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Courtesy Jay Chapman
When M. C. Levee took over the Paralta Studios in association with
THE LATE Bob BrUNTON IT CONSISTED OF A SMALL CROUP OF BUILDINGS AND A LOT OF UNUSED SPACE. TODAY THE UNITED STUDIOS IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST
SPOTS ON THE CINEMATIC MAP. ABOVE, THE OLD PARALTA STUDIOS. At
LEFT, THE UNITED STUDIOS AS SEEN FROM THE AIR. INSET, M. C. LeVEE AT
THE HELM OF ONE OF THE FLOCK OF TRACTORS BUSY ALL THE TIME ON NEW CONSTRUCTION AT THE UNITED.
was there to attach anything of value, was there to attach anything of value.
“I’m afraid you can’t produce here,” the studio head said, in conclusion. “I’m afraid no one can.”
But the mind of the young man had been working actively. In a moment, he was expounding a scheme by which the studio could be extricated from its difficulties. The studio head listened, first incredulously, then with hope. Finally, while the sheriff waited, he and the young man reached an agreement.
An hour later, the sheriff was gone, and the young man and the studio head had laid the foundations for a project which was to have a profound effect on the history of motion pictures.
The studio head was the late Robert Brunton, who had been art director for Thomas Ince. The young man — he was then 25 — was M. C. Levee, now president
of the United Studios and of M. C. Levee Productions.
The project which -routed the sheriff and changed motion picture history was the conversion of the Paralta, then a producing lot, into an independent leasing studio, the first in existence.
Howt important the move was can only be guaged by a remembrance of the time in which it took place. In 1917, the large scale independent producer was unknown. It was impossible that he should exist. All important pictures were made by the big producers. They had a monopoly of the facilities for large scale production, and they were not anxious to share these facilities with anyone. It was natural. Outside producers would upset the normal tenor of their own organizations. There was no object in encouraging competition. So if you wanted to make any sort of real picture you could either build your own
studio or — let the people who had studios go on making them.
But the time was ripe for a change. Imagination and adventurousness was lacking in the big studios. They were producing a certain type of inexpensive picture, and were fairly well satisfied with it. Exhibitors were complaining — as exhibitors frequently are, for that matter — but it did them no good. The people with new ideas did not have the studios and the people with the studios didn’t have the ideas — or not enough of them anyway.
There was danger that the motion picture, having progressed in a few years from an experiment to an established industry, might stop there. Had it done so, its artistic development would have undoubtedly been delayed for years, and the picture business, as it is today, would not have existed.
Into this situation, stepped, — or rather, fell — Levee.