Beautiful coffee table book, sealed and ready to enjoy or give as a gift.  

Thank you to the Tadross Family for donating this item.

Who knew there were 5 silent Scotch-Irish brothers behind the scenes of Universal Pictures, making it all happen? The Cochrane Brothers and the making of Universal Pictures is a 192-page coffee table book full of untold stories and unseen photos!

Brought up in Ohio and schooled in the newspaper and advertising fields, the Scotch-Irish Cochrane brothers Negley, Witt, George, Tom, P.D. (Philip), and Robert III were an impressive band of achievers who saw an opportunity in the exploding nickelodeon business of the early twentieth century. Partnered with their newly unemployed friend Carl Laemmle, they formed the Laemmle Film Service, followed by IMP the Independent Moving Pictures Company and later Universal Pictures. Together this dynamic team created Hollywood's Star System, making household names of America's Sweetheart, Mary Pickford, among others, and slayed the formidable Edison Trust dragon, unleashing explosive growth and creativity to the nascent film industry. The Cochranes were also credited with creating the distribution network in Asia for not one, but two major studios and were instrumental in introducing the American pastime of baseball to Japan.

The success of Universal was built on the Cochrane brothers ability to promote, entice, excite, produce, and sell films - a winning formula that was later copied by all the major studios. Without the Cochranes management and marketing genius, Hollywood as we know it today might not exist.

Though barrels of ink have been emptied chronicling the early years of cinema an era when a rented hall, a piano player, and a bedsheet tacked to a wall were often all that was needed to begin a career in the flickers the true story of the birth of Universal Pictures and its forgotten founding Cochrane brothers has never been told. Until now.