Official Films

In 1945 Official issued some comedy shorts released theatrically in 1937-38 by E. W. Hammons's Educational Pictures; these starred Willie Howard, Bert Lahr, singers Niela Goodelle and Lee Sullivan, and Imogene Coca.

Official added other Columbia short subjects: cartoons with Krazy Kat and Scrappy, and "Community Sing" and "Famous Bands" musicals.

In the late 1940s, Robert R. Young's Pathé Industries acquired Official; through which it obtained home-movie rights to the Young-owned Producers Releasing Corporation's feature films.

Most were new reprints, issued individually or in three-film compilations ("Musical Film Revues"), but Official also sold used prints of Soundies that had seen service in coin-operated movie jukeboxes of the 1940s.

Wells: The Invisible Man, Mr. Lucky, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, Four Star Playhouse, The Buccaneers, Colonel March of Scotland Yard, The Stu Erwin Show, My Little Margie, Rocky Jones Space Ranger, Deadline, and the original Biography during this period.

[4] With the company concentrating on TV syndication, Official's home-movie operations diminished in the 1950s and 1960s; many older items were discontinued and few if any new titles were added, except for a silent 8mm documentary on Marilyn Monroe edited from "Biography."

By the late 1960s, Official's TV syndication business had also dwindled, with an aging backlog of black-and-white shows and with no new series to offer; the company became inactive.