For all the logo nuts, and classic film freaks out there, this is a thread about the creation of the Universal Pictures logo (1936 - 1947). It’s an excellent logo. I present it here, in appreciation of the sheer craft involved in making it. 1/16
This is Alexander Golitzen, famed Art Director, who worked at Universal for over 30 years.
With new owners behind the studio, the biplane that had circled the Earth since 1927 was dropped. Golitzen embraced the Art Deco movement, using plexiglass for its replacement. 2/16
With new owners behind the studio, the biplane that had circled the Earth since 1927 was dropped. Golitzen embraced the Art Deco movement, using plexiglass for its replacement. 2/16
The differently sized spinning stars were filmed first, using the thinnest plexiglass. The top was coated thinly with a silver-activated zinc sulfide - highly reflective, and often used in x-rays and cathode ray tubes. 3/16
The stars were independently rotated with several lights (two of which were moving, circling the stars) and a very tight camera aperture so that the lights and reflection of the stars would travel down their length. 4/16
The resulting footage looked loosely like this. 5/16
The next job was to join stars to the globe. 6/16
The globe had an interior coating of the same phosphor, diluted by half, limiting its reflectivity. It was painted black, eliminating its transparency. The first pass of the image was made without the lettering, with the globe in front of a 6 foot front projection screen. 7/16
The footage of the stars were projected on top of the globe, creating the spectacular light patterns reflecting off of it. 8/16
The following pass used a second globe - larger, polished and painted jet black. This globe had the company lettering mounted to it, and was then mounted on a metal rod, rotated by hand. 9/16
Special Effects artist John Fulton photographed the spinning globe at a low angle with the self illuminated lettering at high speed (estimated 32 frames per second). 10/16
This image was then triple printed over the original globe footage, the first pass to create the reflection of the title, the second pass was shot with no lights on the globe or lettering. 11/16
The background was a rear projection screen. This created a silhouette of the globe that was used as a matte in which to overlay the final layer the actual title. 12/16
The creation of this logo took around half a year to complete. 13/16
Jimmy McHugh created the Universal fanfare that accompanied this logo until 1947. 14/16
According to Golitzen, the globe was later seen, covered in smaller spheres, as the ‘Interociter’ device in the Universal movie ‘This Island Earth’ (1955). 15/16
This information was published many years ago, but I forget where - if anyone can enlighten me, please let me know, but I am grateful that it has been transcribed on a blog called ‘Brigham's Blog’. 16/16
