Twentieth Century Pictures

Background
Twentieth Century Pictures, Inc. (also known as 20th Century Pictures, Inc.) was an American independent motion picture production company created in 1932 by Joseph M. Schenck, the former president of United Artists, Darryl F. Zanuck from Warner Bros. Pictures, William Goetz from Fox Film Corporation, and Raymond Griffith. Their material was released theatrically under United Artists.

Twentieth Century Pictures would later merge with Fox Film Corporation, forming 20th Century-Fox in 1935.

(October 7, 1933-April 17, 1936)
3iCwy-1ip3A Nicknames: "The Searchlights", "Futuristic Structure", "Majestic Tower", "Pre-Fox Structure", "20th Structure", "Pre-20th Century Fox Structure"

Logo: On a dark sky background, 3 rows of words, "20th","CENTURY", and "PICTURES, INC.", apparently carved out of stone and/or metal, are seen. The words are "stacked" on top of each other, with similarly carved lines separating the rows. The "20th" is the biggest row, with "CENTURY" and "PICTURES, INC." a bit smaller. A circular stage-like structure juts out from the base of the "stack," with a light below the structure that shines in front of the "stack". There are pedestals on both sides of the stack, each with a non-moving searchlight. In the background, several searchlights scan the sky. This logo was designed by Emil Kosa, Jr. The logo was created as a painting on several layers of glass and animated frame-by-frame.

Alternate Descriptive Video Transcription: Searchlights pierce a starry night sky, sweeping the clouds and illuminating a towering edifice in the form of "20th CENTURY PICTURES, INC."

Closing Title: Superimposed on a special background or sometimes on the last scene of a movie, fade in the words "The End" with fonts that vary on different movies with the following closing texts: "A 20th Century Picture" and below in a smaller font "Released Thru United Artists".

FX/SFX: The searchlights in the background.

Music/Sounds: A marching drum intro leading into a 21-note full orchestra theme that ends with a horn flourish. The fanfare was composed and conducted by Alfred Newman, which has become one of the most famous pieces of music in the world. On some films, the 1st drum roll is cut off due to whatever surviving audio elements were used on the film print.

Music/Sounds Variants: There were a couple of re-recordings of the fanfare that were different than the later re-recording used in the TCF logo. One of the two was used on 1935's Les Miserables and The Call of the Wild.

Availability: Extremely rare. Until recently, this logo was on the verge of extinction due to chronic plastering by any of the 20th Century Fox logos. Seen on streaming prints of The Bowery, the Cinema Archives DVD-R of Clive of India, and TV airings of The House of Rothschild along with Blood Money whenever they air on TCM or the FXM Retro block on FXM. The logo premiered on The Bowery and made its final appearance on Folies-Bergère. Although most prints of The Call of the Wild (1935) have this plastered with the 1953 logo, this has recently resurfaced on the Blu-Ray release (since it uses a new restoration).

Editor's Note: This logo is well remembered as the predecessor to one of the most famous movie logos of all time. If you pay close attention in the background, there are two searchlights that bend, which is considered to be an impossible phenomenon.