Abstract
Pathe is a French movie company. This company was founded as Societe Pathe Freres in Paris in 1886, by four brothers: Charles, Emile, Theophile and Jacques Pathe. First, thanks to Charles Pathe, the company became a major producer of phonograph records. Then he decided to extend his company to the fabrication of movie equipment. In 1897 the company entered into the Stock Exchange.
In 1902, Charles Pathe bought the Lumiere brothers patent and started to make studio video camera recorders in order to make the companies own movies. Thanks to the technology of the equipment, Pathe could capture a huge international market share. In 1902, London was the first city where a movie theater was set up. Then in 1909, Pathe built more than 200 movie theaters in France and in Belgium, and in the following year it had facilities in Madrid, Moscow, Rome, New-York City and also in Australia and in Japan. It has been estimated that before the World War, 60% of all movies were shot with Pathe equipment.
In 1908, Pathe invented the newsreel that is shown before the beginning of the movie. The Pathe logo appeared, it is a crowing rooster, the rooster is the symbol of France. In 1918, the success was so important that the company needed to be divided into two groups. The first division, Pathe records, was headed by Emile Pathe as chief executive, it dealt exclusively with phonographs and recordings. The second division, Pathe Cinema headed by Charles Pathe, was responsible for production, distribution and exhibition. In 1922, Pathe created Pathe baby, a new home film system which became popular over the next few decades, and in 1923, it created the video camera Pathe Baby. The company decided to sell its American motion picture production which a few years later came under the control of Joseph P. Kennedy. In 1927, Pathe launched Pathe Rural a new film in order to compete with Kodak, but in 1942, France was under the control of German authorities who canceled the use of this film.
In 1927, the company sold its British studios to Eastman Kodac while maintaining the theater and the distribution of films.
In 1929, Charles Pathe decided to sell the company; he accepted an offer from an investor, Bernard Nathan, who gave a new name for the company Pathe-Nathan. The company was poorly run and declined really quickly. It is said that the company declined because of doubtful finances, which ended up with Bernard Nathan's arrest. Police said that "he set up dummy corporations, paid for non-existant inventions, and defrauded stockholders of millions of francs." Some said that the company went bankrupt because he was Jewish and had passed away in the Auschwitz' camp. The company had to restructure and was acquired by Adrien Ramauge. Over the years the business had various changes such as diversification into producing programs for the burgeoning television industry. In the 1970s, operating theaters took over movies production as primary sources of revenue. When the business came under the control of Giancarlo Paretti, owner of Cannon American studios, he called it Pathe Communications Corporation (PCC) even if there were no links between both companies. Thanks to PCC he bought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, all paid by Le Credit Lyonnais de Rotterdam (CLBN).
