70 replies to this topic

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Turn
I remember the old UA logo when it was owned by Transamerica that was just animation and no fanfare;  

Yes but when I was younger that logo meant I was sitting down to watch a new James Bond movie

[Tarl_Cabot]

Or Rocky

[DLibrasnow]

Well....I always associated that TransAmerica Corp. UA logo with James Bond.

[Turn]

Originally posted by Simon


Are you referring to the stone looking background logo with the light flare coming across the wholescreen at the end?  If so that is a beautiful piece of work.

Yeah, that was the one.

[Triton]

Originally posted by DLibrasnow


Yes but when I was younger that logo meant I was sitting down to watch a new James Bond movie

Was United Artists on a financial rollercoaster when it was owned by TransAmerica, or did the studios woes come about when it was purchased by MGM to form MGM/UA?

[Genrewriter]

I think they were in trouble around the time MGM came around. The Heaven's Gate debacle along with other financial failures put them in a pretty big jam.

[Turn]

I think UA was purchased by Transamerica around '68 or so. That was a period when all the studios were in financial trouble. MCA owned Universal, Gulf and Western bought Paramount and Transamerica bought UA, although I can't really say what their financial status was at the time.

UA seemed to have a lot of projects at the time -- Bond, Woody Allen, later on Rocky and a slew of high-profile pictures.

They were definitely in huge trouble by '80 or '81 when the Heaven's Gate debacle happened, as Genrewriter said. MGM wasn't exactly a hot property either, so the merge made sense.

[Icephoenix]

Originally posted by DLibrasnow


You obviously never saw the 1960s and 1970s entries to the series at the movie theater.

Kinda hard if you were not born yet

[DLibrasnow]

"Heavens Gate" was the movie that caused all of UA's troubles and led them to merge with MGM.
Your point is well taken Chris...but for those of us who were introduced to Bond in the 1970s we came to associate that Transamerica UA logo with the 007 series. The last Bond movie to feature that logo in front of it was FYEO and I do miss it

Having said that I did like stone looking background with the flare coming across the screen that appeared in 1995. But it was still not as good as the Transamerica logo that I grew up with.

[Icephoenix]

When you think about it, I guess it goes to show the ushering in of a new wave of fans. For me, the atmosphere was set when the MGM logo, followed by the new UA logo with the bell like score. Then everything goes silent...the room shrouded in black...then the shrills of the GE gunbarrel! The beats and tapping merge into the plane flying onto screen! It rises and crossess the dam...apart from that silence...then the gate opens and the journey begins....

Phew, sorry, was reliving my first Bond moment there

[DLibrasnow]

When I first saw the MGM lion before a 007 movie (I guess before OP) I remember thinking how strange it seemed.