Founded in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffith, United Artists (UA) began as a distributor and financier of independent films and their producers; it was not a studio and never had stars under contract. UA was a unique entity in the early history of Hollywood, never losing sight of its goal—to make and distribute quality work.

The idea for United Artists began when Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, and cowboy star William S. Hart were traveling around the country selling Liberty bonds to help the World War I effort in 1918. The four began to discuss the possibility of forming their own company to protect them from rumored studio mergers and the loss of control and salary this might cause. Hart eventually bowed out, but was soon replaced with the world's premier director, D. W. Griffith. When the company was officially formed in...