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106-548: The series also spawned a Silly Symphony newspaper comic strip distributed by King Features Syndicate , as well as a Dell comic book series and several children's books. The Silly Symphonies returned to theaters with its re-issues and re-releases, and eventually tied with Joseph Barbera and William Hanna 's Tom and Jerry ' s record for most Oscar wins for a cartoon series in the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film category. While Walt Disney and Carl Stalling ,

212-492: A Poverty Row studio on Hollywood's famously low-rent Gower Street . Among Hollywood's elite, the studio's small-time reputation led some to joke that "CBC" stood for "Corned Beef and Cabbage". CBC was reorganized as Columbia Pictures Corporation by brothers Harry and Jack Cohn and best friend Joe Brandt on January 10, 1924. Harry Cohn became president in 1932 and remained head of production as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He would run Columbia for

318-626: A Silly Symphonies anthology comic book, with nine issues released at irregular intervals between September 1952 and February 1959. The series printed adaptations of a few of the Silly Symphony shorts that weren't adapted in the Sunday comic strip - The Grasshopper and the Ants , The Golden Touch and The Country Cousin - as well as stories featuring Silly Symphony characters, including Bucky Bug, Little Hiawatha, Elmer Elephant, Toby Tortoise and Spotty

424-420: A fifth Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Opry House , they also recorded the soundtrack for The Skeleton Dance , the type of short that Stalling had suggested and the first Silly Symphony cartoon. Within the animation industry, the series is known for its use by Walt Disney as a platform for experimenting with processes, techniques, characters, and stories in order to further the art of animation. It also provided

530-556: A financial stake in Columbia Pictures Industries and Alan Hirschfield was appointed CEO, succeeding Leo Jaffe who became chairman. Stanley Schneider, son of Abe Schneider (who became honorary chairman before leaving the board in 1975) was replaced as head of the Columbia Pictures studio by David Begelman , who reported to Hirschfield. Some years later Begelman was involved in a check-forging scandal that badly hurt

636-475: A five-month adaptation of Disney's 1952 live-action film. The strip, which was principally a vehicle for promoting new and re-released Disney films, adapted both live-action films and cartoons. The strip ran for 35 years, until February 15, 1987. The headings in the table below refer to the IDW Publishing reprint collections, Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics . Writing and art credits are from

742-608: A five-week run of strips titled Pluto the Pup , which ran from February 19 to March 19, 1939. The dog's owner, Mickey Mouse, was already featured in the other cartoon on the Mickey Mouse strip's Sunday page, and by this time, Donald Duck was also busy in his own strip, so in Pluto's first Silly Symphony run, he lives with Mickey's friend, Goofy (in the first strip, Goofy complains to Pluto, "Why'd I tell Mickey I'd take care of yuh?"). Later, Pluto

848-413: A healthier balance-sheet (due in large part to box office hits like Kramer vs. Kramer , Stir Crazy , The Blue Lagoon , and Stripes ) Columbia was bought by beverage company The Coca-Cola Company on June 22, 1982, for $ 750 million. Studio head Frank Price mixed big hits like Tootsie , Gandhi , The Karate Kid , The Big Chill , and Ghostbusters with many costly flops. To share

954-538: A live-action feature. Columbia was the last major studio to employ the expensive color process. Columbia's first Technicolor feature was the western The Desperadoes , starring Randolph Scott and Glenn Ford . Cohn quickly used Technicolor again for Cover Girl , a Hayworth vehicle that instantly was a smash hit, released in 1944, and for the fanciful biography of Frédéric Chopin , A Song to Remember , with Cornel Wilde , released in 1945. Another biopic, 1946's The Jolson Story with Larry Parks and Evelyn Keyes ,

1060-446: A name, he asks the readers for help, and the strip encouraged readers to write to their newspapers with name suggestions. In the strip, a big pile of letters is delivered to the bug, and he spends two weeks combing through the letters to reveal the winning name: Bucky Bug. Bucky travels through the forest to make his fortune, meeting up with a "friendly tramp" named Bo, and traveling to the insect city of Junkville. Bucky falls in love with

1166-511: A new management team was brought in. In 1972, Columbia and Warner Bros. formed a partnership called The Burbank Studios, in which both companies shared the Warner studio lot in Burbank . In 1971, Columbia Pictures established sheet music publisher Columbia Pictures Publications, with vice president and general manager Frank J. Hackinson , who later became the president. In 1973, Allen & Co took

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1272-676: A reorganization of the various Columbia Pictures legacy labels (Colpix, Colgems , and Bell), Davis introduced Columbia Pictures' new record division, Arista Records , in November 1974, with Davis himself owning 20% of the new venture. Columbia maintained control of the label until 1979, when it was sold to Ariola Records . In addition, Columbia sold its music publishing business (Columbia-Screen Gems) to EMI in August 1976 for $ 15 million. Both would later be reunited with Columbia Pictures under Sony ownership. In December 1976, Columbia Pictures acquired

1378-561: A theatre organist from Kansas City, were in New York to add sound to the Mickey Mouse shorts The Gallopin' Gaucho , The Barn Dance and Plane Crazy , Stalling suggested the idea of making a series of musical animated shorts that combined the latest sound technology with storytelling. At first Walt did not seem interested, but when they returned to New York in February to record the sound for

1484-514: A total of 34 years, one of the longest tenures of any studio chief ( Warner Bros. ' Jack L. Warner was head of production or CEO longer but did not become CEO until 1956). Even in an industry rife with nepotism, Columbia was particularly notorious for having a number of Harry and Jack's relatives in high positions. Humorist Robert Benchley called it the Pine Tree Studio, "because it has so many Cohns". Brandt eventually tired of dealing with

1590-538: A trial run in the Silly Symphony comic. Finishing up a " The Three Little Pigs " adaptation, Taliaferro and writer Ted Osborne began an extended run of Donald Duck gag strips from August 30, 1936, to December 5, 1937. Taliaferro then pitched the idea of a solo Donald comic strip to King Features Syndicate, working with writers Merrill De Maris and Homer Brightman . On February 2, 1938, the Donald Duck comic strip started appearing in daily newspapers. A Sunday version

1696-452: A venue to try out techniques and technologies, such as Technicolor, special effects animation , and dramatic storytelling in animation, that would be crucial to Disney's plans to eventually begin making feature-length animated films. Shortly after the switch to United Artists, the series became even more popular. Walt Disney had seen some of Dr. Herbert Kalmus' tests for a new three-strip , full-color Technicolor process, which would replace

1802-401: A year, the now-in-Technicolor Silly Symphonies series had popularity and success that matched (and later surpassed) that of the Mickey Mouse cartoons. The contract Disney had with Technicolor would also later be extended another five years as well. The success of Silly Symphonies would be tremendously boosted after Three Little Pigs was released in 1933 and became a box office sensation;

1908-593: Is a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), under Sony Pictures Entertainment, and is currently one of six live-action labels of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, the others being TriStar Pictures , Affirm Films , Screen Gems , Sony Pictures Classics , and Stage 6 Films . Columbia's most commercially successful franchises include Spider-Man , Jumanji , Bad Boys , Men in Black , The Karate Kid , Robert Langdon , and Ghostbusters , and

2014-492: Is a weekly Disney comic strip that debuted on January 10, 1932, as a topper for the Mickey Mouse strip's Sunday page. The strip featured adaptations of Walt Disney's popular short film series, Silly Symphony , which released 75 cartoons from 1929 to 1939, as well as other cartoons and animated films. The comic strip outlived its parent series by six years, ending on October 7, 1945. Silly Symphony initially related

2120-443: Is also seen being cared for by Minnie Mouse , Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar . Pluto's run was interrupted by a month-long adaptation of The Ugly Duckling , and then he returned for a much longer period, from April 23 to December 17, 1939. This was followed by a two-month adaptation of Pinocchio , and then Pluto returned for his third and final Silly Symphony stint, from April 14 to November 3, 1940. Starting in 1942,

2226-465: Is one of the "Big Five" film studios and a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation . On June 19, 1918, brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and their business partner Joe Brandt founded the studio as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation . It adopted the Columbia Pictures name on January 10, 1924 (operating as Columbia Pictures Corporation until December 23, 1968) went public two years later and eventually began to use

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2332-578: The Matt Helm series with Dean Martin . Columbia also produced a James Bond spoof, Casino Royale (1967), in conjunction with Charles K. Feldman , which held the adaptation rights for that novel . By 1966, the studio was suffering from box-office failures, and takeover rumors began surfacing. Columbia was surviving solely on the profits made from Screen Gems, whose holdings also included radio and television stations. On December 23, 1968, Screen Gems merged with Columbia Pictures Corporation and became part of

2438-531: The Silly Symphonies ended, Disney occasionally produced a handful of one-shot cartoons, playing the same style as the Silly Symphony series. Unlike the Silly Symphonies canon, most of these "Specials" have a narration, usually by Disney legend Sterling Holloway . In the 1934 MGM film Hollywood Party , Mickey Mouse appears with Jimmy Durante , where they introduce The Hot Choc-late Soldiers . The 1999–2000 television series Mickey Mouse Works used

2544-704: The Silly Symphonies title for some of its new cartoons, but unlike the original cartoons, these did feature continuing characters. As of 2021, three of the Silly Symphony shorts ( Three Little Pigs , The Old Mill , and Flowers and Trees ), have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". A Sunday Silly Symphony comic strip ran in newspapers from January 10, 1932, to July 12, 1942. The strip featured adaptations of some of

2650-619: The Silly Symphony cartoons, including Birds of a Feather , The Robber Kitten , Elmer Elephant , Farmyard Symphony and Little Hiawatha . This strip began with a two-year sequence about Bucky Bug , a character based on the bugs in Bugs in Love . There was also an occasional Silly Symphonies comic book, with nine issues published by Dell Comics from September 1952 to February 1959. The first issue of this anthology comic featured adaptations of some Silly Symphony cartoons, including The Grasshopper and

2756-609: The Silly Symphony stories inspired long-running features in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories . In 1942–43, Walt Disney's Comics and Stories reprinted all of Duvall and Taliaferro's Bucky Bug strips in issues #20-28. Following this, the editors decided to produce new Bucky Bug stories, retaining the strip's use of verse in the story's dialogue and captions. The first new Bucky story, "A Cure for Gout", appeared in issue #39 (December 1943), drawn by Taliaferro and Dick Moores. The second original story, "The Playground Plot", appeared in

2862-529: The Talkartoon series was renamed as Betty Boop cartoons. In 1932, after falling out with Columbia Pictures, Disney began distributing his products through United Artists . UA refused to distribute the Silly Symphonies unless Disney associated Mickey Mouse with them somehow, resulting in the "Mickey Mouse presents a Silly Symphony " title cards and posters that introduced and promoted the series during its five-year run for UA. United Artists also agreed to double

2968-616: The Uncle Remus strip continued for almost thirty years, telling new stories of Br'er Rabbit and friends, until the strip was discontinued on December 31, 1972. Two more Silly Symphony -style feature film adaptations appeared in the early 50s, running 16 weeks each: Cinderella (1950) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). A similar Sunday strip, Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales , launched on July 13, 1952, with The Story of Robin Hood ,

3074-568: The United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Kerkorian to block him from holding a stake in Columbia while controlling MGM. On February 19, 1979, Columbia Pictures Television acquired TOY Productions; the production company founded by Bud Yorkin and writers Saul Turteltaub and Bernie Orenstein in 1976. In May, Kerkorian acquired an additional 214,000 shares in Columbia, raising his stake to 25%. On August 2,

3180-484: The 1930s, Columbia signed Jean Arthur to a long-term contract, and after The Whole Town's Talking (1935), Arthur became a major comedy star. Ann Sothern 's career was launched when Columbia signed her to a contract in 1936. Cary Grant signed a contract in 1937 and soon after it was altered to a non-exclusive contract shared with RKO . Many theaters relied on westerns to attract big weekend audiences, and Columbia always recognized this market. Its first cowboy star

3286-473: The 1930s, Columbia's major contract stars were Jean Arthur and Cary Grant . In the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studio's premier star and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind Russell , Glenn Ford and William Holden also became major stars at the studio. It is one of the leading film studios in the world, and was one of the so-called " Little Three " among the eight major film studios of Hollywood 's Golden Age . Today, it has become

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3392-487: The 1934 Oscars, put Columbia on the map. Until then, Columbia's business had depended on theater owners willing to take its films, since it did not have a theater network of its own. Other Capra-directed hits followed, including the original version of Lost Horizon (1937), with Ronald Colman , and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), which made James Stewart a major star. In 1933, Columbia hired Robert Kalloch to be its chief fashion and women's costume designer. He

3498-463: The Ants , Three Little Pigs , The Goddess of Spring and Mother Pluto , but it also included non- Symphony cartoons like Mickey Mouse's Brave Little Tailor . By the third issue, there was almost no Symphony -related material in the book; the stories and activities were mostly based on other Disney shorts and feature films. [REDACTED] Category Silly Symphony (comic strip) Silly Symphony (initially titled Silly Symphonies )

3604-535: The Cohn brothers, and in 1932 sold his one-third stake to Jack and Harry Cohn, who took over from him as president. Columbia's product line consisted mostly of moderately budgeted features and short subjects including comedies, sports films, various serials, and cartoons. Columbia gradually moved into the production of higher-budget fare, eventually joining the second tier of Hollywood studios along with United Artists and Universal . Like United Artists and Universal, Columbia

3710-475: The Hare and the remake of The Ugly Duckling . On December 4, 2001, Disney released " Silly Symphonies " as part of its DVD series " Walt Disney Treasures ". On December 19, 2006, " More Silly Symphonies " was released, completing the collection and allowing the cartoons to be completely available to the public. Some Disney Blu-ray discs include Silly Symphonies as high definition special features. Snow White and

3816-580: The Magician (1939), The Shadow (1940), Terry and the Pirates (1940), Captain Midnight (1942), The Phantom (1943), Batman (1943), and the especially successful Superman (1948), among many others. Columbia also produced musical shorts, sports reels (usually narrated by sportscaster Bill Stern ), and travelogues. Its " Screen Snapshots " series, showing behind-the-scenes footage of Hollywood stars,

3922-935: The Pig. There were also adaptations of non- Symphony Disney shorts like Lambert the Sheepish Lion , Morris the Midget Moose , and Chicken Little , and a large number of stories featuring characters from other projects, including Jiminy Cricket , Dumbo , Thumper , the Seven Dwarfs , Humphrey the Bear , and Bongo the Wonder Bear from Fun and Fancy Free . The complete strip has been reprinted in four hardcover collections, Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics , published by IDW Publishing 's Library of American Comics imprint. The first volume, published in 2016, includes all of

4028-482: The President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1959, until his death a year later. Columbia could not afford to keep a huge roster of contract stars, so Jack Cohn usually borrowed them from other studios. At Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , the industry's most prestigious studio, Columbia was nicknamed "Siberia", as Louis B. Mayer would use the loan-out to Columbia as a way to punish his less-obedient signings. In

4134-504: The Prince to prevent him from saving Snow White. After the Snow White adaptation in 1938, the strip featured a mix of the three established motifs—further adaptations of Silly Symphony shorts ( Farmyard Symphony , The Ugly Duckling ) and animated features ( Pinocchio and Bambi ) and several runs of gag strips featuring a popular character, Pluto . Pluto was given star billing in

4240-537: The Seven Dwarfs includes six, Beauty and the Beast and Dumbo both contain two and Pixar 's A Bug's Life contains one. The Silly Symphony shorts originally aired on Turner Classic Movies ' period program block "Treasures from the Disney Vault". Some Silly Symphony shorts are viewable on Disney+ . The Silly Symphonies are listed here in production order: Disney's experiments were widely praised within

4346-450: The Stooges, Keaton, Charley Chase , Shemp Howard , Joe Besser , and Joe DeRita subjects have been released to home video. Columbia incorporated animation into its studio in 1929, distributing Krazy Kat cartoons, taking over from Paramount . The following year, Columbia took over distribution of the Mickey Mouse series from Celebrity Productions until 1932. In 1933, The Mintz studio

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4452-765: The UPA deal was terminated, Columbia distributed the Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including Loopy De Loop from 1959 to 1965, which was Columbia's final theatrical cartoon series. In 1967, the Hanna-Barbera deal expired and was not renewed. According to Bob Thomas' book King Cohn , studio chief Harry Cohn always placed a high priority on serials. Beginning in 1937, Columbia entered the lucrative serial market and kept making these weekly episodic adventures until 1956, after other studios had discontinued them. The most famous Columbia serials are based on comic-strip or radio characters: Mandrake

4558-413: The adventures of Bucky Bug , the first Disney character to originate in the comics. It went on to print loose adaptations of Silly Symphony shorts, often using the characters and setting of the original shorts, but adding new plotlines and incidents. Later, it went on to print adaptations of some of Disney's feature films, as well as periods of gag strips featuring Donald Duck and Pluto . By late 1935,

4664-407: The antihero's scheming to get a free meal, his pursuit of the opposite sex, and his imaginative avoidance of work". The strip also included José's friends João and Nestor, and featured continuing stories. Alberto Becattini notes: "In spite of always being broke, the parrot liked to attend posh restaurants and hotels, where he often met with such curvy bird-faced chicas as the wealthy María Rocha Vaz,

4770-547: The arcade game company D. Gottlieb & Co. for $ 50 million. In 1978, Begelman was suspended for having embezzled money from Columbia. Hirschfield was forced out for his refusal to reinstate him. Begelman later resigned and was replaced by Daniel Melnick in June 1978. Fay Vincent was hired to replace Hirschfield. Frank Price became president of production in 1978. In March 1979, he would become president of Columbia Pictures, succeeding Melnick. During Price's tenure he

4876-644: The beautiful June Bugg, and her father—the mayor of Junkville—makes Bucky a general of his army. The bug couple is happy, but just a few strips later, the alarm sounds to alert the community that war has been declared by the flies. Duvall began an epic battle against the flies which raged for 28 weeks, but just before the story ended in April 1933, Duvall suddenly left the Disney studio. Animator Jack Kinney wrote that Duvall owed Walt Disney several weeks worth of storyboards, and Duvall simply gathered his belongings one day and left

4982-573: The blonde dancer Rae, and Gloria del Orto, in a series of adventures that even led him to the Amazon forest". In April 1944, José was joined by the Mexican rooster Panchito , who would be introduced as José's companion in the 1945 film The Three Caballeros . José and Panchito competed to win the heart of the horse-riding Mimi, and a few months later, in October, Panchito took over the strip. With Panchito as

5088-486: The budget for each cartoon from $ 7,500 to $ 15,000. In 1937, Disney signed a distribution deal with RKO Radio Pictures to distribute the Silly Symphony cartoons, along with the Mickey Mouse series. RKO would continue to distribute until the end of the series in 1939. Several Symphonies have been released in home media, most of the time as bonus shorts that relate to something within various Disney films. For instance,

5194-423: The budgets of his films, and the studio got the maximum use out of costly sets, costumes, and props by reusing them in other films. Many of Columbia's low-budget "B" pictures and short subjects have an expensive look, thanks to Columbia's efficient recycling policy. Cohn was reluctant to spend lavish sums on even his most important pictures, and it was not until 1943 that he agreed to use three-strip Technicolor in

5300-524: The character's 75th anniversary. To date, it is the only entirely new North American Bucky story to have been produced in many years. "The Three Little Pigs" feature inspired the creation of Li'l Bad Wolf , the Big Bad Wolf's errant son, who wants to be friends with the Pigs. Li'l Bad Wolf's adventures began in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories issue #52 (Jan 1945), and he made continuous appearances until almost

5406-550: The company as an office boy out of high school and become a director in 1929, rising through the financial side of the business. In 1963, Columbia acquired music publisher Aldon Music . By the late 1960s, Columbia had an ambiguous identity, offering old-fashioned fare such as A Man for All Seasons and Oliver! along with the more contemporary Easy Rider and The Monkees . After turning down releasing Albert R. Broccoli 's Eon Productions James Bond films, Columbia hired Broccoli's former partner Irving Allen to produce

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5512-770: The company's shows until 1967, when Hanna-Barbera was sold to Taft Broadcasting . In 1960, the animation studio became a publicly traded company under the name Screen Gems, Inc., when Columbia spun off an 18% stake. By 1950, Columbia had discontinued most of its popular series films ( Boston Blackie , Blondie , The Lone Wolf , The Crime Doctor , Rusty , etc.) Only Jungle Jim , launched by producer Sam Katzman in 1949, kept going through 1955. Katzman contributed greatly to Columbia's success by producing dozens of topical feature films, including crime dramas , science-fiction stories, and rock'n'roll musicals. Columbia kept making serials until 1956 and two-reel comedies until 1957, after other studios had abandoned these mediums. As

5618-433: The company, "leaving Walt holding the bag". Alberto Becattini suggests that Duvall's hasty exit was due to owing money to his colleagues that he couldn't pay. Whatever the reason for Duvall's departure was, Taliaferro became the artist for the strip, and he remained in that position for six years, with Ted Osborne as the strip's writer. Osborne and Taliaferro continued the story of Bucky for another 11 months, finally ending

5724-594: The company. Brandt was president of CBC Film Sales, handling sales, marketing and distribution from New York along with Jack Cohn, while Harry Cohn ran production in Hollywood. The studio's early productions were low-budget short subjects: Screen Snapshots , the Hallroom Boys (the vaudeville duo of Edward Flanagan and Neely Edwards ), and the Charlie Chaplin -imitator Billy West . The start-up CBC leased space in

5830-477: The early 1980s, Columbia and Tri-Star Pictures set up a film partnership with Delphi Film Associates and acquired an interest in various film releases. In 1984, Delphi Film Associates III acquired an interest in the Tri-Star and Columbia film slate of 1984, which would make a $ 60 million offering in the financing of film production. Also that year, Columbia Pictures had bought out the rights to Hardbodies , which

5936-614: The end of the comic's original run, issue #259 (April 1962). In later decades, while never again a continuous feature, Wolf stories continued to appear in the magazine at least several times per year, often in all-new or new-to-the-USA material. In the 2000s, the Big Bad Wolf often became the title character in the stories, though Li'l Wolf continued to play a major role. Little Hiawatha had his own monthly story in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories for two years, from issue #143 (Aug 1952) to #168 (September 1954). Dell Comics also published

6042-436: The film industry, and the Silly Symphonies won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film seven times, maintaining a six-year-hold on the category after it was first introduced. This record was matched only by MGM 's Tom and Jerry series during the 1940s and 1950s. The Symphonies changed the course of Disney Studio history when Walt's plans to direct his first feature cartoon became problematic after his warm-up to

6148-577: The film was featured in movie theaters for several months and also featured the hit song that became the anthem of the Great Depression, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf". Several Silly Symphonies entries, including Three Little Pigs (1933), The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934), The Tortoise and the Hare (1935), The Country Cousin (1936), The Old Mill (1937), Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (1938), and The Ugly Duckling (1939, with an earlier black-and-white version from 1931), are among

6254-520: The following issue, #40 (January 1944). This story was written and drawn by Carl Beuttner, who continued as the series' main creator until 1946, with his last story in issue #72 (Sept 1946). Beuttner added new characters, such as the Ant King and the Sheriff of Junkville. The Bucky stories published from issue #73 to #77 were written alternately by Vivie Risto and George Waiss, and then Ralph Heimdahl took over

6360-474: The image of Columbia , the female personification of the United States, as its logo. In its early years, Columbia was a minor player in Hollywood, but began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra . With Capra and others such as the most successful two reel comedy series, The Three Stooges , Columbia became one of the primary homes of the screwball comedy . In

6466-426: The increasing cost of film production, Coke brought in two outside investors whose earlier efforts in Hollywood had come to nothing. In 1982, Columbia, Time Inc. 's HBO and CBS announced, as a joint venture, "Nova Pictures"; this enterprise was to be renamed Tri-Star Pictures . In 1983, Price left Columbia Pictures after a dispute with Coca-Cola and went back to Universal. He was replaced by Guy McElwaine . In

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6572-446: The larger studios declined in the 1950s, Columbia's position improved. This was largely because it did not suffer from the massive loss of income that the other major studios suffered from the loss of their theaters (well over 90 percent, in some cases). Columbia continued to produce 40-plus pictures a year, offering productions that often broke ground and kept audiences coming to theaters. Some of its significant films from this era include

6678-529: The largest studios. The studio soon replaced RKO on the list of the "Big Five" studios. In 1946, Columbia dropped the Screen Gems brand from its cartoon line, but retained the Screen Gems name for various ancillary activities, including a 16 mm film-rental agency and a TV-commercial production company. On November 8, 1948, Columbia adopted the Screen Gems name for its television production subsidiary when

6784-416: The main character, the action of the strip moved to Mexico, and became a gag-a-week strip featuring the rooster and his horse, Señor Martinez. Horn describes this cycle as well: "José made way for another Latin-American knockabout, the fiery rooster Panchito... As energetic as José was lazy, the sombrero-hatted, gun-toting Mexican fowl was always shown riding horses, fighting bulls, and lassoing cattle, when he

6890-516: The most notable films produced by Walt Disney. Due to problems related to Disney's scheduled productions of cartoons, a deal was made with Harman and Ising to produce three Silly Symphonies: Merbabies , Pipe Dreams , and The Little Bantamweight . Only one of these cartoons, Merbabies , ended up being bought by Disney, the remaining two Harman-Ising Silly Symphonies were then sold to MGM who released them as Happy Harmonies cartoons. Disney ceased production of Silly Symphonies in 1939. The series

6996-621: The newly formed Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. for $ 24.5 million. Schneider was chairman of the holding company and Leo Jaffe president. Following the merger, in March 1969, CPI purchased Bell Records for $ 3.5 million (mainly in CPI stock), retaining Larry Uttal as label president. Nearly bankrupt by the early 1970s, the studio was saved via a radical overhaul: the Gower Street Studios (now called " Sunset Gower Studios ") were sold and

7102-451: The newspaper continuity, which was published from December 1937 to April 1938. The strip used a number of story ideas that were ultimately abandoned in the film, including a more elaborate and comical meeting between the Prince and Snow White (in which Snow White creates a "dummy" of her dream prince, which the real Prince sneaks into), and an entire storyline in which the Evil Queen kidnaps

7208-446: The original Dumbo VHS included Father Noah's Ark , The Practical Pig and Three Orphan Kittens as bonus shorts to make up for the film's short length. In the UK, several Silly Symphonies were released in compilations under Disney Videos' "Storybook Favourites" brand. The three "Storybook Favourites Shorts" volumes released included among others, The Three Little Pigs , The Tortoise and

7314-447: The perfect opportunity to acquire Silly Symphonies after Disney broke with Celebrity Productions head Pat Powers after Powers signed Disney's colleague Ub Iwerks to a studio contract. Columbia Pictures (1930–1932) agreed to pick up the direct distribution of the Mickey Mouse series on the condition that they would have exclusive rights to distribute the Silly Symphonies series; at first, Silly Symphonies could not even come close to

7420-512: The popularity Mickey Mouse had. The original title cards to the shorts released by Celebrity Productions and Columbia Pictures were all redrawn after Walt Disney stopped distributing his cartoons through them. Meanwhile, more competition spread for Disney after Max Fleischer 's flapper cartoon character Betty Boop began to gain more and more popularity after starring in the cartoon Minnie the Moocher . By August 1932, Betty Boop became so popular that

7526-410: The previous two-tone Technicolor process. Disney signed a contract with Technicolor which gave the Disney studio exclusive rights to the new three-strip process through the end of 1935, and had a 60% complete Symphony , Flowers and Trees , scrapped and redone in full color. Flowers and Trees was the first animated film to use the three-strip Technicolor process, and was a phenomenal success. Within

7632-634: The productions of the English studio Warwick Films (by producers Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli ), as well as many films by producer Carl Foreman , who resided in England. Columbia distributed some films made by Hammer , which was also based in England. In December 1956, Jack Cohn, co-founder and executive vice-president, died. In 1958, Columbia established its own record label, Colpix Records , initially run by Jonie Taps, who headed Columbia's music department, and later Paul Wexler and Lester Sill . Colpix

7738-425: The reincarnation of Rastar Pictures, which was acquired by Columbia Pictures in February 1980. Columbia Pictures also reorganized its music and record divisions. Clive Davis was hired as a record and music consultant by Columbia Pictures in 1974 and later became temporary president of Bell Records . Davis's real goal was to revitalize Columbia Pictures' music division. With a $ 10 million investment by CPI, and

7844-586: The remaining 19% in 1985. Around this time, Columbia put Steven Spielberg 's proposed follow-up to Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Night Skies , into turnaround . The project eventually became the highest-grossing film of the time, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial . Columbia received a share of the profits for its involvement in the development. On May 17, 1982, Columbia Pictures acquired Spelling-Goldberg Productions for over $ 40 million. With

7950-529: The reprint collections. Strips from Silly Symphony were reprinted in Disney's flagship anthology comic book Walt Disney's Comics and Stories , beginning with some Pluto the Pup strips in issue #12 (September 1941), followed by The Boarding-School Mystery in issue #14 (November 1941), The Further Adventures of the Three Little Pigs in issue #15 (December 1941), and an abridged version of Bucky Bug Gets His Name in issue #20 (May 1942). Three of

8056-475: The saga on March 4, 1934. In 1934, Taliaferro drew the Silly Symphony story arc based on the cartoon The Wise Little Hen , which featured the first appearance of Donald Duck as a secondary character. That story, which lasted on the Sunday pages from September to December 1934, gave Taliaferro a particular liking for the Duck's character. He pitched the idea of a Donald strip to Walt Disney , and Disney allowed him

8162-603: The series, starting with issue #78 (March 1947). Heimdahl created all the Bucky stories until issue #99 (December 1948). Heimdahl introduced June's younger brother Junior Bugg in #79 (April 1947), and Junior continued to appear until #100 (January 1949). After Heimdahl's run, the remaining WDC&S Bucky stories were written by several creators, including Tony Strobl , Gil Turner , Jim Pabian and Tony Pabian. Bucky's last Comics and Stories story appeared in issue #120 (September 1950). Following this, Bucky's final solo comic story

8268-513: The strip featured José Carioca , who had recently been introduced in the film Saludos Amigos . According to comics historian Maurice Horn: "The first Sunday page opened with a panoramic tour of Rio de Janeiro before closing up on the shack that was 'the home of a young-man-about-town, a gay carefree Brazilian papagaio named José Carioca'. This marked the first U.S. appearance of the nattily-dressed, pleasure-seeking parrot... The gags were quite unsophisticated and revolved around three main themes:

8374-685: The strip had become a standalone half-page, and was no longer strictly a topper for the Mickey Mouse Sunday strip. The strip was initially titled Silly Symphonies ; after two years, the name was changed to Silly Symphony . The switch happened in the February 18, 1934 strip, just three weeks before Bucky Bug would be replaced with a new storyline, "Birds of a Feather". The complete strip has been reprinted in four hardcover collections, Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics , published from 2016 to 2019 by IDW Publishing 's Library of American Comics imprint . The original creative team for

8480-406: The strip in favor of an adaptation of the new Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs film, the dialogue was written in storybook style, without rhyming couplets, and the rhymes never returned. The Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs sequence was the first of many newspaper comic strip adaptations of newly released Disney animated features. The film's general release in February 1938 came in the middle of

8586-400: The strip was animator Earl Duvall and artist Al Taliaferro , with Duvall responsible for writing and penciling, and Taliaferro inking. Duvall, who wrote the Silly Symphony short Bugs in Love , created Bucky Bug as the hero of the new Sunday strip. In the first sequence, which lasts for three months, a young bug is born and sets forth into the world to make a name for himself. Stumped for

8692-425: The strips from "Bucky Bug" (1932) to "Cookieland" (1935). Volume 2, also published in 2016, includes "Three Little Kittens" (1935) to "Timid Elmer" (1939). Volume 3, published in 2018, includes "Pluto the Pup" (1939) to "Little Hiawatha" (1942). The fourth volume, published in 2019, concludes the series with "Bambi" (1942) through "Panchito" (1945). The copyright then passed to Fantagraphics , who started republishing

8798-500: The strips with a different layout in a new collection entitled Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies , beginning in April 2023. Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. , commonly known as Columbia Pictures , is an American film production and distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group , a division of Sony Entertainment 's Sony Pictures , which

8904-1024: The studio acquired Pioneer Telefilms, a television commercial company founded by Jack Cohn's son, Ralph. Pioneer had been founded in 1947, and was later reorganized as Screen Gems. The studio opened its doors for business in New York on April 15, 1949. By 1951, Screen Gems became a full-fledged television studio and became a major producer of sitcoms for TV, beginning with Father Knows Best and followed by The Donna Reed Show , The Partridge Family , Bewitched , I Dream of Jeannie , and The Monkees . On July 1, 1956, studio veteran Irving Briskin stepped down as manager of Columbia Pictures and formed his own production company Briskin Productions, Inc. to release series through Screen Gems and supervise all of its productions. On December 10, Screen Gems expanded into television syndication by acquiring Hygo Television Films (a.k.a. "Serials Inc.") and its affiliated company United Television Films, Inc. Hygo Television Films

9010-524: The studio signed the Three Stooges in 1934. Rejected by MGM (which kept straight-man Ted Healy but let the Stooges go), the Stooges made 190 shorts for Columbia between 1934 and 1957. Columbia's short-subject department employed many famous comedians, including Buster Keaton , Charley Chase , Harry Langdon , Andy Clyde , and Hugh Herbert . Almost 400 of Columbia's 529 two-reel comedies were released to television between 1958 and 1961; to date, all of

9116-442: The studio's highest-grossing film worldwide is Spider-Man: No Way Home with box-office of $ 1.92 billion. The studio was founded on June 19, 1918, as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Jack's best friend Joe Brandt , and released its first feature film More to Be Pitied Than Scorned on August 20, 1922. The film, with a budget of $ 20,000, was a success, bringing in $ 130,000 in revenue for

9222-584: The studio's adaptation of the controversial James Jones novel From Here to Eternity (1953), On the Waterfront (1954), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) with William Holden and Alec Guinness , all of which won the Best Picture Oscar . Another significant film of the studio was the free adaptation of George Orwell 's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1956). Columbia also released

9328-448: The studio's image. On May 6, 1974, Columbia retired the Screen Gems name from television, renaming its television division to the name of Columbia Pictures Television . The name was suggested by David Gerber , who was then president of Columbia's television division. The same year, Columbia Pictures acquired Rastar Pictures , which included Rastar Productions, Rastar Features, and Rastar Television. Ray Stark then founded Rastar Films,

9434-516: The task The Golden Touch was widely seen (even by Disney himself) as stiff and slowly paced. This motivated him to embrace his role as being the producer and providing creative oversight (especially of the story) for Snow White while tasking David Hand to handle the actual directing. Silly Symphonies brought along many imitators, including Warner Bros. cartoon series Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies , MGM's Happy Harmonies , and later, Universal's Swing Symphony . Years later after

9540-567: The trial began; on August 14, the court ruled in favor for Kerkorian. In 1979, Columbia agreed with Time-Life Video to release 20 titles on videocassette . On September 30, 1980, Kerkorian sued Columbia for ignoring shareholders' interest and violating an agreement with him. Columbia later accused him on October 2, of scheming with Nelson Bunker Hunt to gain control of Columbia. In 1981, Kerkorian sold his 25% stake in Columbia back to CPI. Columbia Pictures later acquired 81% of The Walter Reade Organization , which owned 11 theaters; it purchased

9646-618: The world's third largest major film studio. The company was also primarily responsible for distributing Disney 's Silly Symphony film series as well as the Mickey Mouse cartoon series from 1929 to 1932. The studio is presently headquartered at the Irving Thalberg Building on the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (currently known as the Sony Pictures Studios ) lot in Culver City, California since 1990. Columbia Pictures

9752-450: The years, as well as in various larger anthologies of historic Disney comics (e.g. Gemstone's Walt Disney Treasures paperback collection, 2006; IDW's Walt Disney's Comics and Stories 75th Anniversary Special , 2015). While some of these stories were vintage American reprints, others were new-to-the-USA Dutch stories. In a singular instance, WDCS 677 (2007) featured an entirely new American Bucky story, "Bucky's Birthday Party," made for

9858-493: Was Buck Jones , who signed with Columbia in 1930 for a fraction of his former big-studio salary. Over the next two decades Columbia released scores of outdoor adventures with Jones, Tim McCoy , Ken Maynard , Jack Luden , Bob Allen ( Robert (Tex) Allen ), Russell Hayden , Tex Ritter , Ken Curtis , and Gene Autry . Columbia's most popular cowboy was Charles Starrett , who signed with Columbia in 1935 and starred in 131 western features over 17 years. At Harry Cohn's insistence,

9964-755: Was a Columbia perennial that the studio had been releasing since the silent-movie days; producer-director Ralph Staub kept this series going through 1958. In the 1940s, propelled in part by the surge in audiences for their films during World War II , the studio also benefited from the popularity of its biggest star, Rita Hayworth . Columbia maintained a long list of contractees well into the 1950s; Glenn Ford , Penny Singleton , William Holden , Judy Holliday , The Three Stooges , Ann Miller , Evelyn Keyes , Ann Doran , Jack Lemmon , Cleo Moore , Barbara Hale , Adele Jergens , Larry Parks , Arthur Lake , Lucille Ball , Kerwin Mathews and Kim Novak . Harry Cohn monitored

10070-451: Was a horizontally integrated company. It controlled production and distribution; it did not own any theaters. Helping Columbia's climb was the arrival of an ambitious director, Frank Capra . Between 1927 and 1939, Capra constantly pushed Cohn for better material and bigger budgets. A string of hits he directed in the early and mid 1930s solidified Columbia's status as a major studio. In particular, It Happened One Night , which nearly swept

10176-435: Was active until 1966 when Columbia entered into a joint agreement with RCA Victor and discontinued Colpix in favor of its new label, Colgems Records . Shortly after closing their short subjects department, Columbia president Harry Cohn died of a heart attack in February 1958. His nephew Ralph Cohn died in 1959, ending almost four decades of family management. The new management was headed by Abe Schneider, who had joined

10282-403: Was added on December 10, 1939. For the strip's first four years—from "Bucky Bug" through "The Further Adventures of the Three Little Pigs"—all of the dialogue was written in rhyming couplets. This changed with the 15-month period from August 1936 to December 1937 when Donald Duck was featured in the strip, often performing pantomime gags with little or no dialogue at all. When Donald relinquished

10388-416: Was first distributed by Pat Powers from 1929 to 1930 and released by Celebrity Productions (1929–1930) indirectly through Columbia Pictures . The original basis of the cartoons was musical novelty, and the musical scores of the first cartoons were composed by Carl Stalling . After viewing "The Skeleton Dance", the manager at Columbia Pictures quickly became interested in distributing the series, and gained

10494-508: Was founded in 1951 by Jerome Hyams, who also acquired United Television Films in 1955 that was founded by Archie Mayers. In 1957, two years before its parent company Columbia dropped UPA, Screen Gems entered a distribution deal with Hanna-Barbera Productions , which produced classic animated series such as The Flintstones , The Quick Draw McGraw Show , The Huckleberry Hound Show , The Yogi Bear Show , Jonny Quest , The Jetsons and Top Cat among others. Screen Gems distributed

10600-550: Was not busy wooing his chick, the fickle Chiquita". The final strip ran on October 7, 1945. On October 14, 1945, the strip was replaced by Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br'er Rabbit , a strip inspired by the upcoming 1946 film Song of the South . The Uncle Remus strip began, like the others, as a topper for the Mickey Mouse strip, but after the first few years, almost always appeared on its own. The previous comic strip adaptations of Disney films lasted for four or five months, but

10706-634: Was once premiered on The Playboy Channel . Columbia Pictures expanded its music publishing operations in the 1980s, acquiring Big 3 Publishing (the former sheet music operations of Robbins, Feist , and Miller ) from MGM/UA Communications Co. in 1983, Belwin-Mills Publishing from Simon & Schuster in 1985, and Al Gallico Music in 1987. On June 18, 1985, Columbia's parent acquired Norman Lear and Jerry Perenchio 's Embassy Communications, Inc. (including Embassy Pictures , Embassy Television, Tandem Productions , and Embassy Home Entertainment), mostly for its library of television series such as All in

10812-763: Was published in the Silly Symphonies comic #6 (August 1956), drawn by Al Hubbard and featuring Bucky and Bo the tramp trying to capture a green lake monster. Bucky Bug stories never lost their popularity in the Netherlands, where original Bucky comics have been made continuously from the 1970s to the present day. Bucky Bug stories came back into fashion in the USA in the late 1980s, when Gladstone Publishing occasionally reprinted 1940s Bucky tales in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories . These were followed by additional stories in Disney Comics , Gemstone , and IDW issues of WDCS over

10918-684: Was re-established under the Screen Gems brand; Columbia's leading cartoon series were Krazy Kat , Scrappy , The Fox and the Crow , and (very briefly) Li'l Abner . Screen Gems was the last major cartoon studio to produce black-and-white cartoons, producing them until 1946. That same year, Screen Gems shut down but had completed enough cartoons for the studio to release until 1949. In 1948, Columbia agreed to release animated shorts from United Productions of America ; these new shorts were more sophisticated than Columbia's older cartoons, and many won critical praise and industry awards. In 1957, two years before

11024-520: Was responsible for turning out 9 of the top 10 grossing films in Columbia's history. In the fall of 1978, Kirk Kerkorian , a Vegas casino mogul who also controlled Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , acquired a 5.5% stake in Columbia Pictures. He then announced on November 20, that he intended to launch a tender offer to acquire another 20% for the studio. On December 14, a standstill agreement was reached with Columbia by promising not to go beyond 25% or seeking control for at least three years. On January 15, 1979,

11130-515: Was started in black-and-white, but when Cohn saw how well the project was proceeding, he scrapped the footage and insisted on filming in Technicolor. In 1948, the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust decision forced Hollywood motion picture companies to divest themselves of the theater chains that they owned. Since Columbia did not own any theaters, it was now on equal terms with

11236-533: Was the first contract costume designer hired by the studio, and he established the studio's wardrobe department. Kalloch's employment, in turn, convinced leading actresses that Columbia Pictures intended to invest in their careers. In 1938, the addition of B. B. Kahane as vice president would produce Charles Vidor 's Those High Grey Walls (1939), and The Lady in Question (1940), the first joint film of Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford . Kahane would later become

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