| Pathé
Gaumont
chronology
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Pathé
This page considers the Pathé group.
It covers -
The
Gaumont group is profiled on the following page.
 introduction
The trajectory of the Pathé group is similar to
that of the major Hollywood studios, albeit with a distinctly
gallic flavour.
At the turn of last century Pathé was a major force
in international cinema, with a sizable production arm
in France and the US and exhibition-distribution operations
on most continents. Prior to the outbreak of war in 1914
Pathé dominated the European market for motion
picture cameras and projectors. That domination reflected
its origins as an equipment manufacturer and its subsequent
integration downstream into exhibition and production,
alongside competitor Gaumont. Pathé also had a
significant presence in music recording based on its early
manufacture of gramophones.
The 'crisis of new technology' in the late-1920s - exacerbated
by poor management and weak investor support - saw the
two groups pass through a variety of hands, often in controversial
circumstances, before coming under control of the extended
Schlumberger-Seydoux family.
Along the way Pathé has been associated with asset
strippers, media visionaries, the birth of French television,
over-reaching entrepreneurs, satellite broadcasting and
diverse conglomerates.
A
chronology is here.
Pathé
Charles Pathé (1862-1957), a butcher's son who
began his career as a travelling entertainer with the
newfangled gramophone, subsequently moving into gramophone
production and establishment of the Pathé record
label.
He followed Melies and Lumiere into film exhibition and
production. In 1896 with brothers Emile, Théophile
and Jacques he formed the Pathé Freres company,
concerned with films, gramophone manufacture and sound
recordings. That year had seen the Lumieres' Cinematographe
projector used for exhibitions in London, Vienna, Mexico
City, Buenos Aires, Malmo, Bucharest, Turin, Copenhagen,
Rome, Belgrade, Lwow, St Petersburg, Mumbai and Helsinki.
The first public motion picture projection in Australia
had taken place at the Melbourne Opera House.
Demand for capital saw Pathé Freres go public as
La Compagnie générale des phonographes,
cinématographes et pellicules Pathé Frères
in 1897. In 1902 - amid the 'patent wars' that bedevilled
early growth of the film industry - Pathé acquired
the Lumiere patents and greatly expanded its film processing
facility at Vincennes, also experimenting with hand-coloured
film - Pathécolor - and synchronisation of film
and gramophone recordings.
Two years later it claimed a 12,000 title catalogue and
opened distribution offices in Brussels, New York and
Moscow. Pathé's overseas operations involved a
network of separate distribution/manufacturing companies
in most national markets, often involving local investors
(particularly as the group moved from distribution to
exhibition). These included Hispano Film (1906), Pathé-Russe
(1907), Film d'Arte Italiano and Pathé-Britannia
(1909), and Pathé-America (1910).
Attention has centred on Pathé's claims in 1908
to have made the first aerial film but the year was more
important for foundation by Charles Pathé &
Edmond Benoit-Levy of the upmarket Omnia cinema chain,
since in the absence of vertical integration the big money
was increasingly exhibition rather than production. At
that time there were 100 cinemas in Paris, of which 25
(accounting for a higher percentage of ticket sales) were
owned by Pathé.
By the end of 1909 Pathé controlled some 200 cinemas
in France and Belgium, a base for international operations.
It launched the Australian Animated Gazette newsreel
in 1910 (West's Pictures bought out Pathé's Australian
offshoot a year later) and in 1911 Pathé Weekly
was promoted as the first US-wide newsreel. In 1912 Pathé
released La Femme Fatale.
The War saw reduction of the group's manufacturing interests.
It ceased production in the US in 1915 (with the US arm
becoming Pathé Exchange) and accelerated sell-off
of stakes in companies outside France. Kashii Film for
example bought the Pathé interests in Japan in
1915. In 1918 the group was split into two parts: Pathé-Frères
(gramophones and recordings) managed by Emile and Pathé-Cinéma
(exhibition, distribution, production) managed by Charles.
Natan and the Societe Nouvelle
Pathé-Cinéma transferred its production
and distribution operations to a new Pathé-Consortium-Cinéma
company in 1920, with Charles Pathé reportedly
declaring that film "wasn't profitable" and
starting to liquidate his holdings. Pathé Exchange
was sold in 1921 to a group led by broker Charles Merrill
for 26 million francs. Control was acquired by plunger
Joseph Kennedy in 1926 for US$2.9m after the Merrill group
decided that building a large-scale exhibition arm would
be too expensive. Kennedy subsequently merged his film
interests with those of RCA to form
RKO.
The group's UK presence was also rationalised. In 1927
the Pathé studios were sold to Eastman Kodak. The
cinema and distribution arm remained independent - and
arguably more profitable, despite intense competition
from Gaumont and other groups and pressure to invest in
sound systems or more broadly upgrade facilities. Exhibition
operations were under the Paris-Consortium-Cinéma
banner from 1928.
Controversial producer, financier and television pioneer
Bernard Natan (1886-1942) gained control of the production
and exhibition arm in 1929, merging Pathé Cinéma
with his Rapid Film studio and processing operations to
form Pathé-Natan. The new company subsequently
acquired the Sociètè des Cinéromans
from Jean Sapène, expanded into projector and electronics
manufacturing, bought the Fornier cinema chain and built
a number of theatres.
Disintegration of the group during the 1930s has variously
been attributed to malfeasance by Natan, the Depression-era
weakness of the French film industry after the introduction
of talkies or manipulation by sharemarket speculators
in conjunction with over-expansion by Natan.
Pathé was reorganised in 1943 as the Societe Nouvelle
Pathé Cinema after acquisition by Adrien Ramauge,
with studio operations responsible for works such as Les
Enfants du Paradis. France's model of 'cultural exceptionalism'
militated against the US split of production and exhibition
operations.
Pathé survived the advent of television by emphasising
distribution and production for television, although its
exhibition and property interests were responsible for
most revenue by the mid-1970s.
In 1970 Pathé joined Gaumont in a government-endorsed
Groupement d'Intérêt Économique (GIE)
for distribution to their exhibition chains and associates.
The Pathé GIE competed with L'Union Générale
de Cinématographie (UCG) - privatised 1971 - that
centred on nationalised production houses and their cinemas.
The Pathé-Gaumont GIE was dissolved in 1982 as
part of changed cultural protection and competition policies.
Rivaud and Parretti
Pathé had by then come under control of the Rivaud
Group conglomerate, subsequently acquired and dismantled
by Bolloré. In 1989 Italian
financier Giancarlo Parretti acquired 46.5% of Pathé
as the springboard for his US$1.3 billion takeover of
MGM/UA. He had earlier acquired
the Cannon Group, which he confusingly rebadged as Pathe
Communications Corporation.
The MGM/UA takeover dissolved, with the group subsequently
being sold by Credit Lyonnais (his primary creditor) to
Kirk Kerkorian and Australia's Seven
Network.
The French government had restricted sale of Rivaud's
remaining interests in Pathé, arguing that Pathé
must remain French. Control passed to the Schlumberger
dynasty's Chargeurs group.
Schlumberger
Schlumberger was founded as the Société
de Prospection Electrique (SPE) by industrialist Paul
Schlumberger and sons Conrad and Marcel in 1919. The family
formed part of France's protestant business aristocracy,
with major textile manufacturing and investment interests
(eg in the Suez Canal through the Compagnie du canal de
Suez). Members included author and Prime Minister François
Guizot.
SPE commercialised insights that the electrical conductivity
of subsurface rock formations would enable accurate mapping
and thereby identification of oil, gas and ore deposits,
with the first successful wireline log being developed
in 1927. Marcel moved Schlumberger's headquarters to Houston
in 1940, with its Americas and Middle East operations
being managed by John de Menil, husband of Conrad's daughter
Dominique and co-founder of the noted de
Menil art collection. European operations were managed
by René Seydoux, Marcel's son-in-law.
Acquisitions included 1959 with Forages et Exploitations
Pétrolières (Forex) in 1959, Daystrom in
1961, electrical meter manufacturer Compagnie des Compteurs
in 1971, Fairchild Camera & Instrument Corporation
in 1979 and SEDCO in 1985. Schlumberger reportedly logged
over 70% of the world's oil wells in 1981. As of 2003
it had sales of around US$13 billion. The extended family
had a stake of around 15%.
The family's textile interests formed the heart of the
Chargeurs conglomerate, which by the late 1960s encompassed
wool treatment and spinning operations, shipping (Cie
Maritime des Chargeurs Reunis, founded 1872), road freight,
truck manufacturing, airlines (eg UTA and Aéromaritime),
investments and property. Chargeurs had absorbed the Prouvost
family's textile interests.
In 1996 the communications and media interests - Pathé
SA - were spun off from Chargeurs, at that time headed
by Jérôme Seydoux.
Seydoux
Under Seydoux's control the Pathé group encompassed
film and video production, film distribution, cinemas
and stakes in Murdoch-controlled British Sky Broadcasting
(BSkyB) and CanalSatellite.
Pathé had established La Cinq as a new national
television channel, in partnership with Berlusconi's
Fininvest, in 1985 but lost control after the 1986 elections
when the new government voided the channel's 18 year contract.
Pathé's 40% stake passed to Hersant,
with Pathé-controlled Societé des Etudes
et Participations (SEPC) eventually receiving compensation.
Hersant and Berlusconi were unable to make the venture
pay; La Cinq closed in 1992, despite financial support
from Hachette.
Pathé acquired a controlling stake SA Investissements
Press (centred on ailing French newspaper Libération)
and Renn Productions during 1996, buying the Voyage cable
channel in 1997 before gaining a controlling interest
in AB Sport in 1998 and a minority stake in French football
club Olympique Lyonnais in 1999. In the following year
it acquired the rest of AB Sport (renamed Pathé
Sport).
Pathé SA was bought by Vivendi
in 2000 for US$2.59 billion. (Vivendi, with Canal+, had
acquired a 20% stake in 1999). Acquisition centred on
the BSkyB and CanalSatellite stakes. Most of the Pathé
operations, along with the Pathé name, were resold
to Seydoux for around €521 million.
The new group encompasses -
- film
and video production in France and the UK (Pathé
Renn Production in France, Pathé Pictures and
Pathé Entertainment in UK), inc 60% of Monagesque
des Ondes (MDO)
- film
and video distribution and financing
- cinemas
(EuroPalaces SA)
- 64%
of SAIP (Liberation)
- 34%
of Olympique Lyonnais
- cable
television and associated internet channels - TMC, Comedie!
(66%), Cuisine.tv (51%), AB Sport, Télé
Sport (40%), Kiosque (20%), Histoire (30%) and Voyage
- 60%
of broadcaster Télé Monte Carlo
-
42.5% of Gaumont-Pathé Archives (57.5% held by
Gaumont)
Jérôme's
brother Nicolas acquired control of Pathé competitor
Gaumont in the mid-1970s.
In 2001 the Gaumont and Pathé cinema chains were
merged as EuroPalaces SA: some 86 theatres (with 633 screens
in France, 96 in the Netherlands, 13 in Switzerland).
Competitor UGC has around 830 screens in France, the UK,
the Netherlands, Italy and Spain.
Studies
There is no major English-language study of Chargeurs
or the modern Pathé. Insights into the BSBH/BSkyB
deals are provided by Matthew Horsman's Sky High
(London: Orion 1998), Dished! The Rise and Fall of
the British Satellite Broadcasting (London: Simon
& Schuster 1991) by Peter Chippindale & Suzanne
Franks and studies cited in the Murdoch
and Pearson profiles.
For the early history of Pathé see Richard Abel's
The Red Rooster Scare: Making Cinema American, 1900-1910
(Berkeley: Uni of California Press 1999), The Ciné
Goes to Town: French Cinema 1896-1914 (Berkeley:
Uni of California Press 1994) and French Cinema: The
First Wave 1915-1929 (Princeton: Princeton Uni Press
1984). A perspective is provided by Wall Street to
Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle Class Investors
(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1999) by Edwin Perkins
and Movies & Money: Financing the American
Film Industry (Norwood: Ablex 1982) by Janet Wasko.
Histoire de la politique du cinéma français:
La Troisième République, 1895-1940
(Paris: Pierre Lherminier 1969) and Histoire de la
politique du cinéma français: Entre
deux Républiques, 1940-1946 (Paris: Pierre
Lherminier 1977) by Paul Leglise are of particular value
in understanding state intervention. Hollywood &
Europe: Economics, Culture, National Identity 1945-1995
(London: BFI 1998) edited by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith &
Steven Ricci is of interest for subsequent years.
A revisionist view of Natan is provided by Gilles Willems's
1999 paper
The origins of Pathé-Natan.
For Schlumberger see Ken Auletta's upbeat The
Art of Corporate Success: The Story of Schlumberger
(New York: Putnam 1984), written before large-scale deacquisitions
such as disposal of Fairchild Semiconductor.
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