A century ago in Hollywood, a daring experiment began with the formation of the United Artists. The company was designed to allow some of American cinema's top talent to escape interference from executives of commercial studios, and to exert artistic and financial control over their own creations.

Actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, along with actor-director Charlie Chaplin and director D.W. Griffith, established United Artists on February 5, 1919. After repeated restructuring over the years, the company survives today--in name, at least--as United Artists Digital Studios. It still distributes films in addition to providing digital content and handling an impressive library of movies.

Throughout its history, UA has been responsible for an imposing catalog of films that includes both American and international productions, commercial properties and art films. Its artistic quality has proven remarkably high, with a total of more than 100 Academy Awards.

TCM celebrates the 100th anniversary of United Artists with almost 50 examples of the movies released by the company over the years. We have categorized our salute by decades through the 1980s.

The 1910s and '20s saw productions that remain among the best-remembered of UA's founders, including Griffith's Broken Blossoms (1919), Fairbanks' The Three Musketeers (1921) and Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925).

By the mid-1920s Griffith had dropped out. Veteran producer Joseph Schenck was brought in as president, and in 1924 he entered into a partnership with Chaplin and Pickford to buy and construct theaters using the UA name. Other stars were brought under the UA umbrella including Schenck's brother-in-law Buster Keaton (The General, 1926) and Gloria Swanson (Sadie Thompson, 1928). Contracts also were signed with producers Samuel Goldwyn and Howard Hughes.

The 1930s brought major changes as Schenk organized a new production company with Darryl F. Zanuck called Twentieth Century Pictures, which became a primary contributor to UA's schedule of approximately eight films per year. But in 1935, in a dispute over stock ownership, Schenck resigned from UA. (The following year, Schenck and Zanuck merged their company with the Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century-Fox, which would become one of the major Hollywood studios.)

Among independent producers who distributed films through UA were Walt Disney, Samuel Goldwyn, Howard Hughes, Alexander Korda, Hal Roach, Walter Wanger and David O. Selznick. UA narrowly missed being the distributor of the Selznick smash Gone With the Wind (1939). Instead, Selznick, that film's producer, went with MGM to secure the services of Clark Gable.

UA films of the '30s include such prestigious and influential works as Best Picture Oscar nominees The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), a Korda production that won a Best Actor award for Charles Laughton; Goldwyn's Dodsworth (1936), which brought director William Wyler his first nomination; Selznick's original production of A Star Is Born (1937), starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March; and the Hal Roach Studios production Of Mice and Men (1939).

The 1940s were a period of growing popularity for television, leading UA and other film companies to become ever more competitive for audiences. Among UA's successes of the decade was The Great Dictator (1940), which became Chaplin's most profitable film and had historical significance as a stinging criticism of Adolf Hitler before the U.S. declared war on Nazi Germany.

Samuel Goldwyn produced The Westerner (1940), a Gary Cooper vehicle that brought Walter Brennan his record-setting third Oscar as Best Supporting Actor. Robert Mitchum's only nomination came in that category for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), his breakthrough film. UA continued to distribute important British films, such as the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger production The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), starring Deborah Kerr.

The 1950s were a decade of growth and change. In 1951, producers Arthur B. Krim and Robert Benjamin sold UA on the idea that they would take charge for 10 years and, if they were successful in turning a profit, would own half the company. Under Krim and Benjamin, UA became the first film production/distribution company to operate without actual studio space. The company offered financial backing to independent producers, as well as to actors who were newly released from studio contracts and wanted to produce, direct or act in their own productions. These independents leased studio space and/or shot on location.

Burt Lancaster served as co-producer of Marty (1955), which was an international success and won four major Oscars including Best Picture, Actor (Ernest Borgnine), Director (Delbert Mann) and Screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky). Another Best Picture Academy Award winner, Michael Todd's Around the World in 80 Days (1956), picked up another four Oscars. Charles Laughton's only film as a director, the critically praised The Night of the Hunter (1955) starring Robert Mitchum, Shelly Winters and Lillian Gish, was also made for UA.

In the mid-1950s, movie attendance reached its lowest level since the early 1920s. During this period, Chaplin and Pickford sold their shares in UA. (Fairbanks died in 1939 and Griffith in 1948. Chaplin would live until 1977, Pickford until 1979.) UA went public in 1957, with a $17 million stock and debenture offering. Around the same time, it created a recording company and branched into television production.

The 1960s saw the major Hollywood studios going into decline, being sold or diversified. But UA flourished, producing such commercial hits as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Pink Panther (1963) and A Hard Day's Night (1964).

The company also enjoyed critical praise and multiple Oscar wins including five Best Picture winners that spanned the decade: The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (1961), Tom Jones (1963), In the Heat of the Night (1967) and Midnight Cowboy (1969). Among performing Oscars were those for Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker (1962) and Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field (1963).

Profitable franchises launched by UA in the 1960s included the James Bond series, the Pink Panther movies and Clint Eastwood's "spaghetti Westerns." Because of the company's success in both movies and television, Transamerica Corporation bought 98% of UA's stock in 1967.

The 1970s did not get off to a good start, with UA losing $35 million in the first year of the new decade. But things picked up the following year, with Fiddler on the Roof (1971) becoming a big success and winning a slew of awards including three Oscars out of eight nominations.

From 1975-77, UA scored three consecutive Best Picture Oscars for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Rocky (1976) and Annie Hall (1977). New talent welcomed into the fold included Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Brian De Palma, Milos Forman and Sylvester Stallone. Performing Oscars of the 1970s included Jane Fonda and Jon Voight for Coming Home (1978).

In 1978, conflicts within the company led to changes among top executives. UA had its most successful year to date in 1979 with such hits as Rocky II, Manhattan and The Black Stallion. It continued to distribute interesting foreign films such as the Franco-Italian comedy La Cage aux Folles (1979).

The 1980s were marked by the spectacular failure of Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1980), which lost UA an estimated $37 million ($144 million in today's dollars). This loss, among other factors, led Transamerica to withdraw from the filmmaking business, and UA was sold to Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corporation, which also owned MGM.

Representing the 1980s in TCM's salute are Raging Bull (1980), which brought Robert De Niro a Best Actor Oscar; The Last Metro (1980), a French historical drama from director François Truffaut; and Rain Man (1988), which was the highest-grossing film of its year and won four Oscars including those for Best Picture and Actor (Dustin Hoffman).

MGM/UA also enjoyed profits from Poltergeist in 1982 and WarGames and Octopussy in 1983. Two years later, Ted Turner announced that the Turner Broadcasting System would buy MGM/UA. He finalized the acquisition in 1986. Kerkorian eventually repurchased most of UA's assets and created a new company - although the present-day UA is not considered a legal successor to the original.

by Roger Fristoe