Selznick International Pictures was a
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywoo ...
motion picture studio created by
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick (May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca'' (1940), both of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Picture.
E ...
in 1935, and dissolved in 1943. In its short existence the independent studio produced two films that received the
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only categor ...
—''
Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''
Rebecca
Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...
'' (1940)—and three that were nominated, ''
A Star Is Born'' (1937), ''
Since You Went Away'' (1944) and ''
Spellbound'' (1945).
Company history
Selznick International Pictures was founded in 1935 by producer
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick (May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca'' (1940), both of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Picture.
E ...
and investor
Jock Whitney after Selznick left
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
and leased a section of the
RKO Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...
lot in
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...
. The studio itself had been built in 1918–19 by film pioneer Thomas Ince. When Ince died in 1924 the studio was taken over by Cecil B. DeMille. Eventually Pathe took over and then in the 1930s it became part of RKO. In 1957 it would become part of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's company,
Desilu
Desilu Productions () was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as ''I Love Lucy'', ''The Lucy Show'', ''Mannix'', ''The Untouchabl ...
.
Selznick leased offices at the studio during the first year or so and at the beginning of 1937 Selznick International Pictures took over the entire lot. The SIP name went up over the entrance of the historic Southern Plantation style administration building and that view of the front of the building became the iconic studio logo seen at the beginning of SIP films. Even though the studio reverted to RKO in the 1940s, Selznick kept offices there for the rest of his life.
Selznick raised the initial funding of
US$400,000 in Los Angeles, with half of that amount coming from his brother
Myron Selznick, a Hollywood agent, and the other half from MGM production chief
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...
and his wife actress
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated ingénues. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O' ...
. He raised an additional $300,000 from "small" investors in New York, and then the final $2.4 million from Jock Whitney and his family. Whitney himself became chairman of the board, and Selznick president, of the new company.
Because Whitney and his cousin
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney also owned
Pioneer Pictures, an independent studio they formed in 1933 on facilities rented at the RKO studios, Pioneer was informally merged with Selznick International Pictures in 1936. Selznick International assumed Pioneer's contract to make at least six pictures in the new full-color
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films running through a special ...
process, of which the Whitneys owned a 15 percent share.
"Unlike his peers in the major studios," wrote film historian Leonard J. Leff, "Selznick produced films as medieval architects built cathedrals: one by one."
Selznick intended to produce a few
features each year, a plan which he hoped would allow him to be as picky and careful as he liked and to create the best films possible. He said to his company's board in 1935, "There are only two kinds of merchandise that can be made profitably in this business, either the very cheap pictures or the very expensive pictures." Selznick believed, "there is no alternative open to us but to attempt to compete with the very best."
Although Selznick foresaw a production schedule of six to eight features per year, the studio in fact made only two or three per year, due to Selznick's meticulous attention to detail and protracted writing and editing processes. But in its short life, Selznick International Pictures produced two winners of the
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only categor ...
: ''
Gone with the Wind'' (1939, co-produced with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
) and ''
Rebecca
Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...
'' (
1940
A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280.
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
*January ...
), and three nominees, ''
A Star Is Born'' (
1937
Events
January
* January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.
* January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Febr ...
), ''
Since You Went Away'' (
1944
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 2 – WWII:
** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in No ...
) and ''
Spellbound'' (
1945
1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which nuclear weapons have been used in combat.
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
Januar ...
).
By 1940, Selznick International Pictures was the top-grossing film studio in
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywoo ...
, but without a major studio set-up in which to re-invest his profits, Selznick faced enormous tax problems. That year, to draw down their profits as
capital gain
Capital gain is an economic concept defined as the profit earned on the sale of an asset which has increased in value over the holding period. An asset may include tangible property, a car, a business, or intangible property such as shares ...
s, he and the other owners made an agreement with the
Internal Revenue Service to liquidate Selznick International within three years, which they did by dividing and selling to each other the company's assets. Jock Whitney and his sister Joan Whitney Payson acquired ''Gone with the Wind'', which they resold at a substantial profit to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1944. At the time of the final dissolution in 1943, three features were in production or pre-production, although they were released in 1944 and 1945.
To complete his obligation to deliver two more pictures to
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...
, Selznick formed
David O. Selznick Productions in 1940 at the same studio location. The new company also took over the old company's contracts with individual directors and actors.
Vanguard Films and Selznick Releasing Organization
After the dissolution of Selznick International, Selznick established
Vanguard Films
Vanguard Films, Inc. was an American film production company, established by producer David O. Selznick in 1943, after the dissolution of Selznick International Pictures. The company's president was Daniel T. O'Shea; Dore Schary was the head of p ...
, Inc. in 1943 and Selznick Releasing Organization in 1946. Vanguard was created to continue his productions, while Selznick Releasing was made to distribute output by Vanguard. Previously, Vanguard released through
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...
, of which Vanguard owned one-third of its stock. As with Selznick International, Vanguard was located at the RKO studio.
Filmography
Selznick International Pictures
Films were distributed by United Artists unless noted.
Vanguard Films
Selznick formed Vanguard Films (1943–1951) to complete projects in progress at the time Selznick International Pictures was dissolved. Films were distributed by United Artists unless noted.
Film library
The rights to the Selznick library have been scattered, as noted in the following timeline.
* 1943: Jock Whitney sold to Film Classics, Inc. the rights to ''A Star Is Born'' and ''Nothing Sacred'' (both of which were actually owned by Pioneer Pictures), and the Selznick International productions ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'', ''Made for Each Other'', and ''The Young in Heart''.
* 1947:
Cinecolor Corporation acquired Film Classics, Inc.
* 1949: Cinecolor Corp. resold the company to Film Classics' officers.
* 1950: Film Classics was merged with
Eagle-Lion Films
Eagle-Lion Films was a British-American film production company owned by J. Arthur Rank intended to distribute British productions in the United States.
In 1947, it acquired Robert R. Young's PRC Pictures, a small American production company ...
to form Eagle Lion Classics.
* 1951: When Eagle Lion Classics collapsed, United Artists acquired its assets.
David O. Selznick retained ownership of ''The Garden of Allah'', ''The Prisoner of Zenda'', ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'', ''Intermezzo'', and ''Rebecca'' after the liquidation of Selznick International Pictures. Selznick died in 1965, and the following year, his estate sold the rights to 26 of his features to
ABC, who still own most of them today (via
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, formerly known as Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. until 2007, is an American film distribution studio within the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. It ...
). The notable exception is ''
Gone with the Wind'', which Jock Whitney and his sister sold to MGM in 1944.
Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing t ...
, which purchased the MGM studio and pre-1986 film library in 1986, now owns the film with distribution currently held by
Warner Bros. The films ''A Star Is Born'', ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'', ''Nothing Sacred'', and ''Made for Each Other'' are now in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
in the United States, with original film negatives to the latter three films owned by Disney and the former's owned by Warner Bros.
Papers and other artefacts of the studio are now part of the David O. Selznick Collection
in the
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pu ...
at the
University of Texas, Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
.
Notes
References
Further reading
*
Haver, Ronald (1980). ''David O. Selznick's Hollywood''.
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
:
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...
. .
* Selected and edited by
Rudy Behlmer(Free preview at Amazon.com)
External links
{{Authority control
Entertainment companies established in 1935
Mass media companies established in 1935
Mass media companies disestablished in 1943
Defunct American film studios
Film studios in Southern California
Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles
Entertainment companies based in California
1935 establishments in California
Film production companies of the United States
1943 disestablishments in California
Academy Award for Technical Achievement winners