Here are the stories Behind These Hollywood Studio Logo

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(Did you know?) 6 years ago

Whenever we watch a film, at home or at the cinema, we often see the odd logo before the film actually starts.

Why?

Because it’s a friendly reminder of who brought you this incredible movie magic.

The logo is important to many movie producers because it represents their company and all the films that company has produced.

It’s a big deal.

There are many iconic Hollywood logos, some of them more famous than others.

For example, Dreamwork’s logo, which features a boy fishing on the moon.

But, I bet you didn’t know there were a few stories behind these legendary Hollywood logos.

1. DreamWorks

DreamWorks is a young company, which was founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen.

It was founded after Katzenberg’s resigned from The Walt Disney Company.

The three wanted their own live-action and animation film studio and set three conditions for themselves: they would make fewer than nine movies a year, they also wanted to be free to work for other studios if they chose, and most importantly, they would go home in time for dinner. Which is understandable!

They wanted a computer generated image for their logo. The three started off with the idea of a man climbing to the moon to fish.

Illustrator Robert Hunt tweaked the idea so that the animation starts from the fly hitting the water, and it then pans to the boy sitting on the moon fishing. Curiously, the boy used was Hunt’s son, William.

2. Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures was founded in 1918. But, they originally used the name Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film.

It wasn’t until six years later that they adopted the current name.

It is a historical and poetic name used for the United States and the woman on the logo is its visual representation of that idea.

The now iconic image, however, underwent five major transformations since it was first introduced in 1928.

The most distinguishing difference is the American flag which was adorning the woman in the rough, early versions of the logo. The version most of us are familiar with was adopted in 1992.

3. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

This has to be one of the most iconic Hollywood logos of all time.

It carries the studio’s motto Ars Gratia Artis, meaning “Art for art’s sake”.

The logo is actually older than the company!

It was created in 1916 by Howard Dietz for Goldwyn Pictures which merged with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to create MGM in 1924.

The original logo featured the company’s mascot Leo the Lion but numerous others were used in later years.

This roaring lion existed in the days of the silent films!

There are a lot of images floating around the internet that show the lion on a flat bed poking its head through a hole to take the shot. These are actually all hoaxes. Here is the actual pic.

4. Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures originally started out rather small.

The company was founded in 1912. But since then, it’s come to dominate the world of film.

One of the most recognizable logos in Hollywood is the Paramount Pictures logo, which has changed a lot through the years.

The first logo, which still had the mountain range, was drawn on a napkin.

The second logo was painted. The third logo was then animated, which included the flying stars.

5. Disney

Disney’s logo these days features a CGI castle. But did you know that this castle is actually based on a real-life castle, and it wasn’t Disney’s first logo?