What began as a glittering partnership at the dawn of Hollywood — Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks buying the lot in 1919 and, with Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith, founding United Artists — soured into one of the more bitter and protracted ownership quarrels of the studio era. Joseph Schenck and Samuel Goldwyn had effectively built many of the studio’s buildings and when Schenck departed United Artists in 1935 he left his deed share to Goldwyn. Fairbanks’s death in 1939 transferred his interest to Pickford, and by 1940 Goldwyn himself broke with United Artists and sought to rebrand the campus as Samuel Goldwyn Studio. The two titans litigated for years over naming rights and control of the property, a contest that pitted star power and old‑line studio muscle against one another in the courts instead of on soundstages.
Preparing the daily feature…
AI concept artworkArchive Record · Golden Age
The Pickford–Goldwyn Ownership War That Ended in a Court‑Ordered 1955 Auction
Mary Pickford, Samuel Goldwyn & United Artists Studio / Golden Age
What began as a glittering partnership at the dawn of Hollywood — Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks buying the lot in 1919 and, with Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith, founding United Artists — soured into one of the more bitter and protracted ownership quarrels of the studio era. Joseph Schenck and Samuel Goldwyn had effectively built many of the studio’s buildings and when Schenck departed United Artists in 1935 he left his deed share to Goldwyn. Fairbanks’s death in 1939 transferred his interest to Pickford, and by 1940 Goldwyn himself broke with United Artists and sought to rebrand the campus as Samuel Goldwyn Studio. The two titans litigated for years over naming rights and control of the property, a contest that pitted star power and old‑line studio muscle against one another in the courts instead of on soundstages.
The daily feature is taking an intermission. There’s still an entire archive to explore.