Tweet Sono-Art AKA World Wide Pictures Logo

Can anyone tell me more about this logo?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cESJynMWD6I" target="_blank"



As Freud might have said, sometimes a cigar is MORE than a cigar.

I can just see the studio bosses looking at this idea and someone arguing for two globes instead of just one. Two are better than one, if they are the right place.

If I wanted a visual shorthand for the pre-Code period, roughly 1927 to 1934, I'd just play them this clip.

Well, the two globes make sense with the "World Wide" designation- they show the east and west hemispheres. Adding the woman does pull the focus a bit. I can imagine the designer saying "Oh God- I didn't mean THAT!"

*facepalm*
That's the breast studio logo I've seen.
*grins, blushes*

Well, the two globes make sense with the "World Wide" designation- they show the east and west hemispheres. Adding the woman does pull the focus a bit. I can imagine the designer saying "Oh God- I didn't mean THAT!"

The logo was designed by Mack Sennett, one of Sono Art-World-Wide's partners, he did indeed mean THAT.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Where the launching rocket?


Bob

Richard, any background information on how this logo came about, and did it have any fall-out? Perspiring minds want to know.

Richard, any background information on how this logo came about, and did it have any fall-out? Perspiring minds want to know.

Sono-Art-World-Wide-KBS Productions-Tiffany Studios wasn't around long enough to have anything but fallout. This disastrous conglomeration managed to bring down any number of Hollywood producers, from Earle W. Hammon's Educational Pictures(which was basically the distributing arm), to both Mack Sennett and Al Christie,who threw the last of their dwindling fortunes into it to try to become feature producers, and finally the ailing Tiffany Studios as well. It amazingly lasted nearly five years (1928-33), distributing a lot of British International Pictures Product in the States and grinding out a number of B westerns and attempts at A pictures as well, but it did manage to ruin a number of motion picture pioneers.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Had Sono-Art been around now, from its logo it would have been eminently qualified to receive federal stimulus money.

Richard, apart from James Cruze, what other well-known directors worked for Sono Art-World?

Richard, apart from James Cruze, what other well-known directors worked for Sono Art-World?

I noticed the rather unfortunate Raymond Cannon (did anyone in that era ever get a bigger buildup and crash quicker as a director?), and Richard Thorpe. If Mr. Roberts doesn't get back to you, I'm doing other research but run across Sono Art-World trade ads a lot and I'll try to make a list of noted directors. Richard will likely have a more authoritative list.

Richard, apart from James Cruze, what other well-known directors worked for Sono Art-World?

I noticed the rather unfortunate Raymond Cannon (did anyone in that era ever get a bigger buildup and crash quicker as a director?), and Richard Thorpe. If Mr. Roberts doesn't get back to you, I'm doing other research but run across Sono Art-World trade ads a lot and I'll try to make a list of noted directors. Richard will likely have a more authoritative list.

Victor Schertzinger, Edwin L. Marin, Erle C. Kenton, Robert Florey, H. Bruce Humberstone, Lowell Sherman, Walter Lang,Irvin Willat, Stuart Paton, Mark Sandrich, and Marshall Neilan all made films for Sono Art, as technically did Alfred Hitchcock (Sono Art was the American distributor for a number of his BIP Silents and BLACKMAIL as well) and E.A. Dupont (ditto for MOULON ROUGE and PICCADILLY), so there were a few illustrious names connected with the company, usually on a one or two-picture basis. And a number of Sono Art's films aren't bad, I like THE CROOKED CIRCLE and STRANGERS OF THE EVENING, and A STUDY IN TERROR, though not very close to the Sherlock Holmes story, is an entertaining picture, as is THE DEATH KISS with Bela Lugosi.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Young directors on their way up and old directors on their way down.

Young directors on their way up and old directors on their way down.

A bit unfair I think. There were just some solid professionals like Marin, Schertzinger and Kenton that were just able to freelance. I think it was obvious to all that Sono Art was not a place to stop and build a career.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

True- I was being a bit glib.

If you folks can take your eyes off that amazing Sono-Art logo for a few moments, I just wanted to note that apparently THE GREAT GABBO (1929) was released by Sono-Art, according to the film's credits, and was directed by James Cruze, who did go on to several bigger and better things. The film is an interesting "early talkie" curiosity, and it's a toss-up as whose acting is more wooden, Erich Von Stroheim or his vetriloquist's dummy.

I also understand that this movie was restored by the LOC (a good thing too, since the existing dupes in circulation are almost unwatchable). The credits also state that the film contains "color sequences," which apparently no longer exist. That's a shame because color would have made the "Caught in The Web of Love" musical number even more surreal than it already was. Where is that darned "colorization" process when we really need it? SETH

If you folks can take your eyes off that amazing Sono-Art logo for a few moments, I just wanted to note that apparently THE GREAT GABBO (1929) was released by Sono-Art, according to the film's credits, and was directed by James Cruze, who did go on to several bigger and better things. The film is an interesting "early talkie" curiosity, and it's a toss-up as whose acting is more wooden, Erich Von Stroheim or his vetriloquist's dummy.

I also understand that this movie was restored by the LOC (a good thing too, since the existing dupes in circulation are almost unwatchable). The credits also state that the film contains "color sequences," which apparently no longer exist. That's a shame because color would have made the "Caught in The Web of Love" musical number even more surreal than it already was. Where is that darned "colorization" process when we really need it? SETH

James Cruze Productions moved their distribution from PDC-Pathe' to Sono Art in 1929, and despite the relative success of THE GREAT GABBO in 1929, had managed to bankrupt themselves by 1932, yet another movie pioneer brought down by Sono Art!

The color sequences do not survive even in LOC's rather good restoration of GABBO, but I don't believe "The Web of Love" song was one of those tunes from the film shot in color. I have a great hot dance version of that song recorded by some dime-store label.

Have you ever seen the FRACTURED FLICKERS re-do of THE GREAT GABBO? Probbly the funniest thing they ever did on that show.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

For more on the movie career of James Cruze, a poster at ancestry.com wrote a pretty informative obituary on Cruze. I excerpted two paragraphs from the obit below. Cruze seems to have been a lawsuit magnet by the end of the twenties.

Obit: James Cruze aka Jens Vera Cruz Bosen
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.obits ... ashx?pnt=1

On June 14, 1929, Cruze was subpoenaed to appear in court in Los Angeles in a grand jury proceeding investigating the circumstances surrounding the filming of Old Ironsides off Catalina Island three years earlier. During a dynamiting scene directed by Cruze, a seaman, Charles O. Davis, was killed, and several others were injured.

On July 1, 1929 Cruze made more headlines with a suit against an artist he had filed in Los Angeles the day before. It seems that John Decker, a fairly prominent Hollywood painter and caricaturist, was commissioned by Cruze to do his portrait. The image was less than Cruze hoped for, and he refused to pay the bill, whereupon Decker added some vertical bars to the portrait frame and displayed it in a show window at 6070 Sunset Boulevard, with the caption: "JAMES CRUZE IN PRISON FOR DEBT."

I have a 16mm original print of one Sono Art-Worldwide feature, HYPNOTIZED with Moran and Mack (actually, George Moran only makes a cameo appearance as the team was breaking up when the picture was made!). They should have just run the logo for 6 reels.

[silentfilm]

In late 1925-early 1926, James Cruze started directing a movie for Paramount entitled The Waiter at the Ritz, starring Raymond Griffith. The film was never completed, and Paramount sued him for breach of contract.

I have a 16mm original print of one Sono Art-Worldwide feature, HYPNOTIZED with Moran and Mack (actually, George Moran only makes a cameo appearance as the team was breaking up when the picture was made!). They should have just run the logo for 6 reels.

Aw, why bring that up?

I've seen a bit of that. Ernest Torrence is it it and he's giving a better performance than the film deserves.

A film collector friend of mine told me his reaction the first time he saw this logo: "I saw this logo years ago, and my first thought was that it had been done by two drunk college students who had a camera and some money to spend."

THE GREAT GABBO (1929) was released by Sono-Art, according to the film's credits, and was directed by James Cruze... The credits state that the film contains "color sequences," which apparently no longer exist.

THE GREAT GABBO is scheduled at The Film Forum in New York on June 18, 2012 and their schedule says it'll be a restored 35mm print including Technicolor sequence.

http://www.filmforum.org/movies/more/th ... gabbo_the_