Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Origins Of Movie Company Logos



 

Neatorama has an interesting article up on the histories and stories behind the logos of Hollywood's major movie companies.  Have you ever wondered why MGM uses a lion as its logo?  Or why Columbia Pictures has a lady holding a torch as their Logo?  Well now you can find out.  I've personally always liked the art deco look of the 20th Century Fox 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.

 

Along with Fox and MGM and Columbia, the article also looks into the creation of the logos for Warner Brothers, Dreamworks and Paramount.

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