Although there are several variations on the creation of Cosmopolitan Productions, the most popular starts with William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon, went to the 1916 Ziegfield Follies. He watched the performance of a solo singer/dancer named Marion Davies and became so enchanted that for eight weeks thereafter he never missed a performance, reserving two seats per show (one seat for him and one for his hat).

Ms Davies' brother-in-law happened to be a very prestigous director George Lederer. Hearst backed her first film in 1917 called Runaway Romany.

In 1918, he formed Cosmopolitan Productions to primarily promote her career which spanned from 1917 until 1937.

From 1918 until 1923, Hearst ran Cosmopolitan from New York and distributed films through Paramount.

In 1923, Cosmopolitan and Ms Davies moved to California at which time, production was moved to MGM.

In 1934, Hearst became angry when Ms Davies was not cast in a couple of major MGM films, so he moved production and her 11 room building to Warner Brothers.

Ms. Davies released 4 films through Warner Brothers from 1935 to 1937 and then retired.

In 1938, Cosmopolitan closed their doors. There were a few other films that were released over the years besides Ms Davies films but the primary releases were her 29 silent films and 17 talking films.

Here's what we have in our database on Cosmopolitan