34°05′54″N118°19′21″W / 34.098280°N 118.322558°W /34.098280; -118.322558
Christie Film Company was an American pioneer motion picture company founded inHollywood, California byAl Christie andCharles Christie, two brothers fromLondon, Ontario, Canada. It made comedies.
While Charles served almost exclusively in administration, it was Al Christie who made the films. Al had worked withDavid Horsley at hisCentaur Film Company inBayonne,New Jersey and moved toCalifornia on October 27, 1911, to runNestor Studios, the first ever motion picture studio inHollywood. The firm closed in 1933.
In June 1912, Nestor Studios became part of the newly-formedUniversal Film Company and Al Christie was put in charge of the comedy companies. He remained withUniversal Film until January 1916 at which time he and his brother,Charles Christie, formed their ownmovie studio named the Christie Film Company. The two rented facilities from Universal atSunset Boulevard and Gower Street, the place where Al Christie had first started in Hollywood. For the first six months of operations, the new Christie Film Company made comedies under a contract with Universal Film. In July of that year, the company began producing other comedies to sell to the independent distributors and their immediate success was such that they were soon able to finance the acquisition of their studio property. Within a short time, the Christie brothers doubled their stage capacity and constructed a film laboratory equipped with the latest in technology.
Unlike some of the "over the top comedies" being produced at the time, Christie Studios emphasized situational comedy that sometimes featured show girls in skimpy costumes. As comedy specialists, the Christie Film Company debuted comedy actorsHarold Lloyd,Fatty Arbuckle,Anita Garvin, andSpencer Williams, later known for his portrayal of Andy Brown in theAmos & AndyCBS Television series. The innovative Christie company began issuingFilm Follies, a magazine advertising the latest films and events at the studio.
In 1921, CanadianMary Pickford was a driving force behind the creation of theMotion Picture Relief Fund, an organization designed to help actors who had fallen on hard times. Christie Film Company supported this and Charles Christie played a major role, serving on the first Board of Trustees.
By 1922, the brothers were so successful that they set up Christie Realty Corporation (CRC) with $1 million in capital stock.[citation needed] In 1923 CRC bought 230 acres of land in the Westwood section of Los Angeles with plans to build a studio estimated to cost more than $1.75 million dollars (including the value of the land).[2]
The Christie brothers welcomed Canadian talent and stars such asMarie Dressler andMarie Prevost appeared in their films and became lifelong friends. In 1928, they hiredFlorence Ryerson to write several short films, includingHot Lemonade. Al Christie also hiredAfrican-AmericanSpencer Williams as a sound technician but soon recognized Williams' many talents and involved him in script writing. In early 1929, the Christie Film Company began making the first series of talking pictures written and conceived exclusively forAfrican-American performers. They produced a number of comedy-musical shorts that featured an all-black cast from theLafayette Players Stock Company out ofHarlem, New York. The films, based on the popularSaturday Evening Post'sDarktown Birmingham stories byOctavus Roy Cohen (1891-1959), were distributed byParamount Studios.
However, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the ensuingGreat Depression devastated many businesses and in January 1933, the Christie brothers companies went into receivership and their studio assets were acquired by another large film making company.[citation needed] The liquidation process began on May 26, 1932, as an attorney was instructed to begin the process of turning assets of the film company and the realty company to an assignee, which essentially put the firms into a receivership. Combined assets of the companies were estimated to be $2.5 million - $3 million, and total indebtedness was approximately $2.5 million.[3]
In 1950 Sam Hayes gained television rights for 426 Christie comedies as part of a larger deal with Hollywood Film Enterprises.[4]
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