Universal Pictures and “Uncle Carl”

Universal was founded in 1912 by the German Jewish immigrant Carl Laemmle (1867-1939) when he merged his Independent Motion Picture Co. (IMP, founded 1909) and several other film production companies into the new Universal Film Manufacturing Company. By 1915, the new company had established Universal City, a 240-acre film complex and community in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles.

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Karl Laemmle (later Carl) was born in Laupheim, Württemberg, Germany only several years after the end of the American Civil War. After completing high school, Laemmle and a schoolmate left Europe for the New World in 1884. The ambitious 17-year-old worked in a variety of jobs in New York and Chicago, where he spent many years as a bookkeeper and office manager. He later settled in Oshkosh, Wisconsin to manage a textile factory and end up marrying the boss’s daughter (Recha Stern). Moving back to Chicago, Laemmle was fascinated by the new “moving pictures” and took the road common to most future film moguls by buying a nickelodeon in 1906. The young entrepeneur soon had his own film distribution business (Laemmle Film Service) in addition to his chain of nickelodeons.

Universal Highlights • 1909 - Independent Motion Picture Co. (IMP) founded by Carl Laemmle. • 1912 - Merger of IMP, Bison 101, and several other film companies creates Universal • 1913 - One of the first feature-length motion pictures: Traffic in Souls • 1915 - Inauguration of Universal City in California’s San Fernando Valley • 1924 - The Music Corporation of America (MCA) is founded to represent the biggest musical stars of the day. MCA will acquire Universal in 1962. • 1930s - Series of successful horror flicks (Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.) with Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff (produced by Laemmle’s son, Carl, Jr.) • 1935 - Laemmle forced to sell Universal • 1939 - Carl Laemmle, Sr. dies in California. • 1946 - Merger with International Films creates Universal International (until 1952) • 1952 - Universal becomes part of Decca Records • 1962 - Universal and Decca acquired by MCA • 1970s - Successful pictures such as Airport, American Graffiti, and Jaws. • 1993 - Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List wins Academy Award for Best Picture.

Despite, or because of, attempts by Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company to put him out of business, Laemmle founded IMP, the Independent Motion Picture Company in 1909. He understood publicity well enough to invent and promote “The Imp Girl” by faking the death of the popular “Biograph Girl,” Florence Lawrence, whom he had stolen away from Biograph. Laemmle further helped create the Hollywood star system by also hiring Mary Pickford away from Biograph, which did not identify its stars by name out of the justifiable fear they would ask for more money. (Pickford was no dummy. She soon left IMP, where she made $175 per week, for an eventual $10,000 a week from Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players, and $350,000 a film from First National.)

“Uncle Carl,” as Laemmle was affectionately known, gave a start to many people in the film industry, but he suffered the same fate that befell most of the studio owners during the Depression. Partly due to his financial extravagances and rampant nepotism (there were some 70 relatives on the Universal payroll at one time; director William Wyler was Laemmle’s nephew, for instance), Laemmle was forced to sell Universal in 1935. It should also be noted, however, that one reason Uncle Carl had so many friends and relatives on the payroll in the 1930s was his generosity to his fellow Jews forced to flee Nazi Germany. (See “The Hitler Exiles in Hollywood.”)

Laemmle’s son, Carl Laemmle, Jr., had some success as a producer for Universal, most notably with the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). The younger Laemmle also produced Universal successes such as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Show Boat (1936). But it was in part due to his son’s budget excesses that Carl Laemmle, Sr. had to settle for a mere $5 million, a fraction of his studio’s former value, when he was forced to divest the film empire he had founded.

After its sale, Universal Pictures continued, rescued by the singing teen-age star Deanna Durbin, only to return to financial difficulties in the 1960s. As of 1946, Universal was known as Universal-International. A few years later (1951) Universal became a subsidiary of Decca Records. The Music Corporation of America (MCA) bought up both troubled firms in 1962, with MCA eventually becoming a conglomerate with divisions for film, television, music, and theaters. MCA in turn was taken over by the Japanese company Matsushita in 1991, less than a year after Universal had opened its new Universal Studios Florida theme park in Orlando. Then Edgar Bronfman, Jr.’s Canada-based Seagram (now Pernod Ricard) bought Universal Studios. In December 2000, Universal Studios, the French Vivendi, and Canal+ merged to form Vivendi Universal Entertainment.

Yet another merger in 2004 combined the US television network NBC with Vivendi Universal, to create NBC Universal (80 percent owned by GE and 20 percent by Vivendi), which owns and operates a collection of motion picture, television, theme parks, and other entertainment enterprises, including Universal Pictures (film and TV production) and Universal Studios (theme parks). GE’s controlling interest in Universal closed an interesting circle going back to 1915, when Thomas Edison, the founder of GE, dedicated a new, then state-of-the-art electric studio at Universal City.

Carl Laemmle died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on September 24, 1939. He had lived long enough to see Universal’s recovery in the late 1930s, but would he be happy to see his old family-run company in its present corporate form in the 21st century? Only Uncle Carl could answer that question.

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Studio Connections (Links)

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NBC Universal is the parent company of Universal Pictures and Universal Studios.

Vivendi Universal is the French media giant that currently owns 20% of NBC Universal.


'Uncle Carl' Connections on the Web:

   Carl Laemmle @ IMDb - Internet Movie Database filmography and info for Laemmle.

   Carl Laemmle Biography @ IMDb

   Laupheim.de - Laemmle’s hometown; the local museum has a special section devoted to Carl Laemmle (in German).

   Carl Laemmle - The Jewish past of Laupheim - An English bio from the municipal museum in Laupheim

   Carl Laemmle Biography - CLG - A bio in German from the school in Laupheim named for its famous son