Universal Pictures
Germany → USA
Media, Entertainment & Communications
Summary
Universal Pictures was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, born in Laupheim, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, in 1867. Laemmle emigrated to the United States in 1884, worked his way through the Midwest, and opened his first nickelodeon in Chicago in 1906. By 1912 he had assembled a coalition of independent producers under the banner of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, breaking the Edison Trust’s stranglehold on American film. Laemmle founded Universal City in 1915 — the world’s first dedicated film-studio town. He ran the company until 1936. Universal is the oldest American film studio still operating under its founding name, and the only one founded by a German immigrant.
European Contribution
German entrepreneurial drive and central-European theatrical sensibility, transferred to American mass entertainment.
American Impact
Broke the Edison Trust monopoly; co-founded the Hollywood studio system; pioneered the studio town with Universal City.
Timeline Highlights
- 1884 Laemmle emigrates from Württemberg
- 1906 Opens first nickelodeon in Chicago
- 1912 Universal Film Manufacturing Company founded
- 1915 Universal City established as world's first studio town
- 2011 NBCUniversal becomes a Comcast subsidiary