The Story Behind… The 20th Century Fox logo
Continuing my look into the stories behind movie related things we all take for granted, this week’s choice is the 20th Century Fox logo. If you only hear the music it’s something you immediately relate to movies. But what’s the history of the logo?
Before we get to 20th Centruy Fox, we first have to look into it’s history. William Fox founded his company Fox Film Corporation in 1915. It was a merger of two of his companies, a distribution firm called Greater New York Film Rental and a production company called the Fox Office Attractions Company. He concentrated on building theaters, but slowly started making more movies as well. He almost merged the company with MGM, but because of the stock market crash the deal didn’t go through. This didn’t go well for Fox as his company was close to bankruptcy and Fox himself ended up in jail for trying to bribe a judge and committing perjury. He lost control in 1930 and the company merged with the very new 20th Century Pictures in 1935. The logo wasn’t always the same:
Before 1930
Only these words appeared before the start of the movie.
1930
After Fox lost control the title was changed to “Fox Film Corporation presents”.
1933
20th Century Pictures had the now famous logo, which was painted by Emil Kosa Jr, who later did a lot of matte paintings for big movies, the most famous one being the Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes and his Oscar for the special effects in Cleopatra.
1935
After the merger with Fox, Kosa simply replaced “Pictures” with “Fox”. There was also a three-strip Technicolor version of the logo, which was used for the movie Ramona (1936)
1953-1981
With the introduction of CinemaScope the logo was altered (aslo by Kosa) and was used till 1981. An exception is 1970 and 1971, when no logo was used, just “Twentieth Century-Fox Presents”. This resulted in a lot of criticism and the logo returned.
1981-1993
After a new version was done for the opening of Cannonball Run, it was adopted to be used on other movies as well.
1994-2009
In 1994 a CGI version was created.
2010
To celebrate their 75 year anniversary the camera panned up after showing the logo and this 75 appeared.
You can check out the history of other logos here
This logo is awesome too
Especially because of the music, you really can’t hear it without thinking about movies!
Thanks a lot, that music is classic!
It’s a classic logo. You hear the music and see that and you instantly know the studio.
It’s interesting to see it hasn’t changed a whole huge deal since the logo we know now was created.
This one really didn’t need much change as gives the feeling you are about to witness a big event.
Awesome love this post! Great bit of history. I wonder if there are there are other films where the logo has been changed just for a specific movie? Like with the snowy version for Edward Scissorhands?
Well, it seems there is website for it and the answer is yes. This has an amazing collection of them: http://www.closinglogos.com/page/Logo+Variations+-+20th+Century+Fox+Film+Corporation
Do you not automatically think of The Simpsons movie when seeing this logo? No? Just me then….
Haha, I think it is just you Scott. Although it now does make me wonder what it looks like for that movie.
Interesting article, at uni I covered film pre-1930s and it seemed like an interesting time in seeing how these companies like Fox, Warner Bros and even RKO came to be and how we see them today. Some things change and some things don’t!
Looking forward to seeing the Universal post, if i’m not mistaken it used to be a muscular man pounding on a gong of some sort?
Yeah, I never looked into the history of these companies, but learning about their history through these logos has been very rewarding. I don’t know about the Universal one, but I’m sure I’ll find out soon. Thanks for commenting!
This is one of my favorite studio logo! Did you know that Randy Newman’s uncle Alfred Newman composed the fanfare? It’s conducted by Leonard Bernstein. I just learned that on NPR the other day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Y7JHO4b_8
No, I didn’t read anything about the fanfare, I guess I should have looked into that as well. Thanks for the info Ruth!
Another great post. I think the scope version is my favorite one.
Thanks for reading!
Very interesting read, more of the same please!!
More coming up. This week’s choice will be MGM!
One of the most iconic images in contemporary cinema. I always wondered about the beginnings of the logo but I never took the chance to find out a little more. Very interesting read. Perhaps things would be very different had Fox merged with MGM, starting with the logo, which would have never seen the light of day.
Thanks for dropping by my blog the other day. Very nice one you have going here.
Niels
Nice to share a bit of knowledge and see it being appreciated. I always wondered as well and thought it be interesting for others to read it as well.
Thanks for visiting Niels!
One of the great Hollywood logos. Great journey through history there mate!
Thanks Rodney!
I’ve seen this logo literally hundreds of time but never knew the story behind it. And I call myself a classic movie fan
Thank you for putting this together!
Well, I didn’t know either before writing this, so I’m glad to share the knowledge!
One of the most iconic film production logos. Great write-up as always and loving the series.
Thanks Raghav!
Did anyone ever notice the simularity between the logo change made by universal for Smokey and the bandit and the logo used by 20th Century Fox for Cannonball run? both have cartoon Car chases around and through the logos and then have a version of Main Star Burt Reynolds Laughing at the end.
Smokey and the Bandit:
Cannonball Run:
I wish there was an Edit Button for this site. To see the Smokey and the Bandit one click on the blue and to see the Cannonball run one click on the embedded video.
Have edited it for you ronald and both videos play now!