On 5 February 1919, United Artists was formed by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and DW Griffiths.
As the name suggests, it was an attempt by the Talent to take on the System. The idea foundered as the founders found that banks preferred cash flow over bankability.
The little person taking on and beating the system is an excellent trope which has kept many a Hollywood producer in washing powder and milk.
What happens when the system itself is upset by an outsider?
United Artists has gone through many a resale and many a rebadge. A late manifestation has been the film distributing venture, United Artists Releasing. MGM and others applied the badge on 5 February 2019, 100 years to the day after United Artists was released.
How long United Artists Releasing survives is unknown, as Hollywood outsider Amazon has bid for MGM.
When United Artists was formed, MGM didn’t exist. Richard Rowland headed one of its predecessors, Metro Pictures. When he heard about the venture, he remarked “the lunatics have taken over the asylum”.
Rowland was the first to say this gem, while Edgar Allan Poe – a talent who faced problems with money and with reality – was the first to write a tale about the prospect in the delightfully dark “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether”.
