with Hickson for Placeritos Ranch, with terms that stipulated that the ranch be renamed Monogram Ranch. Actor/cowboy singer/producer Gene Autry purchased the Monogram Ranch property from the Hickson heirs in 1953, renaming it after his film Melody Ranch.[16][17][18] As of 2010, it was operated as the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio and Melody Ranch Studios.[19]

After fire damage, the sets were replaced; as of 2012, the studio had 74 buildings (including offices) and two sound stages.[20] The owners in 2019 were Renaud and Andre Veluzat. The owners indicate that other recent movies were also partly filmed here, including Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The site includes a movie memorabilia museum that is open to visitors.[21]

Discover more about Studios related topics

PBS

PBS

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as Frontline, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Arthur, Sesame Street, and This Old House.

KCET

KCET

KCET is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV. The two stations share studios at The Pointe in Burbank; KCET's transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Church of Scientology

Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. The movement has been the subject of a number of controversies, and the Church of Scientology has been described by government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, scholars, law lords, and numerous superior court judgements as both a dangerous cult and a manipulative profit-making business. In 1979, several executives of the organization were convicted and imprisoned for multiple offenses by a U.S. Federal Court. The Church of Scientology itself was convicted of fraud by a French court in 2009, a decision upheld by the supreme Court of Cassation in 2013. The German government classifies Scientology as an unconstitutional sect. In France, it has been classified as a dangerous cult. In some countries, it has attained legal recognition as a religion.

Movie ranch

Movie ranch

A movie ranch is a ranch that is at least partially dedicated for use as a set in the creation and production of motion pictures and television shows. These were developed in the United States in southern California, because of the climate. The first such facilities were all within the 30-mile (48 km) studio zone, often in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, and Simi Valley in the U.S. state of California.

Placerita Canyon State Park

Placerita Canyon State Park

Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park located on the north slope of the western San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, near the city of Santa Clarita. The park hosts a variety of historic and natural sites, as well as serving as a trailhead for several hiking trails leading into the San Gabriel Mountains.

San Gabriel Mountains

San Gabriel Mountains

The San Gabriel Mountains are a mountain range located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert, with Interstate 5 to the west and Interstate 15 to the east. The range lies in, and is surrounded by, the Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests, with the San Andreas Fault as its northern border.

Location shooting

Location shooting

Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior.

Republic Pictures

Republic Pictures

Republic Pictures Corporation was an American film studio corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, based in Los Angeles, California. It had production and distribution facilities in Studio City, as well as a movie ranch in Encino. Republic was best-known for specializing in Westerns, cliffhanger serials, and B-films emphasizing mystery and action. Republic was also notable for developing the motion picture careers of John Wayne, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers. The studio was also responsible for the financial management and distribution of few big-budget feature films directed by John Ford, as well as one Shakespeare film, Macbeth (1948), directed by Orson Welles. Under the leadership of founder Herbert J. Yates, Republic was considered a mini-major film studio.

Golden Oak Ranch

Golden Oak Ranch

Golden Oak Ranch is an 890-acre (360 ha) movie ranch owned by the Walt Disney Studios subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company that serves as a filming location and backlot. The ranch is off of Placerita Canyon Road outside of Newhall, Santa Clarita, California, less than an hour north of Los Angeles; its entrance is not far from Placerita Canyon Road's intersection with California State Route 14.

Gene Autry

Gene Autry

Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry, nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning style on radio, in films, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was the owner of a television station and several radio stations in Southern California. He was the founding owner of the California Angels franchise of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1961 to 1997.

Melody Ranch

Melody Ranch

Melody Ranch is a 1940 Western musical film directed by Joseph Santley and starring Gene Autry, Jimmy Durante, and Ann Miller. Written by Jack Moffitt, F. Hugh Herbert, Bradford Ropes, and Betty Burbridge, the film is about a singing cowboy who returns to his hometown to restore order when his former childhood enemies take over the frontier town. In 2002, the film was added to the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board and selected for preservation as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a 2019 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Produced by Columbia Pictures, Bona Film Group, Heyday Films, and Visiona Romantica and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is a co-production between the United States, United Kingdom, and China. It features a large ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie. Set in 1969 Los Angeles, the film follows a fading actor and his stunt double as they navigate the rapidly changing film industry, with the looming threat of the Tate murders hanging overhead. It features "multiple storylines in a modern fairy tale tribute to the final moments of Hollywood's golden age."

Source: "Monogram Pictures", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 12th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monogram_Pictures.

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Further reading
  • Ted Okuda, The Monogram Checklist: The Films of Monogram Pictures Corporation, 1931–1952, McFarland & Company, 1999. ISBN 0-7864-0750-6.
  • Don Miller, B Movies, Curtis Books, 1973.
References
  1. ^ "Registered Trademark Ownership". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
  2. ^ Variety, August 10, 1945.
  3. ^ Ted Okuda, The Monogram Checklist: The Films of Monogram Pictures Corporation, 1931–1952, McFarland & Company, 1999. ISBN 0-7864-0750-6
  4. ^ Don Miller, B Movies, Curtis Books, 1973.
  5. ^ Miller, ibid.
  6. ^ Tino Balio, United Artists, Volume 2, 1951–1978: The Company that Changed the Film Industry, Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 2009, p. 164.
  7. ^ New York Times, "Out Hollywood Way", 'September 8, 1946, p. X1.
  8. ^ "It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947) - IMDb".
  9. ^ Okuda, op. cit.
  10. ^ a b c David A. Cook. Lost illusions: American cinema in the shadow of Watergate and ..., Volume 9. Simon & Schuster. pp. 325–328.
  11. ^ Barton, David (October 7, 1981). "Lorimar Looks To Its Software Future". Variety. p. 7.
  12. ^ Powers, John. "Breathless". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
  13. ^ "KCET may sell studio to Church of Scientology". KTLA. March 31, 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
  14. ^ Church of Scientology Acquires Hollywood Studio Facility
  15. ^ CBS Los Angeles: "KCET Sells Production Studios To Church Of Scientology", April 25, 2011.
  16. ^ "Placeritos Ranch – Monogram Ranch – Melody Ranch". Melody Ranch History. employees.oxy.edu. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
  17. ^ Leon Worden. "Melody Ranch: Movie Magic in Placerita Canyon". Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. Retrieved 2003-03-29.
  18. ^ "The Town". melodyranchstudio.com. Retrieved May 15, 2010.
  19. ^ "Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio". melodyranchstudio.com. Retrieved May 15, 2010.
  20. ^ Verrier, Richard (January 24, 2012). "Santa Clarita movie ranches corral Tarantino and other filmmakers". LA Times Blogs - Company Town.
  21. ^ "Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio". www.melodyranchstudio.com.
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