Born in Laupheim, Germany a few years after the end of the American Civil War, the reportedly good-natured Carl Laemmle had become a bookkeeper and office manager when he set out for America in 1884. The 17-year-old worked in a variety of jobs in New York, Chicago, and Oshkosh, Wisconsin where he settled long enough to marry the boss's daughter. Moving back to Chicago because of a salary dispute in Oshkosh, Laemmle took a road common to many film moguls by buying nickelodeons. Soon after, the entrepreneur had his own film distribution company (Laemmle Film Service) in addition to his chain of nickelodeons.
Because of attempts by Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company to put him out of business, Laemmle soon founded IMP, the Independent Motion Picture Co. in 1909. The famous Universal Pictures was founded in 1912. By 1915, the new company had established Universal City, a 240-acre film complex and community in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles.
"Uncle Carl," as Laemmle was affectionately known, gave a start to many people in the film industry, but he suffered the same circumstance that befell most of the studio owners during the Depression. Partly due to his financial condition (there were about 70 relatives on the Universal payroll at one time), Laemmle was forced to sell Universal in 1935. Laemmle's son, Carl Laemmle, Jr., had some success as a producer for Universal, most notably with the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). The younger Laemmle also produced Universal successes such as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Show Boat (1936). But it was in part due to his son's budget overindulgence that Carl Laemmle, Sr. had to settle for a mere $5 million, a fragment of his studio's onetime value, when he was forced to give up the film empire he had founded.
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