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Film Booking Offices of America

Film Booking Offices of America
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Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) (also known as FBO Pictures Corporation) was an American film studio of the silent era, a producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films that were sometimes well-made. The business began in 1918 as Robertson-Cole (U.S.), the American division of a British import–export company and Robertson-Cole was formed by the English-born Harry F. Robertson and the American Rufus Sidman Cole. Robertson-Cole bought the Hallmark Exchanges (formerly the Mutual Exchanges that became known as Exhibitors-Mutual Exchanges) from Frank J. Hall in 1920. Exhibitors-Mutual/Hallmark had distributed Robertson-Cole product, and acquiring the exchanges gave them the right to distribute their own films plus Hall's product, with the exception of Charlie Chaplin reissues he had the rights to.

Robertson-Cole initiated movie production in the United States in 1920. That year, it incorporated Robertson-Cole Studios, Inc. and bought 460 acres in Santa Monica, California to establish a studio. The property, which became known as the "R.C. Ranch", enabled Robertson-Cole to centralize movie production, which previously had been scattered. The movie company had relied on equipment rentals to produce motion pictures. Two years later, a corporate reorganization led to the company's new name, with FBO becoming the official name of the distributing operation and Robertson-Cole Pictures Corp. the name of the production operation. In 1923, the studio contracted with Western actor Fred Thomson, who would soon emerge as one of Hollywood's most popular stars. Thomson was just one of numerous screen cowboys with whom FBO became identified.

The studio, whose core market was America's small towns, also put out many romantic melodramas, non-Western action pictures, and comedic shorts. In 1926, financier Joseph P. Kennedy led a group that acquired the company. In June 1928, using RCA Photophone technology, FBO became only the second Hollywood studio to release a feature-length "talkie." A few months later, Kennedy and RCA chief David Sarnoff arranged the merger that created RKO, one of the major studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Best films

Seven Years Bad Luck
Seven Years Bad Luck
(1921)
See more : Wikipedia

Filmography of Film Booking Offices of America (125 films)

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Distribution

Mickey's Eleven
Mickey's Eleven (1927)
, 20minutes
Directed by Albert Herman
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Actors Mickey Rooney, Jimmy Robinson, Billy Barty, Kendall McComas, Buster Phelps

Mickey and the Scorpions play a game of football against Stinky Davis and his team.
The Adorable Deceiver
The Adorable Deceiver (1926)
, 57minutes
Directed by Phil Rosen
Origin USA
Actors Alberta Vaughn

Alice in the Wooly West
Alice in the Wooly West (1926)
, 9minutes
Directed by Walt Disney
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Animation, Western
Themes Children's films
Actors Margie Gay

Alors que Julius parcourt la prairie à cheval, jouant avec son lasso, une bande d'ours dévalisent un chariot dont un des passagers est Alice. Julius parvient à sauver les passagers mais Alice est prise en otage par un bandit. Une course-poursuite s'engage puis une bataille dans les rochers. Julius utilise une ruse, en enlevant sa fourrure, pour assommer par derrière le bandit avec un club de golf. Alice, veut remercier son sauveur mais sa nudité la perturbe. Ce n'est qu'après s'être "revêtu" derrière un rocher que Julius reçoit les remerciements d'Alice.