ABSTRACT
Founded in 1919 by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith, United Artists stood alone in Hollywood as a distribution company for top-tier independent producers. The company went downhill during the 1940s. A new management team headed by Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin took control of the company in 1951 and transformed United Artists into a leader of the industry by devising a successful plan to finance independent producers. UA’s roster contained a mix of top directors, stars, and packagers. United Artists’ track record led to a merger with Transamerica in 1967. But the merger was never a good fit for either company and in 1978, the Krim-Benjamin team resigned and formed Orion Pictures. After the walkout, UA experienced the Heaven’s Gate fiasco, which led Transamerica to sell UA to Kirk Kerkorian’s MGM in 1981. Afterwards, United Artists disappeared as a separate corporate entity. The MGM and UA divisions were consolidated or split under successive managements without much success as Kerkorian bought and sold all or parts of MGM three times. Today, UA is part of MGM Holdings, which revived United Artists three times. The United Artists brand persists, but unmoored from it historical roots.
