Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC,[3] also known as Universal

Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film
Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an American film
production and distribution company owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and
Entertainment division of NBCUniversal.

Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel,
Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, and Jules Brulatour, it is
the oldest surviving film studio in the United States; the world's fifth oldest after Gaumont,
Pathé, Titanus, and Nordisk Film; and the oldest member of Hollywood's "Big Five" studios
in terms of the overall film market. Its studios are located in Universal City, California, and
its corporate offices are located in New York City. In 1962, the studio was acquired by MCA,
which was re-launched as NBCUniversal in 2004. Woody Woodpecker, who was created in
1940 by Walter Lantz and Ben Hardaway, serves as the mascot of the company.

Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), and was one of the
"Little Three" majors during Hollywood's golden age.[4]

Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann,
Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane[a] and Jules
Brulatour. One story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and
calculating the day's takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods
to buy the first several nickelodeons. For Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation
in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Patents Company (or the "Edison Trust") meant
that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Based on the
Latham Loop used in cameras and projectors, along with other patents, the Trust collected
fees on all aspects of movie production and exhibition, and attempted to enforce a monopoly
on distribution.

Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by
producing their own pictures. In June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with
partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern.[6] That company quickly evolved into the Independent
Moving Pictures Company (IMP), with studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where many early
films in America's first motion picture industry were produced in the early 20th century.[7][8][9]
[10]
Laemmle broke with Edison's custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to
performers. By naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time,
contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence,
formerly known as "The Biograph Girl", and actor King Baggot, in what may be the first
instance of a studio using stars in its marketing.
Poster for Ivanhoe (1913)

The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,
1912.[11] Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the primary figure in the
partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley, and Brulatour.
The company was established June 8, 1912, formed in a merger of Independent Moving
Pictures (IMP), the Powers Motion Picture Company, Rex Motion Picture Manufacturing
Company, Champion Film Company, Nestor Film Company, and the New York Motion
Picture Company.[12] Eventually all would be bought out by Laemmle. The new Universal
studio was a vertically integrated company, with movie production, distribution and
exhibition venues all linked in the same corporate entity, the central element of the Studio
system era.

Play media
Melodrama A Great Love (1916) by Clifford S. Elfelt for Universal Big U. Dutch intertitles,
12:33. Collection EYE Film Institute Netherlands.
Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing
its production efforts in the Hollywood area.

Universal advertisement touting the benefit of the studio's short films to theater operators[13]

On March 15, 1915,[14]: 8  Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production
facility, Universal City Studios, on a 230-acre (0.9-km2) converted farm just over the
Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood. Studio management became the third facet of Universal's
operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other
movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists. Universal became the largest studio in
Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in small
towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns and serials.

In 1916, Universal formed a three-tier branding system for their releases. Universal, unlike
the top-tier studios, did not own any theaters to market its feature films. By branding their
product, Universal gave theater owners and audiences a quick reference guide. Branding
would help theater owners make judgments for films they were about to lease and help fans
decide which movies they wanted to see. Universal released three different types of feature
motion pictures:[15][16]

 Red feather Photoplays – low-budget feature films

 Bluebird Photoplays – mainstream feature release and more ambitious productions
 Jewel – prestige motion pictures featuring high budgets using prominent actors

Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George
Marshall and Lois Weber, one of the few women directing films in Hollywood.[14]: 13 

Despite Laemmle's role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike
rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew, Laemmle chose not to develop a
theater chain. He also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. This policy
nearly bankrupted the studio when actor-director Erich von Stroheim insisted on excessively
lavish production values for his films Blind Husbands (1919) and Foolish Wives (1922), but
Universal shrewdly gained a return on some of the expenditure by launching a sensational ad
campaign that attracted moviegoers. Character actor Lon Chaney became a drawing card for
Universal in the 1920s, appearing steadily in dramas. His two biggest hits for Universal were
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). During this
period Laemmle entrusted most of the production policy decisions to Irving Thalberg.
Thalberg had been Laemmle's personal secretary, and Laemmle was impressed by his cogent
observations of how efficiently the studio could be operated. Promoted to studio chief,
Thalberg was giving Universal's product a touch of class, but MGM's head of production
Louis B. Mayer lured Thalberg away from Universal with a promise of better pay. Without
his guidance Universal became a second-tier studio, and would remain so for several decades.

In 1926, Universal opened a production unit in Germany, Deutsche Universal-Film AG,

under the direction of Joe Pasternak. This unit produced three to four films per year until
1936, migrating to Hungary and then Austria in the face of Hitler's increasing domination of
central Europe. With the advent of sound, these productions were made in the German
language or, occasionally, Hungarian or Polish. In the U.S., Universal Pictures did not
distribute any of this subsidiary's films, but at least some of them were exhibited through
other, independent, foreign-language film distributors based in New York, without benefit of
English subtitles. Nazi persecution and a change in ownership for the parent Universal
Pictures organization resulted in the dissolution of this subsidiary.

In the early years, Universal had a "clean picture" policy. However, by April 1927, Carl
Laemmle considered this to be a mistake as "unclean pictures" from other studios were
generating more profit while Universal was losing money.[17]

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

In early 1927, Universal had been negotiating deals with cartoon producers since they wanted
to get back into producing them. On March 4, Charles Mintz signed a contract with Universal
in the presence of its vice president, R. H. Cochrane. Mintz's company, Winkler Pictures, was
to produce 26 "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" cartoons for Universal.[18] Walt Disney and Ub
Iwerks created the character and the Walt Disney Studio provided the animation for the
cartoons under Winkler's supervision.

The films enjoyed a successful theatrical run, and Mintz would sign a contract with Universal
ensuring three more years of Oswald cartoons.[19] However, after Mintz had unsuccessfully
demanded that Disney accept a lower fee for producing the films, Mintz took most of Walt's
animators to work at his own studio. Disney and Iwerks would create Mickey Mouse in secret
while they finished the remaining Oswald films they were contractually obligated to finish.
Universal subsequently severed its link to Mintz and formed its own in-house animation
studio to produce Oswald cartoons headed by Walter Lantz.

In February 2006, NBCUniversal sold all the Disney-animated Oswald cartoons, along with
the rights to the character himself, to The Walt Disney Company. In return, Disney released
ABC sportscaster Al Michaels from his contract so he could work on NBC's recently
acquired Sunday night NFL football package. Universal retained ownership of the remaining
Oswald cartoons.

Keeping leadership of the studio in the family

Boris Karloff in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

In 1928, Laemmle, Sr. made his son, Carl, Jr. head of Universal Pictures as a 21st birthday
present. Universal already had a reputation for nepotism—at one time, 70 of Carl, Sr.'s
relatives were supposedly on the payroll. Many of them were nephews, resulting in Carl, Sr.
being known around the studios as "Uncle Carl." Ogden Nash famously quipped in rhyme,
"Uncle Carl Laemmle/Has a very large faemmle." Among these relatives was future
Academy Award-winning director/producer William Wyler.

"Junior" Laemmle persuaded his father to bring Universal up to date. He bought and built
theaters, converted the studio to sound production, and made several forays into high-quality
production. His early efforts included the critically panned part-talkie version of Edna
Ferber's novel Show Boat (1929), the lavish musical Broadway (1929) which included
Technicolor sequences; and the first all-color musical feature (for Universal), King of Jazz
(1930). The more serious All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), won its year's Best Picture
Oscar.

Laemmle, Jr. created a niche for the studio, beginning a series of horror films which extended
into the 1940s, affectionately dubbed Universal Horror. Among them are Dracula (1931),
Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933). Other Laemmle
productions of this period include Imitation of Life (1934) and My Man Godfrey (1936).