American film studio
Monogram Pictures Corporation
was an American
film studio
that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name
Allied Artists Pictures Corporation
. Monogram was among the smaller studios in the
golden age of Hollywood
, generally referred to collectively as
Poverty Row
. Lacking the financial resources to deliver the lavish sets, production values, and star power of the larger studios, Monogram sought to attract its audiences with the promise of action and adventure.
The company's trademark is now owned by
Allied Artists International
.
[1]
The original sprawling brick complex which functioned as home to both Monogram and Allied Artists remains at 4376 Sunset Drive, utilized as part of the
Church of Scientology
Media Center (formerly
KCET
's television facilities).
[2]
History
[
edit
]
Monogram was created in the early 1930s from two earlier companies;
W. Ray Johnston
's
Rayart Productions
(renamed Raytone when sound pictures came in) and
Trem Carr
's
Sono Art-World Wide Pictures
. Both specialized in low-budget features, a policy which continued at Monogram Pictures, with Carr in charge of production. Another independent producer,
Paul Malvern
, released 16 Lone Star western productions (starring
John Wayne
) through Monogram.
The backbone of the studio's early days was a father-son partnership: writer/director
Robert N. Bradbury
and cowboy actor
Bob Steele
(born Robert A. Bradbury). Bradbury wrote almost all of the early Monogram and Lone Star westerns and directed many of them himself. Monogram offered a selection of film genres, including action melodramas, classics, and mysteries.
In its early years, Monogram could seldom afford big-name movie stars and would employ either former silent-film actors who were idle (
Herbert Rawlinson
,
William Collier Sr.
) or young featured players (
Ray Walker
,
Wallace Ford
,
William Cagney
,
Charles Starrett
).
In 1935, Johnston and Carr were wooed by
Herbert Yates
of
Consolidated Film Industries
; Yates planned to merge Monogram with several other smaller independent companies to form
Republic Pictures
. After a brief period under this new venture, Johnston and Carr clashed with Yates and left. Carr moved to
Universal Pictures
, while Johnston reactivated Monogram in 1937.
Bela Lugosi
appeared in a string of Monogram productions throughout the 1940s.
Film series
[
edit
]
In 1938, Monogram began a long and profitable policy of making
series
and hiring familiar players to star in them.
Frankie Darro
, Hollywood's foremost tough-kid actor of the 1930s, joined Monogram and stayed with the company until 1950. Comedian
Mantan Moreland
co-starred in many of the Darro films and continued to be a valuable asset to Monogram through 1949. Juvenile actors
Marcia Mae Jones
and
Jackie Moran
co-starred in series of homespun romances, and then joined the Frankie Darro series.
Boris Karloff
contributed to the Monogram release schedule with his
Mr. Wong
mysteries. This prompted producer
Sam Katzman
to engage
Bela Lugosi
for a follow-up series of Monogram thrillers.
Katzman's street-gang series
The East Side Kids
was an imitation of the then-popular
Dead End Kids
features. The first film cast six juveniles who had no connection with the Dead End series, but Katzman signed Dead End Kids
Bobby Jordan
and
Leo Gorcey
, and soon added
Huntz Hall
and
Gabriel Dell
from the original gang. The
East Side Kids
series ran from 1940 to 1945. East Side star Gorcey then took the reins himself and transformed the series into
The Bowery Boys
, which became the longest-running feature-film comedy series in movie history (48 titles over 12 years). During this run, Gorcey became the highest-paid actor in Hollywood on an annual basis.
[
citation needed
]
Monogram continued to experiment with film series with mixed results. Definite box-office hits were
Charlie Chan
,
The Cisco Kid
, and
Joe Palooka
, all proven movie properties abandoned by other studios and revived by Monogram. Less successful were the comic-strip exploits of
Snuffy Smith
and Sam Katzman's comedy series teaming
Billy Gilbert
,
Shemp Howard
, and
Maxie Rosenbloom
.
Many of Monogram's series were westerns. The studio released sagebrush sagas with
Bill Cody
,
Bob Steele
,
John Wayne
,
Tom Keene
,
Tim McCoy
,
Tex Ritter
, and
Jack Randall
before hitting on the "trio" format teaming veteran saddle pals.
Buck Jones
,
Tim McCoy
, and
Raymond Hatton
became The Rough Riders;
Ray (Crash) Corrigan
,
John "Dusty" King
, and
Max Terhune
were
The Range Busters
, and
Ken Maynard
,
Hoot Gibson
, and
Bob Steele
teamed as The Trail Blazers. When
Universal Pictures
allowed
Johnny Mack Brown
's contract to lapse, Monogram grabbed him and kept him busy through 1952.
Monogram was also a useful outlet for ambitious movie stars who wanted to produce their own films.
Lou Costello
,
Sidney Toler
,
Kay Francis
, Leo Gorcey, and
Arthur Lake
all pursued independent production, releasing through Monogram.
[5]
Monogram's stars
[
edit
]
The studio was a launching pad for new stars (
Preston Foster
in
Sensation Hunters
,
Randolph Scott
in
Broken Dreams
,
Ginger Rogers
in
The Thirteenth Guest
,
Lionel Atwill
in
The Sphinx
,
Alan Ladd
in
Her First Romance
,
Robert Mitchum
in
When Strangers Marry
. The studio was also a haven for established stars whose careers had stalled:
Edmund Lowe
in
Klondike Fury
,
John Boles
in
Road to Happiness
,
Ricardo Cortez
in
I Killed That Man
,
Simone Simon
in
Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore
,
Kay Francis
and
Bruce Cabot
in
Divorce
.
Monogram did create and nurture its own stars.
Gale Storm
began her career at
RKO Radio Pictures
in 1940 but found a home at Monogram. Storm had been promoted from Monogram's Frankie Darro series and was showcased in crime dramas (like
The Crime Smasher
(1943) opposite
Richard Cromwell
and radio's
Frank Graham
in the title role) and a string of musicals to capitalize on her singing talents (like
Campus Rhythm
and
Nearly Eighteen
(both 1943), as well as
Swing Parade of 1946
featuring
The Three Stooges
). Another of Monogram's finds during this time was British skating star
Belita
, who conversely starred in musical revues first and then graduated to dramatic roles, including
Suspense
(1946), an A-budget
King Brothers Productions
picture released under the Monogram name. Monogram's final leading-lady discovery was
Jane Nigh
, who starred in several wholesome outdoor stories between 1950 and 1952; she returned to the studio in 1957 for a Bowery Boys comedy.
In the mid-1940s Monogram very nearly hit the big time with
Dillinger
, a sensationalized crime drama that was a runaway success in 1945. Filmed by
King Brothers Productions
, it received an
Academy Award
nomination for
Best Original Screenplay
. Monogram tried to follow
Dillinger
immediately (with several "exploitation" melodramas cashing in on topical themes), and did achieve some success, but Monogram never became a respectable "major" studio like former poverty-row denizen
Columbia Pictures
.
The only Monogram release to win the Academy Award was
Climbing the Matterhorn
, a two-reel adventure that won the "Best Short Subject" Oscar in 1947. Other Monogram films to receive Oscar nominations were
King of the Zombies
for
Academy Award
for Best Music (Music Score of a Dramatic Picture) in 1941 and
Flat Top
for Best Film Editing in 1952.
Monogram's fortunes improved even more after World War II. With Hollywood's larger studios curtailing B-picture production in favor of more prestigious and more expensive pictures, there was now a greater need for low-priced pictures that theater owners could afford. Major first-run theater chains that had never played Monogram's budget movies -- as well as small, independent theaters that depended on bargain-rate films to turn a profit -- began using Monogram features regularly.
Monogram continued to launch new series. In 1946 The East Side Kids became The Bowery Boys under a new producer, Jan Grippo. The former producer, Sam Katzman, began a new musical-comedy series called "The Teen Agers" (1946-48) as a vehicle for singer
Freddie Stewart
. Other series included the Cisco Kid westerns (1945-47); the exploits of masked crimefighter
The Shadow
with
Kane Richmond
(1946); the
Bringing Up Father
comedies (1946-50) based on the
George McManus
comic strip, featuring
Joe Yule
and
Renie Riano
as "Jiggs and Maggie; the "Joe Palooka" prizefight comedies (1946-51); the
Roddy McDowall
series (1948-52), with the juvenile lead forsaking child roles for dramatic and action vehicles; the "Henry" series of small-town comedies (1949-51) co-starring
Raymond Walburn
and
Walter Catlett
; and the "
Bomba, the Jungle Boy
" adventures (1949-55) starring
Johnny Sheffield
(formerly "Boy" of the
Tarzan
films).
The Bowery Boys, Charlie Chan, and the Monogram westerns (now featuring Johnny Mack Brown,
Jimmy Wakely
, and
Whip Wilson
) were the studio's biggest drawing cards. Monogram filmed some of its later features in
Cinecolor
, mostly outdoor subjects like
County Fair
,
Blue Grass of Kentucky
, and
The Rose Bowl Story
, as well as the science-fiction film,
Flight to Mars
(1952).
Creation of Allied Artists Productions
[
edit
]
Producer
Walter Mirisch
began at Monogram after World War II as assistant to studio head
Steve Broidy
. He convinced Broidy that the days of low-budget films were ending, and in 1946 Monogram created a new unit, Allied Artists Productions, to make costlier films. The new name was meant to mirror the name of United Artists by evoking images of "creative personnel uniting to produce and distribute quality films".
[6]
At a time when the average Hollywood picture cost about $800,000 (and the average Monogram picture cost about $90,000), Allied Artists' first release, the Christmas-themed comedy
It Happened on Fifth Avenue
(1947), cost more than $1,200,000.
[7]
It was rewarded with an estimated $1.8 million boxoffice return.
[8]
Subsequent Allied Artists releases were more economical. Some were filmed in black and white, but others were filmed in
Cinecolor
and
Technicolor
.
Monogram continued to be the parent company; the "Allied Artists Productions" all bore Monogram copyright notices, and were released through Monogram's network of film exchanges. The studio's new deluxe division permitted what Mirisch called "B-plus" pictures, which were released along with Monogram's established line of B fare.
Mirisch's prediction about the end of the low-budget film had come true thanks to television, and in September 1952 Monogram announced that henceforth it would only produce films bearing the Allied Artists name. The Monogram brand name was retired in 1953, and the company was now known as Allied Artists Pictures Corporation.
Allied Artists retained a few vestiges of its Monogram identity, continuing its popular
Stanley Clements
action series (through 1953), its B-Westerns (through 1954), its
Bomba, the Jungle Boy
adventures (through 1955), and especially its breadwinning comedy series with
The Bowery Boys
(through 1958, with Clements replacing Leo Gorcey in 1956). For the most part, Allied Artists was heading in new, ambitious directions under Mirisch.
Monogram enters the field of TV
[
edit
]
Monogram was the first substantial theatrical distributor to offer its recent films to network television, in April 1948.
[9]
Steve Broidy's asking price was $1,000,000 for a package of 200 features, or $5,000 per title. The
CBS
network declined the offer, and the films went instead to Motion Pictures for Television, a pioneer TV syndicator established in 1951 by film executive Matty Fox.
[10]
Monogram cautiously entered the field of syndicating its own product in November 1951. Fearing adverse reaction from its movie-theater customers, a major studio avoided putting its own name on its television subsidiary. Monogram followed suit, christening its TV arm as Interstate Television Corporation. Ralph Branton, a former exhibitor who became a Monogram executive, was named president.
[11]
Interstate's biggest success was the
Little Rascals
series (formerly
Hal Roach
's "Our Gang" comedies, which had been reissued for theaters by Monogram). In later years Interstate TV became Allied Artists Television.
Allied Artists' television library was sold to Lorimar's TV production and distribution arms in 1979. Lorimar was acquired by
Warner Bros. Television
, which now controls the library.
Allied Artists' major productions
[
edit
]
For a time in the mid-1950s, the Mirisch family held great influence at Allied Artists, with Walter as executive producer, his brother Harold as head of sales, and brother Marvin as assistant treasurer.
[12]
They pushed the studio into big-budget filmmaking, signing contracts with
William Wyler
,
John Huston
,
Billy Wilder
and
Gary Cooper
. When their first big-name productions, Wyler's
Friendly Persuasion
which was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Wilder's
Love in the Afternoon
were box-office flops in 1956?57, studio head Broidy reverted to the kind of pictures Monogram had previously been known for: low-budget action pictures and thrillers, such as
Don Siegel
's science-fiction film
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1956).
Allied Artists and
The Mirisch Company
released some (but not all) of their late-1950s films through
United Artists
.
Roger Corman
made several successful films for Allied Artists.
[13]
The studio had renewed success with the release of
Al Capone
in 1959.
[14]
This prompted Allied to invest in a series of bigger budgeted films once more including
El Cid
,
Billy Budd
,
The George Raft Story
and
Hitler
. There were still cut backs in overall production ? the studio had released 35 films in 1958 but this dropped to 12 in 1960. (The main cause of this was the fact that the studio stopped making Westerns.)
[15]
Post-Broidy
[
edit
]
Studio chief Steve Broidy retired in 1965. Allied Artists ceased production in 1966 and became a distributor of foreign films, but restarted production with the release of
Cabaret
(1972) and followed it with
Papillon
(1973). Both were critical and commercial successes, but high production and financing costs meant they were not big moneymakers for the company. Allied raised financing for their adaptation of
The Man Who Would Be King
(1975) by selling the European distribution rights to
Columbia Pictures
and the rest of the backing came from Canadian tax shelters.
[16]
King
was released in 1975, but received disappointing returns. That same year, the company distributed the French import
Story of O
, but spent much of its earnings defending itself from obscenity charges.
[16]
In 1976, Allied Artists attempted to diversify when it merged with consumer producers Kalvex and PSP, Inc. The new
Allied Artists Industries, Inc.
manufactured pharmaceuticals, mobile homes, and activewear in addition to films.
[16]
Demise
[
edit
]
Monogram/Allied Artists continued until 1979, when runaway inflation and high production costs pushed it into bankruptcy.
Film library fate
[
edit
]
The post-August 1946 Monogram/Allied Artists library was bought by television production company
Lorimar
in 1980 for $4.75 million;
[17]
today a majority of this library belongs to
Warner Bros. Pictures
(via their acquisition of Lorimar in 1989). The pre-August 1946 Monogram library was sold in 1954 to
Associated Artists Productions
, which itself was sold to
United Artists
in 1958 (it merged with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
in 1981). The pre-1946 Monogram library was not part of the deal with
Ted Turner
. (The rights to many of the later films are now owned by MGM via United Artists; others, such as
The Big Combo
, lapsed into the public domain.) A selection of post-1938 Monogram films acquired by M&A Alexander Productions and Astor Pictures were later incorporated into
Melange Pictures
' library, today a part of
Paramount Global
-owned
Paramount Pictures
. Most Monogram Pictures films released before 1942 are in the public domain.
Jean-Luc Godard
dedicated his film
Breathless
(1960) to Monogram.
[18]
Studios
[
edit
]
Sunset Boulevard
[
edit
]
Allied Artists had its studio at 4401 W. Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, on a 4.5-acre lot. The longtime home (since 1971) of former
PBS
television station
KCET
,
[19]
the station sold the studios to the
Church of Scientology
in April 2011.
[20]
[21]
Monogram Ranch
[
edit
]
Monogram Pictures operated the
Monogram Ranch
, its
movie ranch
in
Placerita Canyon
near
Newhall, California
, in the northern
San Gabriel Mountains
foothills.
Tom Mix
had used the Placeritos Ranch for
location shooting
for his silent western films. Ernie Hickson became the owner in 1936 and reconstructed all the "frontier
western
town"
sets
, moved from the nearby
Republic Pictures
Movie Ranch (present day Disney
Golden Oak Ranch
), onto his 110-acre (0.45 km
2
) ranch. A year later Monogram Pictures signed a long-term lease with Hickson for Placeritos Ranch, with terms that stipulated that the ranch be renamed Monogram Ranch. Actor/cowboy singer/producer
Gene Autry
purchased the Monogram Ranch property from the Hickson heirs in 1953, renaming it after his film
Melody Ranch
.
[22]
[23]
[24]
As of 2010, it was operated as the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio and Melody Ranch Studios.
[25]
After fire damage, the sets were replaced; as of 2012, the studio had 74 buildings (including offices) and two sound stages.
[26]
The owners in 2019 were Renaud and Andre Veluzat. The owners indicate that other recent movies were also partly filmed here, including
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
. The site includes a movie memorabilia museum that is open to visitors.
[25]
Filmography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Registered Trademark Ownership"
.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
. Retrieved
November 19,
2013
.
- ^
Variety,
August 10, 1945.
- ^
MacGillivray, Scott
(2009).
Laurel & Hardy
: From the Forties Forward
(2nd ed.). iUniverse. p. 194.
ISBN
978-1-4401-7239-7
.
- ^
Balio, Tino (2009).
United Artists, Volume 2, 1951?1978: The Company that Changed the Film Industry
. Univ. of Wisconsin Press. p. 164.
ISBN
978-0-299-23014-2
.
- ^
"Out Hollywood Way".
The New York Times
. September 8, 1946. p. X1.
- ^
"Revisiting a Christmas Classic: It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)"
.
Foote & Friends on Film
. December 22, 2020
. Retrieved
October 12,
2023
.
- ^
"Mono. 3-Year-Old Pix for Video".
Film Daily
. April 22, 1948. p. 1.
- ^
"Success Stories in Early Buyers"
.
Variety
. August 29, 1951. p. 5
. Retrieved
October 12,
2023
.
- ^
"Monogram Forms Interstate Television Corporation".
Ross Reports
. November 11, 1951. p. 3.
- ^
"Crashing film gravy train"
.
Variety
. March 30, 1955. p. 20.
- ^
Vagg, Stephen (May 21, 2024).
"Top Ten Corman ? Part Eight, Corman's Studios"
.
Filmink
.
- ^
Wear, Mike (June 3, 1959).
"
'Hot,' 'Imitation' and 'Capone' Zingy With 'Shaggy' Standout Though May Its Typical So-So Self"
.
Variety
. p. 4
. Retrieved
August 30,
2019
– via
Archive.org
.
- ^
"Allied Artists New Beef Up"
.
Variety
. June 7, 1961. p. 7.
- ^
a
b
c
Cook, David A. (2002).
Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970-1979 (History of the American Cinema)
. Vol. 9.
University of California Press
. pp. 325?328.
ISBN
978-0520232655
.
- ^
Barton, David (October 7, 1981). "Lorimar Looks To Its Software Future".
Variety
. p. 7.
- ^
Powers, John (July 8, 1992).
"Breathless"
.
The Criterion Collection
. Retrieved
May 16,
2021
.
- ^
"KCET Sells Famous Studio to Church of Scientology"
.
KTLA
. April 27, 2011. Archived from
the original
on April 1, 2012
. Retrieved
April 6,
2011
.
- ^
"Church of Scientology Acquires Hollywood Studio Facility"
.
PRWeb
. April 25, 2011. Archived from
the original
on October 9, 2011.
- ^
"KCET Sells Production Studios To Church Of Scientology"
.
CBS Los Angeles
. April 25, 2011.
- ^
"Placeritos Ranch ? Monogram Ranch"
.
Melody Ranch History
. employees.oxy.edu. Archived from
the original
on June 8, 2011
. Retrieved
September 8,
2010
.
- ^
Worden, Leon (March 29, 2003).
"Melody Ranch: Movie Magic in Placerita Canyon"
.
Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society
. Retrieved
March 29,
2003
.
- ^
"The Town"
.
melodyranchstudio.com
. Retrieved
May 15,
2010
.
- ^
a
b
"Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio"
.
melodyranchstudio.com
. Retrieved
May 15,
2010
.
- ^
Verrier, Richard (January 24, 2012).
"Santa Clarita movie ranches corral Tarantino and other filmmakers"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Okuda, Ted (1999).
The Monogram Checklist: The Films of Monogram Pictures Corporation, 1931?1952
. McFarland.
ISBN
978-0786407507
.
- Miller, Don (1987).
B Movies
. Ballantine Books.
ISBN
978-0345347107
.
External links
[
edit
]