Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was a
Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name
Allied Artists. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to collectively as
Poverty Row. The idea behind the studio was that when the Monogram logo appeared on the screen, everyone knew they were in for action and adventure.
Monogram was created in the early 1930s from two earlier companies,
W. Ray Johnston's Ray-Art Productions and
Trem Carr's SonoArt Pictures. Both specialized in low budget features, and as
Monogram Pictures, continued that policy until
1935, with Carr in charge of production. Another independent, Paul Malvern, released his Lone Star western productions through Monogram.
The backbone of the studio in those early days was a father-and-son combination: Robert N. Bradbury, writer and director, and Bob Steele, cowboy actor, were on their roster. Bradbury wrote almost all of the early Monogram and Lone Star westerns. While budgets and production values were lean Monogram offered a balanced program, including action melodramas, classics and mysteries.
In
1935, Johnston and Carr were wooed by Herbert Yates of Consolidated Film Industries; Yates planned to merge Monogram with several other smaller independent companies to form
Republic Pictures. But after a short time in this new venture, Johnston and Carr left, Carr to produce at Universal and Johnston to restart Monogram in 1937.
Producer
Walter Mirisch began at Monogram after World War II as assistant to studio-head Steve Broidy. He convinced Broidy that the days of low-budget films were ending, and in
1946, Monogram created a new unit,
Allied Artists Productions, to make costlier films. At a time when the average Hollywood picture cost about $800,000, Allied Artists' top expenditure of $250,000 was still small-time. But, Mirisch said later, it allowed them to make 'B-plus' pictures. By 1953, Mirisch's prediction about the end of the low budget had come true thanks to television, and Monogram, giving in to a changing business, became
Allied Artists Pictures Corp.
For a time in the mid-1950s the Mirisch family had great influence at Allied Artists, with Walter as executive producer, his brother Marvin as head of sales, and brother Harold as corporate treasurer. They pushed the studio into big-budget filmmaking, signing contracts with
William Wyler,
John Huston,
Billy Wilder and
Gary Cooper. But when their first big-name productions, Wyler's
Friendly Persuasion and Wilder's
Love in the Afternoon were box-office flops in 1956-57, studio-head Broidy retreated into the kind of pictures Monogram had always favored: low-budget action and thrillers.
Monogram/Allied Artists survived by finding a niche and serving it well. The company lasted until 1979, when runaway inflation and high production costs pushed it into bankruptcy. The Monogram/Allied Artists library was bought by television producer
Lorimar; today a majority of this library belongs to
Time Warner.
Probably the best-known tribute paid to Monogram came from
French New Wave pioneer
Jean-Luc Godard, who dedicated his 1959 film
Breathless to Monogram, citing their films as a major influence.
Among the many early Monogram stars were
Preston Foster (star of
Sensation Hunters - 1933),
Randolph Scott (appeared in
Broken Dreams - 1933,
Lionel Atwill (
The Sphinx - 1933,
Belita (star of
Lady, Let's Dance - 1944), and
John Wayne. Mainly Monogram was the home of the motion picture series, producing
Charlie Chan, Trail Blazers, Range Busters,
Rough Riders,
The Cisco Kid,
Bomba the Jungle Boy,
Joe Palooka (based on the then-popular comic strip), and
The East Side Kids, later the
Bowery Boys.
