Goldwyn Pictures

Background

Goldwyn Pictures Corporation
Founded:	November 19, 1916 (107 years ago)
Founder:	Samuel Goldwyn Edgar Selwyn Archibald Selwyn
Defunct:	April 17, 1924 (100 years ago)
Fate:	Merged with Metro Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Successors:	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Location:	United States

Background

Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company that operated from 1916 to 1924 when it was merged with two other production companies to form the major studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was founded on November 19, 1916, by Samuel Goldfish (who later changed his name to Goldwyn), an executive at Lasky's Feature Play Company, and Broadway producer brothers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using an amalgamation of both last names to name the company.

The studio proved moderately successful, but became most famous due to its iconic Leo the Lion trademark. Although Metro was the nominal survivor, the merged studio inherited Goldwyn's old facility in Culver City, California, where it would remain until 1986. The merged studio also retained Goldwyn's Leo the Lion logo.

Lee Shubert of The Shubert Organization was an investor in the company.

Samuel Goldfish had left Lasky's Feature Play Company, of which he was a co-founder, in 1916 when Feature Play merged with Famous Players. Margaret Mayo, Edgar Selwyn's wife and play writer, and Arthur Hopkins, a Broadway producer, joined the trio as writer and director general.

At the beginning, Goldwyn Pictures rented production facilities from Solax Studios when it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The company's first release was Polly of the Circus, an adaptation of Mayo's 1907 play of the same name, released in September 1917 and starting Mae Marsh. By April 1917, Goldwyn Pictures agreed to rent the Universal Pictures studios in Fort Lee, then having the second largest stage, and had two film companies operating at the time with plans for more production companies. The company management planned on having 12 films done by September 1, 1917, without distributing the films so as to be able to show advanced footage to the theaters. Goldfish also associated the company with Columbia University via Professor Victor Freeburg's Photoplay Writing class in 1917 to increase the company's artistic standings. The company also released other production companies films with Marie Dressler's Dressler Producing Corporation film, The Scrub Lady, in 1917. The company was forced in October 1917 to switch out The Eternal Magalene for Fighting Odds, both starring Maxine Elliott, after the National Board of Review cleared the Magalene movie while censors in Pennsylvania state and Chicago city did not approve the film. Thais starring Mary Garden was released in late 1917 which was a costly loss.

In January 1918, Goldfish signed director Raoul Walsh and prematurely announced it as there were two years left on Walsh's contract with Fox. With Thais being the company's second costly loss, Goldfish decreased film budgets partly by not using theater divas to cross over to film and reducing design driven films. Instead, he relied on comedies starring Madge Kennedy and Mabel Normand. In August 1918, Goldwyn Pictures signed Will Rogers, at that time a Broadway Follies favorite, to star in a Rex Beach production, Laughing Bill Hyde, filmed at the Fort Lee studio for release in September. The company purchased the Triangle Studios in Culver City in 1918. Goldfish then headed west to Culver City, California in 1918; opening operations there also caused an increase in film expenses. Seeing an opportunity in December, Samuel Goldfish then had his name legally changed to Samuel Goldwyn.

In 1919, Frank Joseph "Joe" Godsol became an investor in Goldwyn Pictures.[5] Since 1912 Godsol had been making deals for the Shubert Organization in the U.S. and abroad. Goldwyn began looking to follow other film companies, like Loews Theaters/Metro Pictures and First National, into vertical integration. Goldwyn and the company backers were looking at renting the Astor Theatre for movie premiers. Instead, with the Capitol Theatre's financial problems in May 1920, the backer purchased a controlling interest in that theater. Shubert and Godsol, however, did not want the theater to rely only on Goldwyn films and operated it separately from the company.

By 1920 in addition owning its Culver City studio, Goldwyn Pictures was renting two New York studios and operations in Fort Lee.

After personality clashes, Samuel Goldwyn left the company in 1922. Godsol became chairman of the board and President of Goldwyn Pictures in 1922. In 1923 Lee Shubert of The Shubert Organization contacted Marcus Loew about merging the company with Loew's Metro Pictures. Loew agreed to the merger. Louis B. Mayer heard about the pending merger and contacted Loew and Godsol, about adding his Louis B. Mayer Productions into the post merger company, which became the blockbuster Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

1st Logo (September 16, 1917-1923)

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  Normal variant

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  Sepia version

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  End card

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  Chapter card

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Visuals: Over a black background is a circle made of ribbon-like filmstrips which have two filmstrips flowing out the bottom side, which looks like it's in twos. Underneath the circle is a Greek drama mask. A wreath surrounds it. The circle has the phrase "ARS GRATIA ARTIS" (Latin for "Art for Art's Sake") inscribed at the top, and the bottom is a marquee that reads "A GOLDWYN PICTURE". On the left side is the word "TRADE", and on the right is the word "MARK". Inside the circle is a live-action footage of a lion (name Slats, nicknamed "Leo" by Samuel Goldwyn). The lion moves his head from left to right throughout and does not roar due to movies being silent at the time of the logo's creation.

Variants:

• At the end of The Ace of Hearts, there is a wood background, with the table, with the two masks above the two lions at the center, with the text above are the words "A GOLDWYN PICTURE". There is the title of the movie below the two lions "THE ACE OF HEARTS.". There is also a small mask at the bottom of the table.
• There is a sepia variant of the logo.

Trivia: The logo was designed by Howard Dietz, an advertising man and then-recent graduate of Columbia University, who would go on to hold many offices at MGM.

Closing Variant: On the left-bottom corner of the screen, there is the small Goldwyn Pictures print logo, which consists of a lion statue resting on top of a pedestal reading "GOLDWYN PICTURES". There is a lion on a pedestal at the left-bottom of the screen, the film's chapter name is written at the center.

Technique: Live-action footage with an illustration composited over it. The end cards and chapter cards are still illustrations.

Audio: None or the opening theme of the film.

Availability: As with the first Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo, most films that have this logo either got destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire or were plastered by then-future Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logos, with the same going for the other logos from the company. The only known surviving movies containing this logo are The Ace of Hearts and The Penalty, the latter of which has the logo at the end and is plastered on some prints with the MGM "Lion Marquee" endcap. It was stated that the first appearance of the logo is Polly of the Circus. However, the surviving prints of the aforementioned film do not have this logo.

Legacy: This marks the first appearance of the famed lion, filmstrip, and "ARS GRATIA ARTIS (ART FOR ART'S SAKE)" tagline, all of which would become synonymous with MGM.

2nd Logo (December 8, 1920)

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  Closing variant

Visuals: A still painting of a lion (name unknown) in a traditional-looking MGM logo, but the film ribbon and drama mask can barely be seen. The words "TRADE" and "MARK" still appear on either side of the lion. Instead of the usual marquee, the words "A Goldwyn Picture" appear above the lion in Blackletter font.

Variant: At the end of What Happened to Rosa, there are the words "A GOLDWYN PICTURE." inside the black table with the flowers in the background above.

Technique: This is a still painting.

Audio: The film's opening fanfare.

Availability: The logo was so far only known to be seen on What Happened to Rosa. It also appears early on in the 1993 documentary Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic.

Legacy: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logos would later adopt a similar design in 1953 (33 years later), placing the company's name above the circle.

3rd Logo (March 27, 1923-January 20, 1924)

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  Rare version of the logo, which appeared on 2011 CBS Sunday morning news broadcast.

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  Blue variant

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  Sepia variant

Visuals: The ribboning and the marquee look the same as the first one but with a different lion. The logo begins with the lion (name unknown) staring to one side, then immediately skips after a second to the lion staring at the other side, then it skips to the lion looking down, turning his head, and looking at the camera with a slight snarl. After that, he roars a bit. After a second, it skips to the lion looking directly at the camera.

Variants:

• There is also a sepia-toned version.
• There is a blue-toned variant on Souls for Sale.
• A still image containing another version of this logo was spotted on a 2011 CBS Sunday morning news broadcast. Here, the logo is brighter due to film deterioration, and the lion's appearance is different as well. He also stares directly at the camera. Unfortunately, this version of the logo is currently lost, possibly from the vault fire that happened in 1965.

Technique: Live-action footage with an illustration composited over it. There are skips throughout the footage, likely due to deterioration or splicing.

Audio: None or the opening theme of the film.

Availability: The only known surviving movies containing this logo are Wild Oranges and Souls for Sale.

Legacy: This marks the first time to have a roaring lion in the logo. Metro Goldwyn Mayer would later have this trait starting in 1928 (5 years later).

Goldwyn Pictures

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios ►