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The History of American Cinema: 1925

July - December

Swedish actress Greta Garbo arrives in New York on her way to Hollywood with her mentor Mauritz Stiller.   Louis B. Mayer signed Garbo in order to win the services of Stiller, warning the director that ‘American men do not like fat women.’  [ADD]

Adolph Zukor approves the distribution by United Artists of D. W. Griffith’s Sally of the Sawdust, starring comic actor W. C. Fields and Carol Dempster. [ADD]

Tod Browning's The Unholy Three is released by MGM.   Lon Chaney and Mae Busch star. [ADD]

Samuel Goldwyn signs a contract with United Artists to supply from two to four films a year in return for 75% of the gross. [ADD]

Warner Bros. acquire Vitagraph (valued at $4.2 million with no accumulated debts), the company founded in 1896 by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith for $735,000. Warners inherits all research undertaken by Vitagraph in the field of sound. [ADD]

King Vidor's The Big Parade is released.   John Gilbert stars as an American soldier who falls for a beautiful French peasant woman (Renée Adorée) during the First World War. [ADD]

Independent producer B. P. Schulberg joins Paramount, bringing with him Clara Bow, John Gilbert and director William Wellman. [ADD]

Robert Julian’s adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera is released.   Lon Chaney, wearing hideously realistic make-up, plays the tortured phantom while Mary Philbin plays the object of his twisted desire. [ADD]

Louise Brooks attempts to prevent the publication of nude photographs taken of her in 1923. [ADD]

MGM’s troubled production of Ben-Hur premieres at the George M. Cohan Theater in New York.   Ramon Novarro stars in the $4 million production. [ADD]

The licensing agreement between Lee DeForest and Theodore W. Case is cancelled. [ADD]

– Paramount Pictures acquires the Chicago-based exhibitor Balaban & Katz. [ADD]

– America has 20,000 cinemas in 1925.  [ADD]