You see these opening logos every time you go to the movies, but have you ever wondered who is the boy on the moon in the DreamWorks logo? Or which mountain inspired the Paramount logo? Or who was the Columbia Torch Lady? Let's find out:
1. DreamWorks SKG: Boy on the Moon
In 1994, director Steven Spielberg, Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, and record producer David Geffen (yes, they make the initial SKG on the bottom of the logo) got together to found a new studio called DreamWorks.
Spielberg wanted the logo for DreamWorks to be reminiscent of Hollywood's golden age. The logo was to be a computer generated image of a man on the moon, fishing, but Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Muren of Industrial Light and Magic, who has worked on many of Spielberg's films, suggested that a hand-painted logo might look better. Muren asked his friend, artist Robert Hunt to paint it.
Hunt also sent along an alternative version of the logo, which included a young boy on a crescent moon, fishing. Spielberg liked this version better, and the rest is history. Oh, and that boy? It was Hunt's son, William.
The DreamWorks logo that you see in the movies was made at ILM from paintings by Robert Hunt, in collaboration with Kaleidoscope Films (designers of the original storyboards), Dave Carson (director), and Clint Goldman (producer) at ILM.
Photo courtesy of Robert Hunt - Thanks for the neat story, Robert!
2. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM): Leo The Lion
In 1924, studio publicist Howard Dietz designed the "Leo The Lion" logo for Samuel Goldwyn's Goldwyn Picture Corporation. He based it on the athletic team of his alma mater Columbia University, the Lions. When Goldwyn Pictures merged with Metro Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures, the newly formed MGM retained the logo.
Since then, there have been five lions playing the role of "Leo The Lion". The first was Slats, who graced the openings of MGM's silent films from 1924 to 1928. The next lion, Jackie, was the first MGM lion whose roar was heard by the audience. Though the movies were silent, Jackie's famous growl-roar-growl sequence was played over the phonograph as the logo appeared on screen. He was also the first lion to appear in Technicolor in 1932.
The third lion and probably most famous was Tanner (though at the time Jackie was still used concurrently for MGM's black and white films). After a brief use of an unnamed (and very mane-y) fourth lion, MGM settled on Leo, which the studio has used since 1957.
The company motto "Ars Gratia Artis" means "Art for Art's Sake."
Sources: MGM Media Center | Wikipedia entry on "Leo The Lion"
3. 20th Century Fox: The Searchlight Logo
In 1935, Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Film Company (back then mainly a theater-chain company) merged to create Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (they later dropped the hyphen).
The original Twentieth Century Pictures logo was created in 1933 by famed landscape artist Emil Kosa, Jr. After the merger, Kosa simply replaced "Pictures, Inc." with "Fox" to make the current logo. Besides this logo, Kosa was also famous for his matte painting of the Statue of Liberty ruin at the end of the Planet of the Apes (1968) movie, and others.
Perhaps just as famous as the logo is the "20th Century Fanfare", composed by Alfred Newman, then musical director for United Artists.
4. Paramount: The Majestic Mountain
Paramount Pictures Corporation was founded in 1912 as Famous Players Film Company by Adolph Zukor, and the theater moguls the Frohman brothers, Daniel and Charles.
The Paramount "Majestic Mountain" logo was first drawn as a doodle by W.W. Hodkinson during a meeting with Zukor, based on the Ben Lomond Mountain from his childhood in Utah (the live action logo made later is probably Peru's Artesonraju). It is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo.
The original logo has 24 stars, which symbolized Paramount's then 24 contracted movie stars (it's now 22 stars, though no one could tell me why they reduced the number of stars). The original matte painting has also been replaced with a computer generated mountain and stars.
Paramount logo history, for more details, see: CLG Wiki
5. Warner Bros.: The WB Shield
Warner Bros. (yes, that's legally "Bros." not "Brothers") was founded by four Jewish brothers who emigrated from Poland: Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner. Actually, those aren't the names that they were born with. Harry was born "Hirsz," Albert was "Aaron," Sam was "Szmul," and Jack was "Itzhak." Their original surname is also unknown - some people said that it is "Wonsal," "Wonskolaser" or even Eichelbaum, before it was changed to "Warner." (Sources: Doug Sinclair | Tody Nudo's Hollywood Legends)
In the beginning, Warner Bros. had trouble attracting top talents. In 1925, at the urging of Sam, Warner Bros. made the first feature-length "talking pictures" (When he heard of Sam's idea, Harry famously said "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"). That got the ball rolling for the studio and made Warner Bros. famous.
The Warner Bros. logo, the WB Shield, has actually gone many revisions. Jason Jones and Matt Williams of CLG Wiki have the details:
Warner Bros. Logo History - see the full details at CLG Wiki
If you're interested in WB cartoons, you can't go wrong with Dave Mackey's Field guide: Link
6. Columbia Pictures: The Torch Lady
Columbia Pictures was founded in 1919 by the brothers Harry and Jack Cohn, and Joe Brandt as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales. Many of the studio's early productions were low-budget affairs, so it got nicknamed "Corned Beef and Cabbage." In 1924, the brothers Cohn bought out Brandt and renamed their studio Columbia Pictures Corporation in effort to improve its image.
Vintage Columbia Pictures Logo (Source: Reel Classics)
The studio's logo is Columbia, the female personification of America. It was designed in 1924 and the identity of the "Torch Lady" model was never conclusively determined (though more than a dozen women had claimed to be "it.")
In her 1962 autobiography, Bette Davis claimed that Claudia Dell was the model, whereas in 1987 People Magazine named model and Columbia bit-actress Amelia Batchler as the girl. In 2001, the Chicago Sun-Times named a local woman who worked as an extra at Columbia named Jane Bartholomew as the model. Given how the logo has changed over the years, it may just be that all three were right! (Source)
The current Torch Lady logo was designed in 1993 by Michael J. Deas, who was commissioned by Sony Pictures Entertainment to return the lady to her "classic" look.
Though people thought that actress Annette Bening was the model, it was actually a Louisiana homemaker and muralist named Jenny Joseph that modeled the Torch Lady for Deas. Rather than use her face, however, Deas drew a composite face made from several computer-generated features (Source: Roger Ebert, Photo: Kathy Anderson)
Obviously, we're missing the stories of the logos of many other film studios. We'd love to hear from you if you know any! Please tell us in the comment section.
If you like this article, please check out Neatorama's articles on logos:
- The Evolution of Tech Logos
- Evolution of Car Logos
- Who Owns What on Television?
Mr. Baby Man, I think you need to submit some more Digg stories :)
I especially love how they adapt the opening animation for films to set the tone of the movie.
I especially love the universal pictures 75th Anniversary Logo, the music was epic compared to the newest logo. I hope they do something special for the centenary.
Re: Universal. I can't find any story behind the globe logo. Does anyone know? Hollywood Lost and Found has a neat article about it, but there's not a lot of story as to why it's a globe.
http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_actors/metro_goldwyn_mayor.htm
--TwoDragons
For more on this and the RKO logo story, check out http://hollywoodlostandfound.net/stories/studiologos/
I appreciate the stories behind the ones you've presented here though.
http://any-some-every-thing.blogspot.com/
do visit and it would be nice to hear what you have to say...thanks!
Thanks for stirring these thoughts.
What you have identified as the 4th Warner Brothers shield logo was created by Louis Fox, a staff artist at Warner Brothers at the time. Mr. Fox worked into his 80's and was last known for doing the large art signs for "The Price is Right".
Also FYI the Universal chrome globe with the plane circling it and the rotating stars was done by John Harkrider, who worked in the scenic, art direction, costuming and set design field, having come from New York where he designed sets for Florenz Ziegfeld.
Again, WONDERFUL work. More! More! More!
Selene was the Greek goddess of lunar worship, noted for bearing a torch to illuminate the darkness. She is a symbol for knowledge in the sense that she reveals that which can not be seen by normal human eyes. It is for this reason the Illuminati have adopted the torch as their symbol. Also the Statue of Liberty is based off of Selene.
Some speculate the Greeks derived their goddess Selene from the Egyptian goddess Isis, mother of Horus, who is historically depicted bearing a lantern.
Try doing some research instead of making blanketed assumptions, I know American pride sells itself easily, but your just misinforming people.
Sorry, but you're wrong, while obviously Selene was the oldest known example there are plenty of others in between, with the Statue of Liberty being based on the roman Libertas i believe... with the Columbia logo looking pretty much like the Columbia from all the american drawings, plus a torch, which can easily be attributed to the Statue of Liberty i'd say that's a pretty good explanation of where the makers got their inspiration.
The Stars on the Paramount logo do not represent movies stars but the different district offices of the company across the US. Paramount also got its name from a local Hollywood Apartment building. It was reduced to 22 stars about the time the logo was reworked, around the time Charles Bludhorn owned the studio because two district offices were closed. Barry Diller was running Paramount at that before he jumped ship to create the Fox network. He later became a billionaire in his own right and battled (and failed in his attempt) to buy the studio which went to its current owner Sumner Redstone, owner of the National Amusement Theater chain. That is intriguing in that the Supreme Court ruling of May 3,1948 (AKA US vs. Paramount) ordered Paramount and the other studios to divest themselve of their theater chain operations in an antitrust action. In the current economy Sumner Redstone is struggling to pay down his emormous debt load and is currently attempting to divest himself of his National Amusements Theater Chain in attempt to raise capital.
THe Metro Lion story is a bit more interesting than what you portray. Marcus Loew was struggling to find a steady stream of good films for his chain of theaters. Adolf Zukor of Famous Players had been his best Vendor until Zukor started raising his prices by demanding a percentage of the box office take. In 1924 Loew controlled Metro Pictures, which merged with the foundering Goldwyn Pictures (which had lost all of its management executives, and Louis B. Mayer Productions to form Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. Goldwyn brought added value in own a large studion with a distribution organization solidly in place. Marcus Loew, however, was said to find the Metro Pictures logow ith a sqawking parrot annloying and opted instead for Goldwyn's logo with the Roaring Lion. Also worth noting that is the fact that aside from providing the logo and his name in the middle of it all, Samuel Goldwyn nver actually worked for or with MGM. He istead went off to start Samuel Goldwyn Films
You can find most of this information in such books as THE PARAMOUNT STORY by John Douglas Eames, THE MGM STORY by John Douglas Eames (1975), and Mayer and Thalberg: Make Believe Saints by Samuel Marx(1975.
"The Metro Lion story is a bit more interesting than what you portray. Marcus Loew was struggling to find a steady stream of good films for his chain of theaters."
Lowe (with umlaut - two dots - over the "o" or otherwise written Loewe is the German word for lion.
Chappie
I remember, though, something a park ranger pointed out in Montana's Glacier National Park. As we were looking out over St. Mary's Lake, she called our attention to a particular mountain peak and said it had been the inspiration for the Paramount logo. She said that, if you watch the first Popeye cartoons, you could see that mountain peak. The name of the mountain escapes me.
The pseudo-conspiratorial view is tiresome. All the studio founders were minority stock holders, due to the large amounts of capital needed to build the studios, fund the initial slate, stay afloat during rough times, etc. Louis B. Mayer, for example, was fired by the board of directors. Nor did the moguls families retain control over the studios. You also ignored Disney and several smaller studios that weren't founded by Jews.
Nor were the founders somehow trying to spread Judaism or Jewish culture somehow. In fact, almost all the founders downplayed or buried their heritage, changing their names, intermarrying, a couple even converting. Sun and stars are universal symbols for obvious reasons; there's nothing specifically Jewish about any of the logos.
In the know:
It has nothing to do with "American pride", but the judgment that a logo designed by an American for an American company in the 1930's is rather more likely to be based on the Statue of Liberty than an ancient Graeco-Roman goddess. Of course, there are antecedents to the "standing woman with torch aloft" figure, but even those aren't necessarily limited to Selene. The Statue of Liberty was actually designed in France, and thus may have much to do with the Marianne figure of the French revolution and republic.
It's interesting that in almost every case, the studios dispensed with their traditional logo in the 70s, only to revive the classic look later on. Quite a few also revive older logos for films set in the past (the old Universal logo at the beginning of `Ed Wood' is one that springs to mind - more on that logo at http://www.closinglogos.com/page/Universal+Pictures?t=anon).
Not long ago, I remember newspapers reporting the death of the woman who `had the most film credits of any actor', because she'd posed for the Columbia logo. I've tried Googling to see if it was one of the women named in this article, but no luck.
I also recall hearing about a stylised Art Deco Leo the Lion that was either briefly used or trialed and never used, back in the 1930s. Does this ring any bells with anyone?
I've always been a "fan" of studio logos, my other favourites,which are not discussed here,includethe New Line Cinema, the Spyglass Entertainment and the Lakeshore Entertainment logos.
In my opinion, Ravenclawed had a very fitting observation just a few comments above about the dispension of traditional Hollywood logos during the 70s (most notably of WB) - I think it was something to do with the breaking with the old Hollywood, after all it was a revisionist era in the movies and such great directors as F.F. Coppola, Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg or Peter Bogdanovich emerged, just to name but a few.
I'll mention this exciting piece on my french weblog. Thanks for it.
I remember reading an article that said at the beginning of Dead Man Walking Torchlady's face was replaced with Susan Sarandon's face. Anyone catch/remember that? Am I on drugs? I can't seem to find any facts to back me up...maybe it was a different film. And did TorchLady wink at the beginning of a movie too....?
Whoever posted the comment about the studio logo setting them up for a good movie.... I love it see that Focus Features logo before a film! Or in the 90's I used to believe any thing from New Line was made just for me! And though I'm not really that big of a Star Wars nerd, it's fun to hear the yells of delight when the green Lucas Film Logo appears before a movie.
also known as the Goddess Columbia who happens to be the goddess of America that most people dont know about.
seen in statue form all over our nations capital. if youve seen a female statue at any government building, it is the goddess columbia.
not the torch lady haha
and Abbott & Costello comedies. The logo: 2 spinning film reels on the left and right with a piece of film
spelling out "Realart" with an accompaning music cue.
Recently I've only seen it on the front of the video
for the movie "The Fighting Sullivans".
http://www.repubblica.it/2008/12/sezioni/spettacoli_e_cultura/loghi-hollywood/loghi-hollywood/loghi-hollywood.html?ref=hpspr1
without even referring the source :-D
Daniele
In the past I tought that it was because news are news and are world-widely known, but when I find articles like this one: http://www.repubblica.it/2008/12/sezioni/spettacoli_e_cultura/loghi-hollywood/loghi-hollywood/loghi-hollywood.html
just 2 days after you published this post, I wonder if you should be at least given credits.
I can not say in English.
Google is using a translator.
I would like to move to my blog post.
This article will be translated into Korean.
Blog address- http://blog.naver.com/nyovung
Have a good day.
Hay un post de referencia en Portafolioblog.
Saludos
I have to agree, especially since they've had some notable composers - the current Universal fanfare is by Jerry Goldsmith (RIP), and the DreamWorks music is by none other than John Williams.
I love how the WB logo went through some horrible phases, they really should have just made up their mind...
Adding to what others have said about the female entity named "Columbia"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_(name)
She is the woman the District of Columbia (as well as many other things)is named after and her name is based on Christopher Columbus. So she is indeed "the female personification of America"
Did you know that MGM used to use a young lion cub as their logo for their short films, ca: 1940 I've seen it in their promotional materials, but don't know if he "roared". I believe they referred to him as "Leo Junior".
I was able to print out your article on the various film studios' logos, and it will be added to our file here at the library under "Trademarks". And I found a bit more info for you. Hope you can find these articles by these citations:
Variety (W) Sept. 1, 2008 "Leaping Logos! A limitless litany adorns every new pic" -by Peter Debruge
Hollywood Reporter July 10, 2006 "Disney magic of old in new animated logo" -by Sheigh Crabtree (re: the new 'castle' logo that debuted with
"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest")
and our most-recent entry is rather short, from the L.A. Times Nov. 7, 2008 "Updated style for MGM's lion" -by Susan King
Leo the Lion has had a makeover. The famed MGM logo feline has been digitally restored and given a new roar. The refurbished Leo will make his
bow on the James Bond thriller "Quantum of Solace," which opens in the U.S. on Nov. 14.
The famed logo was designed by Howard Deitz 92 years ago for the Goldwyn Pictures Corp. and first appeared on the 1917 romance "Polly of the Circus." Over the last nine decades, five different lions have been used as the logo. Slates, who was hired after the 1924 merger that created MGM, made his debut on the studio's first feature, 1924's "He Who Gets Slapped." Jackie was the first of the lions to roar, thanks to a gramophone recording, for the 1928 adventure "White Shadow of the South Seas."
Leo has been king of the MGM logo for the last 51 years and was used in the digital restoration. The studio's postproduction team scanned Leo into the computer from the original camera negative of 1958's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" for his digital makeover. They enlisted sound designer Mark Magnini, who had recorded lion roars for the ghostly sound effects in 1982's "Poltergeist." Mangini used those 26-year-old elements to create a new stereo roar for the iconic lion.
Thanks Kathryn!