2024 marks the centennial of Columbia Pictures, the studio behind the Spider-Man franchise, Ghostbusters, The Bridge On The River Kwai, On The Waterfront, The Social Network, and Taxi Driver; among many other films and franchises. Like the rest of the major studios that have been around since the silent era, Columbia had its humble beginnings, but they were looking up at the big names for a while and not a serious threat. Louis B. Meyer referred to Columbia as Siberia to send actors to when being leased to the studio. However, three people, especially the work of one controversial man, would lead Columbia to the top of Hollywood’s elite and stay there while others would fall.
Poverty Row Startups
Columbia’s origins go back to 1918 when brothers Harry and Jack Cohn signed, with Joe Brandt, a deal to start their own studio, the Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation. The three were part of Independent Moving Studios under Carl Laemmele, who would later turn it into Universal Pictures. With just $5000 in 2022 money ($250 in 1918) as capital, Brandt was the president of CBC, sales, marketing; distribution was run by Jack Cohn in New York City, while Harry Cohn ran production in California where all the studios were moving to. They would move entirely to Hollywood in 1922, renting a location on a street nicknamed “Poverty Row” because of the other B-studios located there.
Oddly, the studio would not release their first movie until 1922 with the melodrama More To Be Pitied Than Scorned. It was a success and permitted them to produce other films, leading the major studios to joke that CBC stood for “Corned Beef and Cabbage.” Now in the film exchange business, the company was reorganized and renamed Columbia Pictures Corporation after the image of the woman with the same name who is described as the personification of America. The studio would move out of Poverty Row and be part of the Little Three with Universal and United Artists, a mid-major tier behind the big names: Paramount, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), and Radio-Keith-Orpheum, or RKO (the only one which is now completely defunct).
Their Golden Ticket
Columbia did not control movie theaters and didn’t have the same resources as the Big Five studios did to expand their influence. One of the leaders of their push for bigger recognition came from a director who had worked with Harry Cohn a decade earlier. Frank Capra had done multiple jobs under Cohn before transitioning to full-time director at rival First National Studios before creative differences caused him to leave and join the upstart Columbia. His hiring came when sound began in motion pictures and Capra, who had an engineering background, was a full supporter of this innovation. Capra convinced Columbia to invest completely while the other studios were reluctant to transition because they saw “talkies’ ‘ as a fad.
His first film for Columbia with sound was 1928’s Submarine, followed by 1929’s The Younger Generation. Harry Cohn called this period onward until 1939 the start of Columbia’s string of high quality films, as well as being consistently profitable at the box office. The film that put Capra over the top, as well as Columbia, would be the screwball comedy It Happened One Night. It would be the first film to win the Big Five Oscars – Picture, Director, Lead Actor (Clark Gable), Lead Actress (Claudette Colbert), and Screenplay. Capra’s following films for the studio would also be critically acclaimed, including Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, You Can’t Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.
Meanwhile, the Cohn brothers had a volatile relationship in managing the studio, so much that Joe Brandt chose to retire from the movie industry and sold his shares to Harry, who became President of Columbia and would be until his death in 1958. Harry would cement his status with a very autocratic style, maintaining his position as production manager with input in every part of every production. It is also known that Harry had organized crime connections to keep their signed actors in line, hired other family members in major posts within the studio, and was notorious for his “casting couch” methods with new female actresses. Yet, Cohn struggled those first years to get rid of the stigma of being a low-tier studio as they could not afford to keep their stars, so they went to other studios to lease actors to star in their pictures.
No Longer In Poverty
When It Happened One Night swept the 1934 Oscars, Columbia gained the right to hold major studio status and Cohn got to rub shoulders with other movie moguls. Theaters that rejected signing Columbia releases now openly showed their films; the Paramount decree of 1948 ended studio ownership of movie theaters and helped Columbia be on complete equal footing with other studios. The commercial success of Capra’s films allowed them to sign stars for longer term, including Jean Arthur, Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth, and The Three Stooges. Even then, Harry Cohn carefully allocated budgets and recycled set pieces to keep overall costs down and avoid financial losses compared to other studios.
Their most recognized logo, Columbia herself standing on a pedestal lifting a torch, was first shown in 1936 and would change twice, first in 1976, and then in 1993 which is how it remains today. By 1950, the studio had toppled RKO as being part of the Big Five, and with the establishment of Screen Gems for television production, Columbia cemented their place permanently. Many names before the invention of sound fell because they did not adapt to it and Columbia played smart with their finances to prevent the pitfalls of going under. It is this foundation that the studio has worked on to be relevant and successful 100 years later.
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