Four silent-film stars built their own studio to escape the moguls
In 1919 Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith set up United Artists so performers, not studio bosses, would own their films and profits. A rival executive reportedly scoffed that the inmates were seizing the asylum. More than a century later, the name still survives under Amazon.
The trigger came in 1918. Chaplin was one of First National's biggest earners, yet the company refused to raise his production budget, while Pickford and Fairbanks faced contracts nearing expiry with nothing new on the table. Chaplin's brother and business manager, Sydney, sensed a pattern and hired a private detective with the other two. The investigator uncovered a scheme to merge the production houses and tie cinema owners to five-year agreements, which would have left stars with little bargaining power.
The company was incorporated on February 5, 1919. Each of the four founders took a quarter of the preferred shares and a fifth of the common stock; the last 20 percent went to their lawyer, William Gibbs McAdoo, a former Treasury Secretary and son-in-law of President Woodrow Wilson. Cowboy actor William S. Hart had joined the early talks but dropped out before papers were signed. Richard A. Rowland of Metro Pictures is the man credited with the asylum jibe. Hiram Abrams became the first managing director, running things from 729 Seventh Avenue.
The founders' plan for five pictures each per year collapsed almost at once. By 1921, when operations began in earnest, features had become costlier and more polished, settling at roughly ninety minutes, or eight reels, so that output target was dropped.
Later decades brought repeated changes of ownership. MGM bought the company in 1981 for a reported $350 million, briefly revived the label for television and for a Stargate web series, and in 2019 used the name for a distribution arm marking the centenary. Amazon, by then MGM's parent, folded that unit in March 2023, then announced in July 2024 a fresh revival built around producer Scott Stuber.
Source: United Artists
