Sat Jun 2, 2007 — by Glenn Hauman

Happy 95th Anniversary, Universal

Corrupting America since 1912

On this day in 1912, Carl Laemmle merged his movie studio, the Independent Moving Picture Company (IMP), with eight others, creating Hollywood's first major studio, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company -- later to become Universal Pictures Company. Universal would unintentionally give gigantic starts to other film companies, like not paying Irving Thalberg enough money to keep him from being lured away to MGM, or by refusing to pay a decent production fee to produce cartoons starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to a young up-and-comer named Walt Disney.

But still-- any studio that can bring us Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, Abbott and Costello, My Little Chickadee, Harvey, Touch Of Evil, The Sting, American Grafitti, Jaws, Animal House, E.T., Back To The Future, Jurassic Park, Columbo, McCloud, The Rockford Files, Conan, Darkman, They Live, Hulk, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, and enough Law & Order episodes to choke a horse deserves a round of applause.

We'll even forgive them for Van Helsing and Howard The Duck.

In that spirit of self-improvement, here's a little employee video from Universal that you might enjoy.

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