Columbia Pictures 100 Years -- January 10, 2024

Motion Picture News, 26-January-1924

Columbia Pictures started in 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales, founded by Joe Brandt and brothers Jack and Harry Cohn. CBC produced short films like the Hallroom Boys comedies, then started making features in 1922. 100 years ago today, on 10-January-1924, CBC incorporated and changed its name to Columbia Pictures. It remained part of Hollywood's Poverty Row, centered around Gower Street. Harry Cohn became the most powerful person in the studio and remained in control for 34 years. Some people thought Harry Cohn was a despicable human being and a bully; they were right.

Joe Brandt left in 1932. 

Motion Picture News, 25-December-1920

Harry Cohn, his brother Jack and Joe Brandt wish everyone happy holidays. The gifts on the Tree are different movies or series produced by C.B.C. Film Sales Corp. They include the Hallroom Boys Comedies and Screen Snapshots.

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Director Frank Capra joined Columbia in 1927. During the 12 years he spent at Columbia, his ambitions helped to lift Columbia from Poverty Row to Major studio status. A critical film in the transition was It Happened One Night, with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. It won most of the major categories at the 1934 Academy Awards. 

Century Comedies -- They Stand Unequalled -- August 26, 2022

Motion Picture News, 05-August-1922

Century Comedies promoted their stars: Lee Moran, Brownie the Century Wonder Dog, Johnny K Fox and Queenie the Horse. Their biggest star, Baby Peggy was moving on to feature films. 

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Betty May was signed to be Lee Moran's leading lady. 

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Arvid Gillstrom had a long career directing short comedies. Century moved him from the Brownie series to Lee Moran's. 

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Lee Moran's former partner Eddie Lyons was starring in comedies for Arrow. 

Motion Picture News, 05-August-1922

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Uncle Dan Mason, who had played the Skipper in a series of short comedies based on Fontaine Fox's comic panel The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains, moved to FBO to star in a series of Plum Center Comedies.

Motion Picture News, 12-August-1922

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Motion Picture News, 12-August-1922

I don't know much about Gloria Joy, whose "Joy Comedies" were to be released by FBO. Sherwood McDonald directed.

Moving Picture World, 19-August-1922

William Fox produced several comedy series, starring Lupino Lane, Clyde Cook, Al St John and the Lee Kids. The other article mentions the start of Sol Lesser's Principal Pictures Corporation. We will see more about that in later months. 

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Lupino Lane was a remarkable acrobatic comedian. Ida Lupino was his cousin. 

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Sisters Jane and Katherine Lee had been in movies for nearly ten years. "The Baby Grands."

Moving Picture World, 05-August-1922

Moving Picture World, 05-August-1922

Moving Picture World, 05-August-1922

Moving Picture World, 19-August-1922

Harry Cohn, his brother Jack and Joe Brandt provided the initials for C.B.C. Film Sales Corp. The Hallroom Boys Comedies were a long running series of short comedies, based on a comic strip by Harold MacGill.

Educational released the Mermaid Comedies, which starred Lloyd Hamilton and others. 

Moving Picture World, 05-August-1922

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Paul Terry made the animated Aesop's Fables series.

Moving Picture World, 26-August-1922

Max Fleischer and his brother Dave made the animated Out of the Inkwell series.

Chaplin -- Some Snap -- May 25, 2021

Cinéa, May, 1921

Charlie Chaplin was the biggest movie star in the world. Cinéa was a French movie magazine.

 

Cinéa, May, 1921

Cinéa, May, 1921

Cinéa, May, 1921

Motion Picture News, 07-May-1921

Meanwhile, back in Jackson, Mississippi, Charlie Chaplin's first self-directed feature film, The Kid, which co-starred Jackie Coogan, was doing great business with the help of a passel of Chaplin imitators.

Motion Picture News, 07-May-1921

Harry Cohn, his brother Jack and Joe Brandt provided the initials for C.B.C. Film Sales Corp. C.B.C. and its successor, Columbia Pictures, produced the Screen Snapshots series of shorts about life in Hollywood from 1920 to 1958. This edition features Chaplin and his friend Douglas Fairbanks.

Hallroom Boys -- January 29, 2021

 

Motion Picture News, 15-January-1921

Harry Cohn, his brother Jack and Joe Brandt provided the initials for  C.B.C. Film Sales Corp. The Hallroom Boys Comedies were a long running series of short comedies, based on a comic strip by Harold MacGill. At this point, Edward Flannagan and Neely Edwards probably played Percy and Ferdy (or Ferdy and Percy). 

Motion Picture News, 15-January-1921

Williamsburg, Virginia Gazette, 11-January-1908

Click on this image for a larger view. If you can read the text, you have better eyes than I do. 

Motion Picture News, 06-November-1920

A Tree Full of Good Things -- December 19, 2020

 

Motion Picture News, 25-December-1920

Harry Cohn, his brother Jack and Joe Brandt wish everyone happy holidays. The gifts on the Tree are different movies or series produced by C.B.C. Film Sales Corp. They include the Hallroom Boys Comedies and Screen Snapshots.