'Christie Film Company' was an
American pioneer motion picture company founded in
Hollywood, California by
Al Christie and
Charles Christie, two brothers from
London, Ontario,
Canada.
While Charles served almost exclusively in administration, it was Al Christie who made the films. Al had worked with
David Horsley at his
Centaur Film Company in
Bayonne, New Jersey and moved to
California in 1911 to run
Nestor Studios, the first ever motion picture studio in
Hollywood.
In June of 1912, Nestor Studios became part of the newly-formed
Universal Film Company and Al Christie was put in charge of the comedy companies. He remained with Universal Film until January of 1916 at which time he and his brother,
Charles Christie, formed their own
movie studio named the Christie Film Company. The two rented facilities from
Quality Pictures Corporation at
Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street, the place where Al Christie had first started in Hollywood. For the first six months of operations, the new Christie Film Company made comedies under a contract with Universal Film. In July of that year, the company began producing other comedies to sell to the independent distributors and their immediate success was such that they were soon able to finance the acquisition of their studio property. Within a short time, the Christie brothers doubled their stage capacity and constructed a film laboratory equipped with the latest in technology.
Unlike some of the "over the top comedies" being produced at the time, Christie Studios emphasized situational comedy that sometimes featured show girls in skimpy costumes. As comedy specialists, the Christie Film Company debuted comedy actors
Harold Lloyd,
Fatty Arbuckle,
Anita Garvin and
black actor
Spencer Williams, later known for his portrayal of Andy Brown in the "
Amos & Andy"
CBS television series. The innovative Christie company began issuing ''Film Follies'', a magazine advertising the latest films and events at the studio.
In 1921, Canadian
Mary Pickford was a driving force behind the creation of the Motion Picture Relief Fund, an organization designed to help actors who had fallen on hard times. Christie Film Company supported this and Charles Christie played a major role, serving on the first Board of Trustees.
By 1922, the brothers were so successful that they set up Christie Realty Corporation with $1 million in capital stock and at 6724 Hollywood Blvd., built the Christie Hotel. Hollywood's first luxury hotel, it was designed to meet the needs of the many executives and stars of the burgeoning film industry.
The Christie brothers welcomed Canadian talent and stars such as
Marie Dressler and
Marie Prevost appeared in their films and became personal lifelong friends. Al Christie also hired
African-American Spencer Williams as a sound technician but soon recognized Williams' many talents and involved him in script writing. In early 1929, the Christie Film Company began making the first series of talking pictures written and conceived exclusively for
African-American performers. They produced a number of comedy-musical shorts that featured an all-black cast from the
Lafayette Players Stock Company out of
Harlem, New York. The films, based on the popular
Saturday Evening Post's ''Darktown Birmingham'' stories by
Octavus Roy Cohen (1891-1959), were distributed by
Paramount Studios.
However, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the ensuing
Great Depression devastated many businesses and in January of 1933, the Christie brothers companies went into receivership and their studio assets were acquired by another large film making company.