Ralph Cohn

Pioneer Telefilms and early years (1947–1954)

In 1947, Ralph Cohn, the son of Columbia co-founder Jack Cohn and nephew of Columbia head Harry Cohn, founded Pioneer Telefilms, a television commercial production company. Ralph later wrote a 50-page memorandum arguing that Columbia should be the first major film studio to move into television.

Although Harry Cohn was not convinced by the suggestion, Columbia invested $50,000 in acquiring Pioneer and reorganized it as Screen Gems. The studio started its new business in New York City on April 15, 1949.

By 1951, Screen Gems became a full-fledged television studio by producing and syndicating several popular shows (see below). Within a few months, Ralph Cohn had sold a half-hour dramatic anthology concept to the Ford Motor Company, which became Ford Theatre, one of the first times a major Hollywood movie studio had produced content for television. They also produced seven episodes of the first season of Cavalcade of America.

In 1952, John H. Mitchell joined Screen Gems productions as one of its original employees.

The name "Screen Gems", at the time, was used to hide the fact that the film studio was entering television production and distribution. Many film studios viewed television as a threat to their business, thus they were expected to shun the medium. However, Columbia was one of a few studios that branched out to television under a pseudonym to conceal the true ownership of the television arm, until 1955, when Columbia decided to use the woman from its logo under the Screen Gems banner, officially billing itself as a part of "the Hollywood studios of Columbia Pictures", as spoken in announcements at the end of some Screen Gems series.

By 1952, the studio had produced a series of about 100 film-record coordinated releases for television under the brand "TV Disk Jockey Toons" in which the films "synchronize perfectly with the records".