Charles Christie

Charles H.V. Christie, the motion picture studio owner and real estate developer, was born on April 14, 1880 in London, Ontario, Canada. He emigrated to the United States with his younger brother Al to seek employment in the film industry. Al eventually became head of comedy production at Adolph Zukor's Universal Film Manufacturing Co. in January 1916, Al founded his own studio, The Christie Film Co., with his brother Charles. The brothers had a six month contract to produce comedies for Universal. Specializing in comedy, the Christie brothers made both features and shorts at a production facility located at Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street that they rented from Quality Pictures Corp. Al handled the production end of the business, while Charles oversaw the administration of the company. In July 1912, the company went independent, selling their product to independent distributors. Al Christie's comedies proved so popular the Christie Brothers were able to soon acquire their own production facilities, and their continued success enabled them to double their production capacity and open a technologically advanced developing laboratory. Christie Film made situational comedies rather than slapstick, and sometimes they were risqué, featuring provocatively dressed young women. Fatty Arbuckle and Harold Lloyd made their debuts with his studio, and the Christie brothers also recruited Canadian talent, including Marie Dressler and Marie Prevost, both of whom became lifelong friends of the brothers. Always innovative, The Christie Film Co. published a magazine, "Film Follies," that detailed up-coming releases and the current goings-on at the Christie Studio. The Christie brothers were ahead of the times in the area of race-relations. Al had originally hired the African American Spencer Williams as a sound technician, but discovering his writing talent, he began using him as a screenwriter. Williams subsequently became a pioneer in "race films" and later achieved mainstream fame portraying Andy Brown in CBS' "Amos & Andy" television series. The Christie Film Co. entered the race film market in early 1929, producing the first talking pictures made for and featuring African Americans. Utilizing the talents of Harlem's Lafayette Players Stock Co., Christie Film also produced musical comedy shorts featuring all-black casts based on Octavus Ray Cohen's `Darktown Birmingham' stories that were published in the `Saturday Evening Post.' Paramount Pictures distributed the `Darktown Birmingham' shorts. When fellow Canadian movie pioneer Mary Pickford helped create the Motion Picture Relief Fund in 1921 along with fellow United Artists owners Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and D.W. Griffith, the Christie Film Co. supported the charity, which was dedicated to helping actors who had fallen on hard times. UA President Joseph M. Schenck was the first president of the Fund, with Pickford serving as vice president. The board of directors included many of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Charles Christie, who took a major role in administering the Fund whose mission statement was "We take care of our own." (Under future president Jean Hersholt, after whom the Humanitarian Oscar award is named, the Fund acquired a 48-acre plot in Woodland Hills, California on which, in 1942, the actors' retirement home now known as the Motion Picture & Television Country Home and Hospital was built. The Great Depression hurt the film industry, and the Christie Film Co. and Christie Realty Corp. both went into receivership in January 1933. The studio was closed, and its assets were acquired by another movie company. Charles turned to the real estate business, and was soon joined by his brother Al. Charles Christie died in Hollywood on October 1, 1955 and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.