Goldwyn Pictures
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company founded in 1916 by Samuel Gelbfisz in partnership with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn using an amalgamation of both last names to create the name. (The other alternative, Selfish Pictures, was immediately discarded.) Seeing an opportunity, Samuel Gelbfisz then had his name legally changed to Samuel Goldwyn.
At the beginning, Goldwyn Pictures rented production facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey from Solax Studios. The Goldwyn Pictures Corporation proved moderately successful but it is their Leo the Lion trademark for which the organization is most famous. Samuel Goldwyn was eventually forced out by his partners who then brought in Lee Shubert, the head of The Shubert Organization that was the dominant live theatre operator in the United States. Shubert took control and merged the company with movie theater magnate Marcus Loew and his Metro Pictures Corporation giving the "Leo the Lion" trade mark to their new entity. When Metro Pictures acquired Louis B. Mayer Pictures, it resulted in a new studio with the name Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which merged with United Artists in 1981 to form the MGM/UA Entertainment Company.
Samuel Goldwyn went on to form Samuel Goldwyn Productions in 1923. He would become one of the most respected filmmakers in the industry, but oddly enough never had any tangible connection to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, having been forced out before the merger.
[edit] External links
- List of films made by Goldwyn Pictures Corporation at the IMDb database
