Chesterfield Motion Picture Corporation, generally shortened to Chesterfield Pictures, was an American film production company of the 1920s and 1930s. The company head was
George R. Batcheller
George R. Batcheller (1892–1938) was an American film producer.Pitts p.108 He ran the low-budget studio Chesterfield Pictures in the 1930s.
Selected filmography
* '' The Last Chance'' (1926)
* '' The Secrets of Wu Sin'' (1932)
* '' Slightly ...
, and the company worked in tandem with its sister studio, Invincible Pictures Corporation, which was led by
Maury Cohen
Maury Cohen (ca. 1913 - March 15, 1979), also known as Maury M. Cohen, was an American film producer most active during the 1930s. He owned one of the Poverty Row studios, Invincible films, which specialized in making low-budget feature films. ...
. The production company never owned its own studio and rented space at other studios, primarily
Universal Pictures
Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...
and
RKO
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...
.
Batcheller's target market was
neighborhood theater
A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...
s that weren't part of the big studios' theater chains. These smaller houses usually showed second- or third-run movies, unable to afford to show the newest, more expensive feature films. Batcheller serviced these smaller theaters with smaller movies: low-budget productions that cost theater owners much less than big-studio attractions, and could play first-run. This was an ambitious policy in the days before double features and "B" pictures, when individual movies were featured as the main attraction in movie theaters. Given Chesterfield's budget constraints, Batcheller could not afford to pay the high salaries commanded by major-studio performers, and relied on less expensive "name" talent (former stars of the silent screen, or currently established featured players). He also relied on a small staff of busy directors:
Frank R. Strayer,
Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe (born Rollo Smolt Thorpe; February 24, 1896 – May 1, 1991) was an American film director best known for his long career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
His obituary called him "a capable and versatile director willing to take on any ass ...
,
Phil Rosen
Philip E. Rosen (May 8, 1888 – October 22, 1951) was an American film director and cinematographer. He directed more than 140 films between 1915 and 1949.
He was born in Malbork, Marienburg, German Empire (now, Malbork, Poland), grew up ...
, and
Charles Lamont
Charles Lamont (May 5, 1895 – September 11, 1993) was an American filmmaker, known for directing over 200 titles and producing and writing many others. He directed nine Abbott and Costello comedies and many Ma and Pa Kettle films.
Biography
...
.
Chesterfield was one of a number of
Poverty Row studios taken over by
Herbert Yates
Herbert John Yates (August 24, 1880 – February 3, 1966), a Hollywood mini-mogul, was the founder and President of Republic Pictures. With his contract, he had launched the film careers of such Western stars as Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and John ...
in 1935 and merged into his newly formed
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures is currently an acquisition-only label owned by Paramount Pictures. Its history dates back to Republic Pictures Corporation, an American film studio that originally operated from 1935 to 1967, based in Los Angeles, California ...
, in an attempt to create a studio with enough strength and appeal to compete with the
major studios
Major film studios are production and distribution companies that release a substantial number of films annually and consistently command a significant share of box office revenue in a given market. In the American and international markets, th ...
.
[Balio p.322] Republic achieved this goal and lasted more than 20 years.
George Batcheller died in 1938. In 1941 his son, George R. Batcheller, Jr., became head of the
PRC
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...
studio and used his father's Chesterfield strategy there.
Invincible Pictures Corporation
See also
*
List of Chesterfield Pictures films
References
Bibliography
* Balio Tino. ''Grand Design: Hollywood as a Modern Business Entertprise 1930-1939''. University of California Press, 1995.
* Pitts, Michael R. ''Poverty Row Studios, 1929–1940: An Illustrated History of 55 Independent Film Companies, with a Filmography for Each''. McFarland & Company, 2005.
American film studios
Film production companies of the United States
{{US-film-company-stub