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The History of American Cinema: 1924

January - June

Harry Cohn, his brother Jack Cohn and associate Joe Brandt found Columbia Pictures.   The new company’s studios are at 6070 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood. [ADD]

Swedish director Victor Sjöström completes Name the Man, his first American film for MGM.   Mae Busch and Conrad Nagel star. [ADD]

Harry Langdon makes his film debut in Picking Peaches, a Mack Sennett film. [ADD]

Walt Disney releases the combined live action and animated film Alice’s Day at the Sea, the first in his Alice in Cartoonland series. [ADD]

King Vidor's Happiness, J Hartley Manners’ adaptation of his own play starring Laurette Taylor, Pat O'Malley and Hedda Hopper, is released by MGM [ADD]

The premiere of Raoul Walsh’s The Thief of Baghdad takes place at the Liberty Theater in New York City.   Douglas Fairbanks stars in the $2 million budget film from United Artists which took five weeks to shoot and makes use of astonishing sets designed by William Cameron Menzies.   Julianne Johnston also stars. [ADD]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is created from the merger of Loew’s Inc, headed by Marcus Loew, and Louis B. Mayer’s operation, as well as the acquisition of the Goldwyn Company.  Loew continues to run the parent company in New York while Mayer manages the filmmaking operation in Culver City with Irving Thalberg as his head of production.  The new studios roster of stars includes Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Ramon Novarro, Buster Keaton, Mae Murray and Alice Terry.  [ADD]

New York has 578 cinemas with seating for 428,926 people. [ADD]

Louis B. Mayer offers Erich von Stroheim a $10,000 bonus if he can complete filming of The Merry Widow within six weeks. [ADD]

Western Electric begins demonstrating its sound-on-disc system to film studios.   Of the majors, only Warners and Fox show any interest. [ADD]

Concerned by the mediocre quality of scenes shot to date and by the length of time filming is taking, MGM dismiss the entire crew of Ben-Hur, currently filming in Italy. [ADD]