 This is the SF Productions Podcast Network. Artists unite. From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark. You can check out our audio podcast, How I Got My Wife to Read Comics on iTunes, or on our website, sfpodcastnetwork.com. We wrap up our history of the movie studios with a company that has gone through more restructuring and owners than you can count, United Artists. It started in 1919 after Charlie Chaplin couldn't get his studio at the time, First National, which would eventually be absorbed into Warner Brothers to increase his production budget, despite being their big draw. Meanwhile, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were waiting for their contracts at First National and famous Players' Lasky, which would later become Paramount to be renamed, and it wasn't happening. A detective discovered that the studios were colluding plans to merge and force exhibitors into five-year contracts. The three stars worked with director D.W. Griffith, who was also getting screwed by his studios to form a new venture they would co-own, United Artists. The goal was to have a studio where select artists could control their own work. Richard Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, later part of MGM, said at the time, the inmates are taking over the asylum. Plans for each star to produce five films a year were abandoned by the time United Artists actually started production in 1921, as films have gotten much more complex and lengthy by then. Their first film, His Majesty the American, written by and starring Fairbanks, was a hit. However, it was difficult to parlay that as films were funded through prepayments by theater owners. This normally happened via public stock offerings. In its first five years, United Artists only made five films annually. This setup didn't last long. By 1924, Griffith dropped out, and Joseph Schneck was brought in to run things. Schneck would later create 20th Century Pictures, which became 20th Century Fox. Schneck brought his wife, actress Norma Tomage, her sister Constance, and her brother Buster Keaton. Independent producers were signed up, including Samuel Goldwyn, Howard Hughes, and Schneck's production company, 20th Century. Schneck also got Pickford and Chaplin to invest in movie theaters, eventually making it into 40 countries. When Schneck was rebuffed to get an ownership share, that's when he left and formed 20th Century Fox. More producers came through. Walt Disney, Hal Roach, David O. Selznick, the latter almost brought gun with the wind, United Artists, except that Selznick wanted Clark Gable for the main lead, who was contracted to MGM, so it went to them instead. Fairbanks passed the same year as Gun with the Wind. In 1941, Pickford, Chaplin, Disney, Orson Welles, Goldwyn, Selznick, and others formed the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers, SIMP, with a goal to fight the studio system that basically controlled the film industry. They were the ones to begin the process that ended up in the Supreme Court, forcing studios to divest themselves of their theater chains, including UAE, of course. By the late 50s, the studio system was dead. By 1950, UAE was doing very poorly, partly new to the new influence of television, plus very poor management. Several presidents came through, but couldn't seem to turn things around. Then, attorneys Arthur B. Krim and Robert Benjamin proposed an idea. Let them take over, run things for a few years, and if they could make UAE profitable, they would have the option to buy out half the company. They got a loan to keep things going, making shows for TV which the other studios wouldn't touch. They also divested UAE of an actual physical studio, preferring to rent existing space, plentiful since the studios were all hurting. Keep in mind that most independent productions by then were done on location, anyway. They also signed up producer John Houston, who gave them the African Queen and Mulan Rouge. Actors being released from their studio contracts became a source of production as well. By 1958, UAE was making $3 million in profits. By this time, Chaplin and Pickford had both gotten cold feet and sold out to Krim and Benjamin, leaving them in total ownership of the company. Like most studios of the 60s, they diversified into a record company and kept snapping up production companies, especially for television. They bought out Warner Brothers' early short subjects and Paramount's Popeye cartoons. Ziv television would be renamed United Artist Television, going on to produce Gilligan's Island, The Patty Duke Show, The Fugitive, and The Outer Limits, among others. They didn't slow down in the 60s on the film's side, releasing West Side Story and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, A Hard Day's Night, The Pink Panther series, The Spaghetti Westerns, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. UAE also invested in the production team of Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli, who had purchased screen rights to a certain British secret agent. The James Bond franchise would bankroll the company for decades. Like most studios of the late 60s, they became part of a larger enterprise. Trans America bought them out in 1967, setting up a new management and a new logo, incorporating their T emblem. Films from this period, in the heat of the night, and the graduate. While getting great reviews, these films didn't make a lot of money, and UAE was in the red again. Crimin Benjamin returned by 1970, bringing up Fiddler on the Roof, Manila Mancha, One Flew of the Cuckoo's Nest, Annie Hall, and Rocky. Two films in the mid-70s, Midnight Cowboy and The Last Tango and Parrot in Paris, both got an X rating, creating concerns for Trans America, who wanted their name removed, and later wanted the UAE name to be phased out entirely. In 1978, a dispute over expenses boiled over into a walkout by many of UAE's management, including Crimin Benjamin, who set up a new company, Orion Pictures, a few days later. UAE, under yet again new management, had a huge 1979. Rocky II, Manhattan, Moonraker, The Black Stallion, which gave them enough confidence to back Heaven's Gate, a monumental disaster losing $37 million, turning UAE into a sinkhole again. Trans America sold it off to Kirk, Kirkorian, who also owned MGM, forming MGM UAE. President David Beckleman produced 11 films in two years with only one porter guys to hit. He was quickly gone. Despite later hits, war games and octopussy, Kirkorian sold MGM UAE off to Ted Turner in 1986, who was buying its content to power his cable empire. Kirkorian then bought back UAE's assets due to the huge debt Turner had generated. Again, keep in mind, that Turner just wanted the content. The now renamed MGM UAE Communications Company moved forward doing TV and film production. Its 82% share went up for sale in 1988, but never worked out. The company fell apart, and despite several attempts, could not complete a sale, even to an Australian conglomerate that already owned the Hal Roach Library that both MGM and UAE had originally distributed in the 30s. In the 1990s, UAE became a pawn in multiple sales and resales of their assets, including an Italian promoter who planned to merge it with France's Pathet, except that sale fell through. Despite that, it was already being called UMGM Pathet. Later, it was actually renamed MGM despite the fact that no trace of the original MGM was there. Credit Lionet, a French financial firm, wound up with a company and brought in a new president to restart productions, including Showgirls, with a reboot of the Bond and Pink Panther franchises. By 1996, by 2000, UAE had become a specialty production company doing art house films and keeping up the Bond franchise. Blowing for Columbine and Hotel Rwanda came out of this period. In 2005, a consortium of Sony, Comcast and some merchant banks bought out MGM and UAE. MGM's distribution system was shut down and UAE's productions and progress moved to Sony Pictures Classic. A year later, Tom Cruise announced he was resurrecting UAE and then sharing the company. This only lasted until 2008, after which only two films, the Fame, Remake and Hot Tub Time Machine came out under the UAE banner. Three attempts have been made since then to resurrect UAE as a brand. 2014 saw Mark Burnett and Roma Downey create UAE Media Group with the intention of creating an over-the-top, faith-based channel. It wound up distributing Survivor. 2018 saw MGM relaunching UAE as a digital production company using MGM's existing intellectual property for short-form content. 2019 saw MGM and Anna Perna Pictures forming UAE releasing as a distribution company 100 years to the day of UAE's founding. We told you it was complicated. Certainly was. Much more, much more complicated. Yes, and that finishes up our review of the major studios. Yes. Go back and review them all. There'll be a test later. And then you can check out our audio podcast How I Got My Wife 3 Comics on iTunes or on our website sfpodcast.work.com From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark. Thanks for watching.