Twentieth Century Pictures

Following an industry salary dispute in 1933, Zanuck quit Warner Bros. in April when Warners refused to comply with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' decision to restore salary cuts.{{cite magazine|magazine=Motion Picture Herald|date=April 22, 1933|page=11|title=Coast Conferences Close With Many Suggestions, Few Decisions|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher111unse/page/n253/mode/2up|access-date=April 28, 2024|via=Internet Archive}} On April 18, Zanuck announced that he and Schenck were planning a new production company with Schenck as President and Zanuck in charge of production. They planned to use United Artists' production facilities and release films through them.{{cite magazine|magazine=Motion Picture Herald|date=April 22, 1933|page=13|title=Zanuck, Schenck In New Company For Production|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher111unse/page/n255/mode/2up|access-date=April 28, 2024|via=Internet Archive}} They soon announced that the company was to be called Twentieth Century Pictures Inc. and would start studio activities from June 1, 1933 and they planned to make 12 films, with the first three to start filming by the middle of July at the latest.{{cite magazine|magazine=Motion Picture Herald|date=April 29, 1933|page=18|title=12 Films From Zanuck-Schenck|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher111unse/page/n333/mode/2up|access-date=April 28, 2024|via=Internet Archive}}{{cite magazine|magazine=The Hollywood Reporter|date=April 28, 1933|page=1|title=New Zanuck Firm Is '20th Century'}} In May, William Goetz was appointed as Zanuck's executive assistant and Raymond Griffith as production supervisor.{{cite magazine|magazine=Motion Picture Herald|date=May 13, 1933|page=21|title=William Goetz, Ray. Griffith Join Schenck-Zanuck Company|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher111unse/page/n485/mode/2up|access-date=April 28, 2024|via=Internet Archive}} The new company acquired Michael L. Simmons' book Chuck Connors, which became their first production.{{cite magazine|magazine=Motion Picture Herald|date=June 17, 1933|page=18|title=His Book To Be Filmed|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher111unse/page/n875/mode/2up|access-date=April 28, 2024|via=Internet Archive}} It was also their first release on October 7, 1933 under the title, The Bowery. Their initial stars under contract were George Arliss, Constance Bennett, Wallace Beery, George Raft and Loretta Young; however the Goetz connection meant that talent could be borrowed from MGM. Raoul Walsh, Gregory La Cava, Sidney Lanfield and Walter Lang were signed as directors.{{cite magazine|magazine=Motion Picture Herald|date=June 17, 1933|page=44|title=Product Plans Rushed|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher111unse/page/n883/mode/2up|access-date=April 28, 2024|via=Internet Archive}}

Financial backing came from Schenck's younger brother Nicholas Schenck, president of Loew's, the theater chain that owned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Louis B. Mayer of MGM, who wanted a position for his son-in-law, Goetz, Bank of America and Herbert J. Yates{{cite book|last1=Dixon|first1=Wheeler Winston|title=Death of the Moguls: The End of Classical Hollywood|date=August 28, 2012|publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-5378-8 |pages=67, 152, 156 |edition=illustrated |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sU_6AAAAQBAJ&q=%22Republic+Pictures%22+mini-major&pg=PA67|access-date=November 18, 2017|language=en}} owner of the film processing laboratory Consolidated Film Industries, who later founded Republic Pictures Corporation in 1935.{{cite book|last1=Stephens|first1=E. J.|last2=Wanamaker|first2=Marc|title=Early Poverty Row Studios|date=2014|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4396-4829-2|page=8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s0NoBQAAQBAJ&q=%22Republic+Pictures%22+mini-major&pg=PA8|access-date=November 18, 2017|language=en}}

{{main|List of Twentieth Century Pictures films}}

In addition to Chuck Connors, early stories purchased were Rowland Brown's Blood Money, Ralph Graves' Born to Be Bad and Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts (released as Advice to the Lovelorn).

The company was successful from the very beginning; out of their first 18 films, only one, Born to Be Bad, was not a financial success.{{Cite book|title=Darryl F. Zanuck: Don't Say Yes Until I Finish Talking|last=Gussow|first=Mel|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=1971|isbn=0306801329|location=New York|pages=60|oclc=6487320}} Their 1934 production, The House of Rothschild was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1935, they produced the classic film Les Misérables, from Victor Hugo's novel, which was also nominated for Best Picture.

In the winter of 1934, Zanuck began to negotiate with the UA board to acquire stock of the company and become a board member, but became outraged by UA's co-founder Mary Pickford's refusal to reward Twentieth Century with the company's stock, fearing it would have diluted the value of holdings by another UA stockholder and co-founder, D.W. Griffith. Schenck, who had been a UA stockholder for over ten years, resigned from United Artists in protest of the shoddy treatment of Twentieth Century, and Zanuck; thus began discussions with other distributors, which led to talks with the bankrupt Fox Studios of the Fox Film Corporation in the early spring of 1935. Fox Film had begun in the silent era in 1915 under founder William Fox.

Twentieth Century Pictures merged with Fox Studios in 1935 to form 20th Century-Fox (the hyphen was dropped half a century later in 1985 under Australian Rupert Murdoch), and in 2020 was purchased by The Walt Disney Company and renamed "20th Century Studios". For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have been founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary. However, in recent years it has now claimed the 1935 merger as its founding date.{{cite web |title=The Formation of Twentieth Century-Fox |url=http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/zanuck-schenck.htm |access-date=December 14, 2023 |website=Cobbles |location=United States}}

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{{20th Century Studios}}

Category:Twentieth Century Pictures

Category:Mass media companies established in 1933

Category:American companies established in 1933

Category:Mass media companies disestablished in 1935

Category:American companies disestablished in 1935

Category:Defunct American film studios

Category:20th Century Studios

Category:Defunct organizations based in Hollywood, Los Angeles

Category:Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles

Category:Entertainment companies based in California

Category:1933 establishments in California

Category:1935 disestablishments in California

Category:Film production companies of the United States

Category:Film studios in Southern California