Photo reproduced by Mark Wanamaker. View of the entrance to the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, located at 1041 North Formosa Avenue in Hollywood. The two-story building on the right is identified as the "Art Dept." When United Artists was formed in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith, they did not intend to have an actual studio; the company was solely a distribution company whose mission was to release films made by independent producers. Pickford and Fairbanks owned an 18-acre property, which came to be known as the Pickford-Fairbanks Studio. Over time United Artists began to lure independent producers away from the large studios, so producers like Samuel Goldwyn and Joseph Schenck rented offices and stages on the property. It was later renamed the United Artists Studio in the late 1920s, however, it operated as a separate entity from the United Artists distribution company. When Goldwyn left United Artist in 1940, the lot was renamed the Samuel Goldwyn Studio. This name change resulted in a lengthy court battle with Mary Pickford, who still owned half of the studio. Eventually Goldwyn became the sole owner of the property. The studio known as the Samuel Goldwyn Studio until 1980, when it was purchased by Warner Bros.
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