Horror films. Deanna Durbin musicals. Francis, the talking mule. Ma and
Pa Kettle. Ross Hunter weepies. Theme parks. E.T. (1982). Apollo 13
(1995). These are only a few of the many faces of Universal Pictures. In
February 1906, Carl Laemmle, German immigrant and former clothing store
manager, opened his first nickelodeon in Chicago, where he quickly moved
from exhibition to distribution and then to film production. A master of
publicity and promotions, within ten years "Uncle Carl" had moved his
entire operation to southern California, founded a city, and established
Universal Pictures as one of the major Hollywood studios.
In City of Dreams, Bernard F. Dick traces the history of Universal
Pictures from its humble early origins to the modern day and analyzes
the studio's films, from horror flicks featuring Karloff and Lugosi to
comedies starring Abbott and Costello and W. C. Fields. Dick details how
the Laemmle family was eventually forced out of the Universal empire,
replaced by a string of studio heads who entered and exited one after
another -- the beginning of the age of corporate Hollywood, which
transformed Universal Pictures into NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of
Comcast. Dick explains how the Universal-International merger in 1946,
Decca's stock takeover in the early 1950s, and MCA's buyout in 1962 all
presaged today's Hollywood, where the art of the deal often eclipses the
art of making movies. Ultimately, although stars and executives have
come and gone, shaping and reshaping the studio's image, Universal's
revolving globe logo has lit up screens around the world through it all.
