Selznick International Pictures

Selznick International Pictures was a Hollywood motion picture studio created by David O. Selznick in 1935, and dissolved in 1943. In its short existence the independent studio produced two films that received the Academy Award for Best Picture—Gone with the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940)—and three that were nominated, A Star Is Born (1937), Since You Went Away (1944) and Spellbound (1945).

The facade of the Selznick International Pictures administration building in Culver City became the trademark of the studio

Company history
Dolores Costello and Freddie Bartholomew in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
Ronald Colman and Madeleine Carroll in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Poster for Gone with the Wind (1939)
Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine in Rebecca (1940)

In the Tradition of Quality

— Company motto of Selznick International Pictures[1]: 9 

Selznick International Pictures was founded in 1935 by producer David O. Selznick and investor Jock Whitney after Selznick left Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and leased a section of the RKO Pictures lot in Culver City, California. The studio itself had been built in 1918–19 by film pioneer Thomas Ince. When Ince died in 1924 the studio was taken over by Cecil B. DeMille. Eventually Pathe took over and then in the 1930s it became part of RKO. In 1957 it would become part of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's company, Desilu.

Selznick leased offices at the studio during the first year or so and at the beginning of 1937 Selznick International Pictures took over the entire lot. The SIP name went up over the entrance of the historic Southern Plantation style administration building and that view of the front of the building became the iconic studio logo seen at the beginning of SIP films. Even though the studio reverted to RKO in the 1940s, Selznick kept offices there for the rest of his life.

Selznick raised the initial funding of US$400,000 in Los Angeles, with half of that amount coming from his brother Myron Selznick, a Hollywood agent, and the other half from MGM production chief Irving Thalberg and his wife actress Norma Shearer.[2] He raised an additional $300,000 from "small" investors in New York, and then the final $2.4 million from Jock Whitney and his family. Whitney himself became chairman of the board, and Selznick president, of the new company.

Because Whitney and his cousin Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney also owned Pioneer Pictures, an independent studio they formed in 1933 on facilities rented at the RKO studios, Pioneer was informally merged with Selznick International Pictures in 1936. Selznick International assumed Pioneer's contract to make at least six pictures in the new full-color Technicolor process, of which the Whitneys owned a 15 percent share.[3]

"Unlike his peers in the major studios," wrote film historian Leonard J. Leff, "Selznick produced films as medieval architects built cathedrals: one by one."[1]: 6 

Selznick intended to produce a few features each year, a plan which he hoped would allow him to be as picky and careful as he liked and to create the best films possible. He said to his company's board in 1935, "There are only two kinds of merchandise that can be made profitably in this business, either the very cheap pictures or the very expensive pictures." Selznick believed, "there is no alternative open to us but to attempt to compete with the very best."[4]

Although Selznick foresaw a production schedule of six to eight features per year, the studio in fact made only two or three per year, due to Selznick's meticulous attention to detail and protracted writing and editing processes. But in its short life, Selznick International Pictures produced two winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture: Gone with the Wind (1939, co-produced with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) and Rebecca (1940), and three nominees, A Star Is Born (1937), Since You Went Away (1944) and Spellbound (1945).

By 1940, Selznick International Pictures was the top-grossing film studio in Hollywood, but without a major studio set-up in which to re-invest his profits, Selznick faced enormous tax problems. That year, to draw down their profits as capital gains, he and the other owners made an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to liquidate Selznick International within three years, which they did by dividing and selling to each other the company's assets. Jock Whitney and his sister Joan Whitney Payson acquired Gone with the Wind, which they resold at a substantial profit to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1944.[5][6][7] At the time of the final dissolution in 1943, three features were in production or pre-production, although they were released in 1944 and 1945.

To complete his obligation to deliver two more pictures to United Artists, Selznick formed David O. Selznick Productions in 1940 at the same studio location. The new company also took over the old company's contracts with individual directors and actors.[8]

Vanguard Films and Selznick Releasing Organization

After the dissolution of Selznick International, Selznick established Vanguard Films, Inc. in 1943[9] and Selznick Releasing Organization in 1946.[10] Vanguard was created to continue his productions, while Selznick Releasing was made to distribute output by Vanguard. Previously, Vanguard released through United Artists, of which Vanguard owned one-third of its stock. As with Selznick International, Vanguard was located at the RKO studio.

Filmography

Selznick International Pictures

Films were distributed by United Artists unless noted.

Release Date Title Notes
March 6, 1936Little Lord Fauntleroy[11]
November 19, 1936The Garden of Allah[12]
April 30, 1937A Star Is Born[13]
September 3, 1937The Prisoner of Zenda[14][lower-alpha 1]
November 26, 1937Nothing Sacred[16]
February 11, 1938The Adventures of Tom Sawyer[17]
October 27, 1938The Young in Heart[18]
February 10, 1939Made for Each Other[19]
September 22, 1939Intermezzo: A Love Story[20][21]: 756 
December 15, 1939Gone with the WindDistributed by Loew's, Inc.[22]
April 12, 1940Rebecca[23]

Vanguard Films
Main article: Vanguard Films

Selznick formed Vanguard Films (1943–1951)[24] to complete projects in progress at the time Selznick International Pictures was dissolved. Films were distributed by United Artists unless noted.

Release Date Title Notes
May 18, 1944Reward UnlimitedShort film distributed by the Office of War Information[25][26]
July 20, 1944Since You Went Away[27]
December 1944I'll Be Seeing You[28]
December 28, 1945Spellbound[29]
December 31, 1946Duel in the SunDistributed by Selznick Releasing Organization[30]
December 29, 1947The Paradine CaseDistributed by Selznick Releasing Organization[31]
June 4, 1948Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream HouseDistributed by Selznick Releasing Organization[32]
December 24, 1948Portrait of JennieDistributed by Selznick Releasing Organization[33]

Film library

The rights to the Selznick library have been scattered, as noted in the following timeline.

  • 1943: Jock Whitney sold to Film Classics, Inc. the rights to A Star Is Born and Nothing Sacred (both of which were actually owned by Pioneer Pictures), and the Selznick International productions Little Lord Fauntleroy, Made for Each Other, and The Young in Heart.[34]
  • 1947: Cinecolor Corporation acquired Film Classics, Inc.[35]
  • 1949: Cinecolor Corp. resold the company to Film Classics' officers.[36]
  • 1950: Film Classics was merged with Eagle-Lion Films to form Eagle Lion Classics.[37]
  • 1951: When Eagle Lion Classics collapsed, United Artists acquired its assets.[38]

David O. Selznick retained ownership of The Garden of Allah, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Intermezzo, and Rebecca after the liquidation of Selznick International Pictures.[39] Selznick died in 1965, and the following year, his estate sold the rights to 26 of his features to ABC,[40] which owns most of them today (via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures). The notable exception is Gone with the Wind, which Jock Whitney and his sister sold to MGM in 1944. Turner Entertainment, which purchased the MGM studio and pre-1986 film library in 1986, now owns the film with distribution currently held by Warner Bros. The films A Star Is Born, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Nothing Sacred, and Made for Each Other are now in the public domain in the United States, with original film negatives to the latter three films owned by Disney[41] and the former's owned by Warner Bros.[42]

Papers and other artefacts of the studio are now part of the David O. Selznick Collection[43] in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin.

Notes
  1. The Selznick International logo theme is introduced with this film, written by Alfred Newman, who composed the score for Zenda. The theme would be used to open every film made by the studio after this.[15]

References
  1. Leff, Leonard J. (1987). Hitchcock and Selznick. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 1-55584-057-4.
  2. Memo, p. 103.
  3. Because of its length, Gone with the Wind was considered two Technicolor pictures for the purpose of the contract.
  4. Schatz, Thomas (1996). The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era. Owl Books. p. 178. ISBN 0-8050-4666-6.
  5. "Just Gossip", The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 6, 1942, p. 15.
  6. Selznick, David O. (2000). Memo from David O. Selznick. Modern Library. pp. 321–322. ISBN 0-375-75531-4.
  7. Kahn, Jr., E. J. (1981). Jock: The Life and Times of John Hay Whitney. Doubleday. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-385-14932-7.
  8. "Old Selznick Company Now Just Gone With the Wind", The Washington Post, August 24, 1940, p. 3.
  9. "Screen News Here and In Hollywood". The New York Times. May 20, 1943. Retrieved 2016-05-20.
  10. Pryor, Thomas M. (December 12, 1946). "Selznick Quits U.A.; Forms a New Firm". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-05-20.
  11. "Little Lord Fauntleroy". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  12. "The Garden of Allah". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  13. "A Star Is Born". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  14. "The Prisoner of Zenda". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  15. Neumeyer, David; Platte, Nathan (2011). Franz Waxman's Rebecca: A Film Score Guide. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810883666.
  16. "Nothing Sacred". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  17. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  18. "The Young in Heart". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  19. "Made for Each Other". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  20. "Intermezzo". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  21. Thomson, David (1992). Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-56833-8.
  22. "Gone with the Wind". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  23. "Rebecca". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  24. Slide, Anthony (1998). The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 221. ISBN 9780810866362. OCLC 681061659.
  25. Doherty, Thomas (1993). Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture, and World War II. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 325. ISBN 9780231082440.
  26. Reward Unlimited. WorldCat. OCLC 20626007.
  27. "Since You Went Away". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  28. "I'll Be Seeing You". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  29. "Spellbound". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  30. "Duel in the Sun". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  31. "The Paradine Case". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  32. "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  33. "Portrait of Jennie". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  34. "Gets 7 Picture Rights", The New York Times, July 19, 1943, p. 21. Whitney also sold Pioneer Pictures' Becky Sharp and Dancing Pirate to Film Classics.
  35. "Cinecolor in Film Deal", The New York Times, Oct. 15, 1947, p. 34.
  36. "Van Johnson Gets Metro Film Lead", The New York Times, June 15, 1949, p. 39.
  37. "Two Movie Concerns Announce Merger", The New York Times, May 22, 1950, p. 29.
  38. "Eagle Lion Is Sold to U.A. Film Firm", The New York Times, April 12, 1951, p. 40.
  39. "Eagle-Lion to Sell Selznick Reissues", The New York Times, Dec. 3, 1948, p. 33. "Selznick Sells 9 Films to Video", The New York Times, Dec. 14, 1955, p. 79.
  40. "Selznick negatives sold to ABC-TV: Broadcasting magazine, March 14, 1966, page 82" (PDF). WorldRadioHistory.com.
  41. Scott MacQueen and Phil Feiner (August 1, 2000). "First Person: Restoring Film with Digital Recombination". Millimeter Magazine. Prism Business Media. Archived from the original on June 1, 2006.
  42. Gonzales, Dillon (2022-03-04). "Warner Archive Announces March Titles Including Original 'A Star Is Born', High-Flying James Cagney Adventure And More". Geek Vibes Nation. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  43. "The David O. Selznick Collection". Hrc.utexas.edu. 2014-01-11. Retrieved 2014-01-15.

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