United Artists

Established in 1919 by Hollywood’s top talent United Artists has had an illustrious history, from Hollywood minor to industry leader to a second-tier media company in the shadow of MGM. This edited collection brings together leading film historians to examine key aspects of United Artists’ centennial history from its origins to the sometimes chaotic developments of the last four decades. The focus is on several key executives ranging from Joseph Schenck to Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise, and on many of the people making films for United Artists, including Gloria Swanson, David O. Selznick, Kirk Douglas, the Mirisch brothers and Woody Allen. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, individual case studies explore the mutually supportive but also in places highly contentious relationships between United Artists and its producers, the difficult balance between artistic and commercial objectives, and the resulting hits and misses (among them The General, the Pink Panther franchise, Heaven’s Gate, Cruising and Hot Tub Time Machine).

My own contribution to this 304 page volume (apart from co-editing it) is the following chapter: Peter Krämer, “’One of the United Artists’: Buster Keaton, Joseph Schenck and UA”, United Artists, ed. Peter Krämer, Gary Needham, Yannis Tzioumakis and Tino Balio, London: Routledge, 2020, pp. 19-37