Sono Art-World Wide Pictures | |
Industry: | Entertainment |
Type: | Film Production |
Founder: | W. Ray Johnston |
Foundation: | 1927 |
Defunct: | 1933 |
Fate: | Merged with Allied Pictures into Monogram Pictures |
Sono Art-World Wide Pictures was an American film distribution and production company in operation from 1927 to 1933.[1] Their first feature film was The Rainbow Man (1929), while one of their most prominent was The Great Gabbo (1929) starring Erich von Stroheim and directed by James Cruze for James Cruze Productions, Inc.[2] One of the last films distributed by the company was A Study in Scarlet (1933) starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes.Sono Art was the original U.S. distributor for four Alfred Hitchcock-directed films, Downhill (1927), Easy Virtue (1928), The Manxman (1929), and Blackmail (1929), as well as the British Anna May Wong vehicle Piccadilly (1929).
In 1933, Sono-Art merged with Rayart Pictures to form Monogram Pictures. The original Monogram merged into Republic Pictures in 1935; all Sono Art-World Wide and original Monogram productions have fallen into the public domain.