Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Columbia Pictures stills and key books
LSC.2213
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Columbia Pictures stills and key books
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2213
Physical Description:
253.2 linear feet
(578 boxes, 2 record cartons)
Date (inclusive): 1933-1989
Abstract: Columbia Pictures history can be traced back to 1918 when brothers Harry and Jack Cohn formed a partnership with their associate
Joe Brandt, to produce low-budget short films and featurettes; the three were former employees of Carl Laemmle. They called
the company CBC Film Sales (Cohn-Brandt-Cohn). Incorporated in 1924, CBC became Columbia Pictures Corporation; films were
created on Hollywood's Poverty Row, an area housing small production companies that churned out a large volume of low-budget
westerns and B pictures. Columbia developed into to a major Hollywood studio by the 1930s due in part to the leadership of
Harry Cohn and the talent of director Frank Capra. Capra contributed to a number of "firsts" for the studio including Columbia's
first Academy Award for Best Picture of 1934 for
It Happened One Night.
Physical Location: Stored off-site at SRLF. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance through our electronic
paging system using the request button located on this page.
Language of Material:
English
.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in
advance through our electronic paging system using the request button located on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Columbia Pictures Stills and Key Books (Collection 2213). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Columbia Pictures.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9974846473606533
Columbia Pictures history can be traced back to 1918 when brothers Harry and Jack Cohn formed a partnership with their associate
Joe Brandt, to produce low-budget short films and featurettes; the three were former employees of Carl Laemmle. They called
the company CBC Film Sales (Cohn-Brandt-Cohn). Incorporated in 1924, CBC became Columbia Pictures Corporation; films were
created on Hollywood's Poverty Row, an area housing small production companies that churned out a large volume of low-budget
westerns and B pictures. Columbia developed into to a major Hollywood studio by the 1930s due in part to the leadership of
Harry Cohn and the talent of director Frank Capra. Capra contributed to a number of "firsts" for the studio including Columbia's
first Academy Award for Best Picture of 1934 for It Happened One Night.
During the 1930's and 40's, the Cohn brothers expanded the studio by purchasing additional property in Burbank to use as
a back lot for location filming. Additionally, in the late-1940s, Columbia Pictures was one of the first studios to venture
into the television business with the formation of Screen Gems, later named Columbia Pictures Television, then Columbia TriStar
Television. The late 1950's saw the deaths of both Cohn brothers and the end of an era at Columbia.
In 1968, the company reorganized changing it corporate title from Columbia Pictures Corporation to Columbia Pictures Industries
with Columbia Pictures and Screen Gems as its major divisions. Financial difficulties in the 1970s lead the company to bankruptcy
and a new management lead by Alan Hirschfield and David Begelman. Begelman was later replaced by Frank Price; Price was succeeded
by David Puttnam, replaced one year later by Dawn Steel. The In 1982, Columbia was purchased by The Coca-Cola Company. By
1989, Sony Corporation purchased Columbia Pictures Corporation from The Coca-Cola Company, forming Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The company relocated to the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot in Culver City, California and was renamed Sony Pictures Studios.
Among the films that contributed to the success of Columbia Pictures between the 1940s and 1980s were:
The Jolson Story (1947),
All the Kings Men (1949, Academy Award for Best Picture),
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, Academy Award for Best Picture),
Born Yesterday (1950),
Bye Bye Birdie (1963),
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977),
Dr. Strangelove (1964),
Easy Rider (1969),
From Here to Eternity (1953),
Funny Girl (1968),
Ghostbusters (1984),
Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979, Academy Award for Best Picture),
Lawrence of Arabia (1962, Academy Award for Best Picture),
A Man for All Seasons (1966, Academy Award for Best Picture),
Midnight Express (1978),
Oliver! (1968, Academy Award for Best Picture),
On the Waterfront (1954),
Shampoo (1975),
Stripes (1981),
Taxi Driver (1976),
To Sir with Love (1967),
Tootsie (1982), and
The Way We Were (1973).
Sources: Katz Film Encyclopedia, 1979; UCLA Film and Television Archive.
The collection consists of Columbia Pictures' stills and key books, documenting produced films from the mid-1930s to late-1980s.
Included are prints, proof sheets, negatives, slides, and transparencies that depict scenes, as well as off-camera photographs
showing various aspects of production filming, and publicity portraits. Among the 500-plus films represented in the collection
are
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957),
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969),
Born Free (1966),
Born Yesterday (1950),
Butterflies Are Free (1972),
Bye Bye Birdie (1963),
The Cardinal (1963),
Cat Ballou (1965),
Dr. Strangelove (1964),
Easy Rider (1969),
From Here to Eternity (1953),
Funny Girl (1968),
Georgy Girl (1966),
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967),
The Guns of Navarone (1961),
I Never Sang for My Father (1970),
King Rat (1965),
A Man for All Seasons,
Oliver! (1968),
Picnic (1955),
On the Waterfront (1954),
Ship of Fools (1965),
Stripes (1981),
Taxi Driver (1976), and
The Way We Were (1973), among many others.
The collections is arranged alphabetically by project titles, which may be working title, alternate title, or release title,
and for a small amount of files by person's name.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Motion picture studios--California--Los Angeles--Archives.