Selznick International Pictures was a Hollywood motion picture studio created by David O. Selznick in 1935, and dissolved in 1943. In its short existence the independent studio produced two films that received the Academy Award for Best Picture—Gone with the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940)—and three that were nominated, A Star Is Born (1937), Since You Went Away (1944) and Spellbound (1945).

Company history

In the Tradition of Quality

— Company motto of Selznick International Pictures

Selznick International Pictures was founded in 1935 by producer David O. Selznick and investor Jock Whitney after Selznick left Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and leased a section of the RKO Pictures lot in Culver City, California. The studio itself had been built in 1918–19 by film pioneer Thomas Ince. When Ince died in 1924 the studio was taken over by Cecil B. DeMille. Eventually Pathe took over and then in the 1930s it became part of RKO. In 1957 it would become part of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's company, Desilu.

Selznick leased offices at the studio during the first year or so and at the beginning of 1937 Selznick International Pictures took over the entire lot. The SIP name went up over the entrance of the historic Southern Plantation style administration building and that view of the front of the building became the iconic studio logo seen at the beginning of SIP films. Even though the studio reverted to RKO in the 1940s, Selznick kept offices there for the rest of his life.

Selznick raised the initial funding of US$400,000 in Los Angeles, with half of that amount coming from his brother Myron Selznick, a Hollywood agent, and the other half from MGM production chief Irving Thalberg and his wife actress Norma Shearer.[2] He raised an additional $300,000 from "small" investors in New York, and then the final $2.4 million from Jock Whitney and his family. Whitney himself became chairman of the board, and Selznick president, of the new company.

Because Whitney and his cousin Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney also owned Pioneer Pictures, an independent studio they formed in 1933 on facilities rented at the RKO studios, Pioneer was informally merged with Selznick International Pictures in 1936. Selznick International assumed Pioneer's contract to make at least six pictures in the new full-color Technicolor process, of which the Whitneys owned a 15 percent share.

"Unlike his peers in the major studios," wrote film historian Leonard J. Leff, "Selznick produced films as medieval architects built cathedrals: one by one."[1]: 6 

Selznick intended to produce a few features each year, a plan which he hoped would allow him to be as picky and careful as he liked and to create the best films possible. He said to his company's board in 1935, "There are only two kinds of merchandise that can be made profitably in this business, either the very cheap pictures or the very expensive pictures." Selznick believed, "there is no alternative open to us but to attempt to compete with the very best."

Although Selznick foresaw a production schedule of six to eight features per year, the studio in fact made only two or three per year, due to Selznick's meticulous attention to detail and protracted writing and editing processes. But in its short life, Selznick International Pictures produced two winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture: Gone with the Wind (1939, co-produced with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) and Rebecca (1940), and three nominees, A Star Is Born (1937), Since You Went Away (1944) and Spellbound (1945).

By 1940, Selznick International Pictures was the top-grossing film studio in Hollywood, but without a major studio set-up in which to re-invest his profits, Selznick faced enormous tax problems. That year, to draw down their profits as capital gains, he and the other owners made an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to liquidate Selznick International within three years, which they did by dividing and selling to each other the company's assets. Jock Whitney and his sister Joan Whitney Payson acquired Gone with the Wind, which they resold at a substantial profit to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1944. At the time of the final dissolution in 1943, three features were in production or pre-production, although they were released in 1944 and 1945.

To complete his obligation to deliver two more pictures to United Artists, Selznick formed David O. Selznick Productions in 1940 at the same studio location. The new company also took over the old company's contracts with individual directors and actors.

Vanguard Films and Selznick Releasing Organization

After the dissolution of Selznick International, Selznick established Vanguard Films, Inc. in 1943[9] and Selznick Releasing Organization in 1946.[10] Vanguard was created to continue his productions, while Selznick Releasing was made to distribute output by Vanguard. Previously, Vanguard released through United Artists, of which Vanguard owned one-third of its stock. As with Selznick International, Vanguard was located at the RKO studio.

Selznick International Pictures

Films were distributed by United Artists unless noted.

March 6, 1936 - Little Lord Fauntleroy, directed by Alfred E. Green

November 19, 1936 - The Garden of Allah, directed by Richard Boleslawski

April 30, 1937 - A Star Is Born, directed by William A. Wellman

September 3, 1937 - The Prisoner of Zenda, directed by John Cromwell

November 26, 1937 - Nothing Sacred, directed by William A. Wellman

February 11, 1938 - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, directed by Norman Taurog

October 27, 1938 - The Young in Heart, directed by Norman Taurog

February 10, 1939 - Made for Each Other, directed by John Cromwell

September 22, 1939 - Intermezzo: A Love Story, directed by Gregory Ratoff

December 15, 1939 - Gone with the Wind, directed by Victor Fleming

April 12, 1940 - Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchcock

May 18, 1944 - Reward Unlimited, directed by Bernard B. Ray

July 20, 1944 - Since You Went Away, directed by John Cromwell

December 1944 - I'll Be Seeing You, directed by William Dieterle

December 28, 1945 - Spellbound, directed by Alfred Hitchcock

December 31, 1946 - Duel in the Sun, directed by King Vidor

December 29, 1947 - The Paradine Case, directed by Alfred Hitchcock

June 4, 1948 - Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, directed by H.C. Potter

December 24, 1948 - Portrait of Jennie, directed by William Dieterle

1943: Jock Whitney sold to Film Classics, Inc. the rights to A Star Is Born and Nothing Sacred (both of which were actually owned by Pioneer Pictures), and the Selznick International productions Little Lord Fauntleroy, Made for Each Other, and The Young in Heart.

1947: Cinecolor Corporation acquired Film Classics, Inc.

1949: Cinecolor Corp. resold the company to Film Classics' officers.

1950: Film Classics was merged with Eagle-Lion Films to form Eagle Lion Classics.

1951: When Eagle Lion Classics collapsed, United Artists acquired its assets.

David O. Selznick retained ownership of The Garden of Allah, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Intermezzo, and Rebecca after the liquidation of Selznick International Pictures. Selznick died in 1965, and the following year, his estate sold the rights to 26 of his features to ABC, which owns most of them today (via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures). The notable exception is Gone with the Wind, which Jock Whitney and his sister sold to MGM in 1944. Turner Entertainment Co., which purchased the pre-May 1986 MGM library in 1986, now owns the film with distribution currently held by Warner Bros. The films A Star Is Born, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Nothing Sacred, and Made for Each Other are now in the public domain in the United States, with original film negatives to the latter three films owned by Disney and the former's owned by Warner Bros.

Papers and other artefacts of the studio are now part of the David O. Selznick Collection in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin.