Metro Pictures
| Industry | Film studio |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merged with Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures |
| Successor | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Founded | June 23, 1915 |
| Defunct | April 17, 1924 (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer merger) |
| Headquarters | Heidelberg Building, New York City |
|
Key people
|
Richard A. Rowland (President) Louis B. Mayer (secretary) |
Metro Pictures Corporation was a former American motion picture production company founded in early 1915 and was a forerunner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The company produced its films in either New York or Los Angeles and some times at leased facilities in Fort Lee, NJ.
Metro Pictures founded a film distribution company in February 1915 by a number of "exchange men" with Richard A. Rowland as president, George Grombacker as vice-president and Louis B. Mayer as secretary. Grombacker owned exchanges in Portland and Seattle. Rowland and Metro's 2nd vice president James B. Clark were from the Roland & Clark company based in Pittsburgh. Metro was capitalized with $300,000 in cash and founded for the purpose of controlling movie productions for the exchanges. Rowland had been an investor in Alco Film Corp. which was a distribution company for a coalition of productions companies. Mayers convinced Rowland to set up Metro to replace Alco as to avoid being picked up by Paramount, Mutual Film or Universal. Metro had Rolfe Photoplays, Inc. and Popular Plays and Players moving over from Alco to Metro. Additional production companies working with Metro were Columbia (1915-1917; not the current Columbia, CBC Sales until 1918), Quality Picture Corporation and Dreyda.
In 1915, Metro established its back lot in Hollywood on N. Cahuenga Boulevard between Willoughby Avenue and Waring Avenue bound by Lillian Way on the east. Metro's first release on March 29, 1915 was "Satan Sanderson" film produced by Rolfe Photoplays which was originally to be distributed by Alco Film Company. "Sealed Valley" was Metro's first production released on August 2, 1915. Mayer left to form his own production unit in 1918.
In 1919, the company was purchased by Marcus Loew as a supplier of product for his theater chain. However, Loew was not satisfied with the amount or quality of Metro's output. A few years later in 1924, Loew merged it with his recently acquired Goldwyn Pictures and shortly Louis B. Mayer Productions then renamed the new entity Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925 with Mayer in charge.
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