Re-United Artists

In the chancy movie business, a producer without distribution is like a camera without film. Ever since it was set up in 1919 by Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, United Artists has been a distributing outlet for independent moviemakers. It permitted them to break away from the domination of the big studios and take a chance making their own movies.

In later years, United Artists came upon hard times chiefly because Owners Pickford and Chaplin could not agree on how it should be run. On top of that, the postwar movie slump killed off many independents, and few exhibitors wanted the small number of third-rate movies U.A. could get. By 1950 the debt ridden company was losing $70,000 a week, and seemed ready to fall into bankruptcy.

Hard Bargain. As a last resort, Partners Pickford and Chaplin turned to a lawyer named Arthur Krim, now 42, whose New York firm of Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin & Krim specialized in movie litigation. Krim had attended Columbia Law School, edited its law review, graduated (Phi Beta Kappa) at the top of his class in 1932, and gone immediately into law practice During World War II, Krim, commissioned a lieutenant colonel, served as assistant to Under Secretary of War Robert Patterson. At war's end, Krim was named president of Railroader Robert R. Young's Eagle Lion Films, Inc., a film producer, left when it began it fade away, and went back to his New York law firm.

When United Artists finally came to him in February of 1951, Krim drove a hard bargain. His terms: he would pay no money for control of the company (though Mary Pickford said it was worth $5,400,000); if the company should show a profit in any one of the next three years, Krim's control would be extended up to ten years, and half the stock would go to him and Law Partner Robert Benjamin.

To get the company on its feet, Krim got a $3,750,000 loan from Walter E. Heller & Co., a Chicago factoring house, and 4,000 shares of U.A. stock, which he used to lure a crack management team from other studios. He also began buying up all the movies available (e.g., Eagle Lion's library of 200 films, including The Red Shoes), and guaranteed exhibitors 36 pictures a year.

Hard Cash. Within ten months the company was turning a profit. Krim and Benjamin thus got half the stock, and Krim the right to vote 100% of the stock until 1961. Last year, through such moneymakers as The African Queen and High Noon, United Artists' profits climbed fast. Last week pictures distributed by United Artists got 17 nominations for Academy Awards. United Artists is also a front runner in the three-dimensional race, having bought Arch Oboler's B'wana Devil for $1,750,000. The picture has already grossed about $1,000,000 in only 15 showings. On a take of 30-70%, depending on the movie, Krim expects United Artists' 1952 gross profits to hit the $30-million mark.

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