Universal

Universal Pictures

Universal pictures, (however sometimes known as Universal studios) headquartered in California. Is a subsidiary company of NBC Universal. Also the company is one of the six major movie studios along with Warner bros pictures, Paramount pictures, Walt Disney, Columbia pictures and 20^th century fox.

Universal studios was founded by a man named Carl Laemmle in 1912 and now remains as one of the oldest American movie studios still in production. On the 11^th may 2004 the main stake of the company was sold to General electric, parent of NBC what came because of this was a media super-conglomerate that renamed itself NBC Universal meanwhile Universal Studios Inc continued as a subsidiary company.

As well as owning a huge film library it also owns many TV shows through the subsidiary company: NBC Universal Television Distribution. Universal studios is the second longest running Hollywood studio second only to Viacom’s Paramount Pictures by one month.

The birth of the company was sparked in 1905 when, on a buying trip to Chicago Carl Laemmle discovered the popularity and potential of the movie theater chain: Nickelodeon. In only a short time of his arrival to the trip he gave up the original reason to visit and chased the idea of buying the first of many Nickelodeons

In 1911 Laemmle began the Yankee film company which quickly evolved into the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP). He later broke with Edison’s custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits. This started the star system. This was basically the start of actors becoming famous.

On the 8^th of June 1912 Laemmle merged IMP with eight smaller companies to create the Universal Film Manufacturing Company of which Laemmle was the president along with a partnership that included Mark Dintenfass, Charles Baumann, Adam Kessel, and Pat Powers however all were soon to be bought by Laemmle. The company was incorporated as Universal Company inc. In 1925.

In 1915 Laemmle opened the world’s biggest motion picture production facility: Universal City studios. Studio management became the third asset of Universal's areas, with the studio incorporated as a subsidiary organization. Unlike most, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists and subsequently Universal became the biggest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade.

Irving Thalberg had been Laemmle's personal secretary, and Laemmle was impressed by Thalberg's cogent observations of how efficiently the studio could be operated. Promoted to studio chief, Thalberg was making Universal's product that bit better. However Louis B. Mayer led him away with promise of better money without his guidance Universal became a second-tier studio, and would remain so for several decades.