[2] Brandt was the president of CBC Film Sales, handling sales, marketing and distribution from New York along with Jack Cohn, while Harry Cohn ran production in Hollywood.

CBC Film's early productions were low-budget short subjects: Screen Snapshots (started in 1920),[2] the "Hall Room Boys" (the vaudeville duo of Edward Flanagan and Neely Edwards), and the Chaplin imitator Billy West.

[3] The start-up CBC leased space in a Poverty Row studio at 6070 Sunset Boulevard in 1922.

[2] Among Hollywood's elite, the studio's small-time reputation led some to joke that "CBC" stood for "Corned Beef and Cabbage".

The Cohn brothers changed the name of CBC Film Sales to Columbia Pictures on January 10, 1924, with a view toward improving its image.