Universal was founded by entrepreneur Carl Laemmle, who was fascinated by the development of motion pictures and believed there was a real future in them. In 1909, he founded his own production company, which eventually merged with several other organizations to become the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in 1912. Like many other burgeoning moguls, he was drawn to Hollywood because the warm weather of the area would allow him to shoot year-round. Universal Studios opened on a farm just north of Hollywood in 1915, where it has remained ever since.
Universal Studios enjoyed a great deal of early success, but the first films produced there were mostly cheaply made crowd-pleasers. Its lineup of horror movies, however, cemented it with an artistic identity that it retains to this day. The movies began with silent star Lon Chaney--who appeared in classics such as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Phantom of the Opera"--and followed him with the likes of "Frankenstein," "Dracula" and "The Wolf Man," as well as films from Hitchcock such as "Saboteur" and "Shadow of a Doubt."
Despite the success of those films, Universal Studios struggled financially during the 1930s and '40s. Laemmle and his family were eventually forced out, and the studio was reformed as Universal-International in 1945. Although its sci-fi and horror movies still did well, other genres did not, and the company underwent another seismic shift in the late 1950s when it was purchased by MCA. The company shifted production away from movies and more toward television and upgraded the studio tours to a tram ride format that proved extremely popular.
While Universal Studios continued to produce movies under MCA, hits were still uncommon enough to keep things focused on television. The biggest exception to this was a young director named Steven Spielberg, who was groomed for television but attained his greatest success in the movies. In 1975, he directed "Jaws" for Universal, and it became such a worldwide phenomenon that it literally rewrote the book on how studios made movies. Spielberg helmed several other blockbusters for Universal, including "E.T.," "Jurassic Park" and the "Back to the Future" trilogy (which he produced instead of directed).
Further corporate shakeups occurred during the 1990s, culminating in Universal's purchase by General Electric in 2004. The entity was renamed NBC Universal. After that, Universal Studios referred solely to the corporation's production wing, as well as its tour rides, which by then had blossomed into a series of theme parks.