When William Randolph Hearst took Marion Davies as his mistress, he decided to become her de facto manager. He sought to elevate her over and above other actresses of the time and decided to buy United Artists so that they could exclusively produce her films.
United Artists, however, had other plans and rebuffed Hearst's attempts at a takeover. Not one to accept failure, Mr. Hearst decided to startup his own studio based on Cosmopolitan Magazine. Cosmopolitan Productions, headed by Adolf Zukor who was also running Paramount Pictures at the time, would mine the deep archives of the magazine for film ideas.
However, Cosmopolitan Productions would mainly release films starring Marion Davies. As a result, its output was limited and the love struck Hearst was constantly feuding with Zukor. Hearst soon took his film company to Warner Brothers, where he hoped to find a more welcoming environment for his beloved Miss Davies.
Things didn't go much better at Warner Brothers, where the temperamental Hearst interfered with Marion's films. In the depths of the depression, he even paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to retrofit a soundstage on the Warner Brothers backlot to allow for a more lavish musical production for the film Cain and Mabel. Mr. Hearst's foray into Hollywood was a bust. Marion retreated to San Simeon and Hearst sold his production company and film catalog to Warner Brothers.
