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overview
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the
studios
This page considers the Universal Pictures, Studios USA
and Revue studios - centrepieces of media groups assembled
by MCA, Matsushita, Seagram and Vivendi.
It covers -
There
are complementary profiles on Vivendi
(which acqured Seagram) and Polygram, a major component
of Universal's music arm.
introduction
Universal dates from the second decade of US film production.
Ailing media and telecommunications conglomerate Vivendi
Universal, profiled here, offloaded
its US film, theme park and cable television interests
to a joint venture with NBC-owner
General Electric during 2003. That venture is called NBC
Universal, with 80% held by GE and 20% by Vivendi. It
includes the NBC broadcasting and cable television operations.
A chronology is here.
the Laemmle era
Universal Pictures was founded by Carl Laemmle (1867-1939)
in 1912 as the Universal Film Manufacturing Company of
New York. He'd opened a nickelodeon theater in Chicago
during 1906 after migrating from Bavaria, subsequently
building a nicelodeon chain and expanding into distribution.
During 1909, with support from several minor studios opposed
to the Edison monopoly, he established the Independent
Moving Picture Company of America (IMP). In 1911 IMP bought
the Nestor Studio on the West Coast and five years later
founded Universal Studios in Hollywood as the centre of
a large-scale integrated production, distribution and
exhibition operation.
As with most of the Hollywood studios, although Carl Sr
was able to pass operational control to son Carl Laemmle
Jr (1908-1979) in 1929, Universal was funded by 'East
Coast money'. Investors ousted the younger Laemmle during
the Depression, despite the success of classics such as
James Whale's Frankenstein, with the group being
sold to the Standard Capital Company.
Universal-International
For the following two decades Universal had a profile
as a competent but not especially profitable factory for
B grade and C grade films, such as Abbott and Costello
comedies and the Deanna Durbin musicals.
In 1946 it merged with International Pictures as Universal-International
(UIP) under the creative control of William Goetz and
Leo Spitz.
Universal International was acquired by the Decca
record company in 1952 as part of ownership changes following
the 1949 ruling by the US Department of Justice about
spin-off of exhibition operations.
MCA
and Revue
Five years later MCA acquired Paramount's pre-1948 film
library for US$50 million, subsequently proven to be a
bargain as the new owners licenced films to US and overseas
television stations.
MCA bought Universal's back lot for US$11 million in 1958,
leasing the facility to Universal.
Four years later, amid increased competition and consolidation
in the record industry, Decca sold Universal to MCA. The
sale reflected MCA's interest in using Universal's production
and distribution facilities, particularly for television
production as an extension of its existing Revue Television
Productions operation (responsible for video fodder such
as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Leave It to
Beaver and Wagon Train.
As Universal Television it established a profile for law
& order dramas (Dragnet, Columbo
and Law & Order) and action series. Feature
film involvement included Jaws and ET.
Matsushita
In 1990 MCA was acquired US$1.6 billion by Japan's Matsushita
group, a counterpart of GE and Westinghouse
(and a competitor of Sony). Matsushita
- centred on Matsushita Electric Industrial Company -
was best known as the parent of Panasonic electronics.
Acquisition reflected Matsushita's large cash flow (particularly
from exporting consumer appliances to North America),
the availability of cheap loans as a consequence of the
1980s Japanese property bubble and received wisdom that
hardware manufacturers such as Sony and Matsushita had
to expand downstream into content production.
Performance by MCA was underwhelming and Matsushita appears
to have faced difficulties coming to grips with the 'creatives'
in Los Angeles. In 1995 it accordingly offloaded a controlling
stake MCA to Seagram for US$5.7 billion.
Seagram,
Studios USA and Vivendi
As a way of gaining cash for Seagram's ambitious expansion
plans (eg acquisition of Polygram
for US$10.4 billion, following that group's purchase of
Decca) and building alliances the Universal Television
studios were spun off to Seagram's USA Networks subsidiary
in 1998, being renamed Studios USA.
Vivendi - examined in a separate
profile on this site - inherited Universal in 2000 when
it acquired Seagram, reflecting that purchase by rebadging
itself as Vivendi Universal. Two years later it bought
back the USA Networks studio and cable television holdings
(reinstating the Universal Television name).
Studies
Philip Dick's City of Dreams: The Making & Remaking
of Universal Pictures (Uni Press of Kentucky 1997)
is more substantial than Clive Hirschhorn's The Universal
Story: The Complete History of the Studio (New York:
Crown 1983), albeit without the latter's illustrations.
Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-1946
(Jefferson: McFarland 1990) by Michael Brunas, John Brunas
& Tom Weaver covers the monster flicks.
Context is provided in the essential Movies &
Money: Financing the American Film Industry (Norwood:
Ablex 1982) by Janet Wasko, The American Film Industry
(Madison: Uni of Wisconsin Press 1985) edited by Tino
Balio and The American Movie Industry: The Business
of Motion Pictures (Carbondale: Southern Illinois
Uni Press 1982) edited
by Gorham Kindem.
Douglas Gomery's superb The Hollywood Studio System
(New York: St Martins 1986) and Thomas Schatz' The
Genius of the System (New York: Simon & Schuster
1988) are invaluable for understanding production and
distribution prior to the 1950s.
For Barry Diller see Jerome Tuccille's Barry Diller:
The Life & Times of a Media Mogul (Secaucus:
Carol 1998) and the thinner The Barry Diller Story:
The Life & Times of America's Greatest Entertainment
Mogul (New York: Wiley 1997) by George Mair.
 next
page (Universal holdings)
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