Educational Pictures

It began, unexpectedly, as a company focused on education. When Earle W. Hammons founded Educational Pictures in 1916, the name reflected a clear intent: to provide schools, churches, and civic organizations with instructional and scenic film reels. However, audiences at the time were not interested in educational content at the cinema; they preferred entertainment. Within a few years, Hammons shifted the company’s mission, and the firm that had called itself "educational" became one of the most prolific comedy producers in America — a major supplier of short subjects that filled out film programs between newsreels and features. The company's slogan, "The Spice of the Program," reflected this change with a touch of irony.

The two-reel machine

Throughout the 1920s, Educational Pictures thrived by capitalizing on the demand for short films. Rather than producing feature-length films, the company focused on one- and two-reel comedies, novelty reels, and cartoons, which theaters purchased in bulk. Hammons primarily operated as a producer and distributor, financing and releasing content from independent units and comedians, including shorts associated with Mack Sennett and comics such as Lloyd Hamilton and Lupino Lane. While it was not considered a prestigious studio like the major film lots, it did not need to be. Short subjects were a required part of every film program, and Educational became one of the most reliable providers. Starting in 1933, the company's releases were distributed through Fox Film and later through Twentieth Century-Fox — a partnership that would later influence the fate of its film negatives.

That business model made Educational a place for both opportunity and refuge. In 1932 and 1933, a three-year-old Shirley Temple appeared in the "Baby Burlesks," a series of one-reelers that parodied Hollywood hits by casting toddlers in adult roles — an unusual and now-awkward footnote that marked the beginning of the future star’s film career. A few years later, the studio provided a home for a fallen legend. Buster Keaton, having been let go by the major studios and struggling financially, made sixteen two-reel comedies for Educational between 1934 and 1937, including The Gold Ghost, his first for the studio, and Grand Slam Opera, a self-written and self-aware comedy. Though the budgets were limited, the shorts allowed Keaton to continue working and maintaining creative control during his most difficult years.

The turn and the end

Educational’s downfall was not due to a lack of talent, but rather to economic pressures. The introduction of sound increased production costs for even modest two-reelers, while the rise of double features gradually removed short subjects from film programs. The company lacked the financial resources to adapt to these changes. In 1938, Hammons made a final attempt to save the company by merging Educational with the struggling Grand National Pictures in a bid to enter feature production. The venture failed on both fronts: Grand National collapsed, Educational followed, and short-subject production ceased the same year. The final two Educational shorts were released in January 1939.

The company that had once promised to educate ended as a casualty of the very economic conditions it had once benefited from — undone when the short subject industry stopped being profitable.

Educational Pictures formally ceased operations in 1940, when Hammons declared bankruptcy and the remaining assets of the company — primarily its film library — were sold at auction. The fate of the films varied. Much of the studio's silent output had been stored in the Fox vaults, and in July 1937, a nitrate fire at the Fox facility in Little Ferry, New Jersey, destroyed a significant portion of silent-era film, including a large part of Educational's early collection. The sound comedies, however — including the Shirley Temple and Buster Keaton shorts — largely survived, and it is these that preserve the studio's legacy.

Educational Pictures is remembered today not for any single film, but for what it represented: the backbone of the studio era, the place where careers began and were revived in the margins of the film program. Shirley Temple's earliest footage and some of Buster Keaton's last independent comedy work both passed through its hands. For a company that never sought to achieve greatness, that is a real legacy — a testament to the fact that the movies were built not only on their major features but also on the "spice" that filled out the reel.