Search a film or person :
FacebookConnectionRegistration
Home > Companies > Film Booking Offices of America

Film Booking Offices of America

Film Booking Offices of America
If you like this company, let us know!

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)

Display filmography as list

Distribution

West of Hot Dog
West of Hot Dog (1924)
, 22minutes
Directed by Scott Pembroke, Joe Rock
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Western
Actors Stan Laurel, Lew Meehan

Stan Laurel, un bleu au Far West.
I Will Repay
I Will Repay (1924)
, 1h10
Directed by Henry Kolker
Origin United-kingdom
Themes Political films, French Revolution films
Actors Holmes Herbert, Pedro de Cordoba, Ivan Samson, A.B. Imeson, Georges Tréville

The film takes place in Paris, 1793: durung the Reign of Terror. Paul de Roulade (Pedro de Cordoba) is a hero to the Proletariat, who cry him 'Citizen de Roulade'. One evening he gets into an argument with the Vicomte de Marny over the virtues of a dancing girl; this leads to a fight (provoked by the viscount), forcing Paul to kill the nobleman. The viscount's sister Juliette de Marny (Flora le Breton) swears revenge: to achieve this, she infiltrates the de Roulade household and beguiles Paul into falling in love with her.
Broken Laws
Broken Laws (1924)
, 1h10
Directed by Roy William Neill
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Actors Percy Marmont, Dorothy Davenport, Jackie Saunders, Virginia Lee Corbin

Joan Allen (Davenport) is a loving mother who can't help indulging her son Bobby, spoiling him to the point where he is an irresponsible "jazz-mad" teenager on trial for vehicular manslaughter. She wakes up with a start at the end of the trial, with new resolve to provide the right amount of parental discipline.
Detained
Detained (1924)
, 20minutes
Directed by Scott Pembroke, Joe Rock
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Actors Stan Laurel, Agnes Ayres

Human Wreckage
Human Wreckage (1923)
, 1h20
Directed by Dorothy Davenport, John Griffith Wray
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about drugs
Actors Bessie Love, James Kirkwood Sr., Dorothy Davenport, George Hackathorne, Claire McDowell, Robert McKim

Ethel McFarland (Davenport) presents her attorney husband, Alan (Kirkwood), with the case of a dope addict named Jimmy Brown (Hackathorne). With the help of Alan's impassioned defense, Jimmy gets acquitted.
Haldane of the Secret Service
Haldane of the Secret Service (1923)
, 1h24
Origin USA
Genres Adventure
Actors Gladys Leslie, William Humphrey

"Heath Haldane (Houdini), son of a detective slain by a gang of counterfeiters, swears vengeance. He rescues a girl (Leslie) from the gang, but is thrown into river by them for dead, and escapes.
The Bishop of the Ozarks
The Bishop of the Ozarks (1923)

Directed by Finis Fox
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Actors Fred Kelsey, George Reed

Roger Chapman, a wandering minister, his daughter, an infant named Margery, and Simon Gordon, a negro servant, find refuge in a cabin in the Ozark mountains. Tom Sullivan, escaping convict, appears and forces Chapman to exhange clothes with him. Sullivan's pursuers arrive and shoot Chapman in mistake for their quarry. The latter is buried as Sullivan. The ex-convict assumes the name and garb of the parson and in the interior of the hills takes up a pastor's work. With gun and will Sullivan proves to the mountaineers that he is a force to be reckoned with. He is made chaplain of the State Prison. Margery grows to womanhood. She has two suitors, both doctors, Earl Godfrey and Paul Burroughs. The latter is a conscientious physician who devotes much of his labor to aiding the power. Godfrey's goal is money and when his uncle dies and leaves him a fortune he starts on an orgy of spending. Margery yields to Godfrey's evil influence and is lured to the Oriental palace which he hs built. Her father comes to her resuce. When Godfrey later attacks Margery she is saved by Burroughs and weds him. A former prison-keeper arrives and denounces Sullivan as an escaped convict, but the Governor pardons him and all ends well.
Mary of the Movies
Mary of the Movies (1923)

Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Marion Mack, Anna May Wong, Creighton Hale, Florence Lee, Jack Perrin, Raymond Cannon

Mary (Mack), a country girl, moves to Hollywood to become a star, and earn money to pay for her brother's operation. She meets many famous stars, but has difficulty getting work. Finally, she gets a break when her resemblance to a star leads to her being cast in a film.