THE BIRTH OF A MOVIE STUDIO IN 1919, HOLLYWOOD STARS CAME TOGETHER TO CREATE A COMPANY.

Byline: BOB STRAUSS Film Critic

In 1919 the biggest Hollywood stars of the era -- Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks -- and the most successful silent film director, ``Birth of a Nation's'' D.W. Griffith, seized total control of their movies.

Their creation was United Artists Studio.

``It was a revolutionary idea for four people of such unparalleled stature in the movie business to band together for their own creative and financial good,'' notes movie historian Leonard Maltin.

``Of course, none of them anticipated the problems that they'd be taking on -- like having to provide output for their own company, which turned out to be their undoing.''

By the mid-1920s, Griffith had left, and the remaining founders had to bring in other producing partners -- legendary names such as Joe Schenck, Samuel Goldwyn, Alexander Korda and Walter Wanger -- to keep UA's distribution pipeline flowing. Then talkies ended Pickford and Fairbanks' careers, and Chaplin was down to making two features or so per decade.

Without the production lot and theater chains other major studios could exploit, UA was all but over by the late 1940s.

Then Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin took control just as those assets became liabilities for the rest of a downturning industry.

UA flourished throughout the '50s, '60s and '70s as a financier and distributor that really lived up to its name. Such classics as ``The African Queen,'' ``High Noon,'' ``Kiss Me Deadly,'' ``Marty,'' Stanley Kubrick's ``The Killing'' and ``Paths of Glory,'' ``12 Angry Men,'' ``Some Like It Hot,'' ``The Apartment,'' ``The Magnificent Seven,'' ``Exodus,'' ``West Side Story'' and ``The Manchurian Candidate'' all came out under the UA label.

In the 1960s, UA also started the lucrative James Bond and Pink Panther franchises, and imported the Beatles movies and the spaghetti westerns that made Clint Eastwood a star.

By the 1970s, the studio was Woody Allen's home. It won three consecutive Best Picture Oscars for ``One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,'' ``Rocky'' and ``Annie Hall.''

But UA's support of distinctive film artists also proved its downfall.

Soon after Michael Cimino's indulgent, overbudget ``Heaven's Gate'' bombed, corporate owner TransAmerica sold UA to MGM in 1981. The doddering onetime major studio didn't really know what to do with UA's classier traditions, and pretty much contented itself with exploiting the Bond franchise.

``No offense to the suits, but they are suits,'' Maltin shrugs, ``and the name of the company ceased to have any real meaning. When there are no longer artists, whether they're united or otherwise becomes irrelevant.''

Maltin see hope for a return to tradition under new UA heads Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner.

``They have absolute credibility as producers, irrespective of his clout as a movie star,'' Maltin notes. ``And look, at least there is an actual performer of stature now, once again, associated with the name United Artists.''

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Photo:

Movie producer Samuel Goldwyn, left, Charles Chaplin, center, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and actress Mary Pickford pose at a United Artists board of directors meeting in Los Angeles in this 1935 file photo.

Associated Press