20th Century Studios/Summary

Logo descriptions by Matt Williams and Kylejaker1988

Logo captures by V of Doom, Eric S., Logoboy95, and others

Editions by Eric S., V of Doom, Nathan B., Donny Pearson, Chowchillah, Betamaxtheflyer, and Shadeed A. Kelly

Video captures courtesy of simblos, Logic Smash, Jordan Rios, Peakpasha, BreadCrustCouncil, galaxyOG, Miso Luznik, LogoLibraryinc, VideoEffects666, Steven Broadway, WorldIntroHD and Parker Zink

Background
In 1935, Twentieth Century Pictures, Inc. and Fox Film Corporation merged together to form "Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation" (the hyphen between "Century" and "Fox" was dropped in 1985), or simply "20th Century Fox". Currently, it's a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox Inc., which was a company formed when News Corporation split up into two companies.

1st Logo (November 8, 1935-July 30, 1966)
Nicknames: "The Searchlights II", "Fox Structure", "Majestic Tower II", "Futuristic Structure II"

Logo: It's the same as the 20th Century Pictures logo, except "FOX" appears in place of "PICTURES, INC.". This logo was once again designed by Emil Kosa, Jr.

Alternate Descriptive Video Transcription: Searchlights pierce a starry night sky, sweeping the clouds and illuminating a towering edifice in the form of "20th CENTURY FOX".

Variants:
 * This logo first appeared in black and white, with a Technicolor version for color films debuting in 1936.


 * On colorized prints, depending on how it was colorized, the logo would have different colors.


 * The logo would either take place on a day or night sky.


 * One extremely rare variant had a slightly altered version of the tower in the opening credits with "presents", in script, below it. This variant was used for Fox Movietone News newsreels.


 * For early color releases (except for The Little Princess), the structure is sepia-toned, the left searchlights are pink, the right searchlights are yellow and blue, the "stack" is blue, the middle searchlights are green, and the sky is dark purple.

Closing Titles: Superimposed on a special background or sometimes on the last scene of a movie, fade in the words "The End" with fonts vary on the movie with the following text: "Released through Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation", "Released by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation", "Produced and Released by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation" or "Produced and Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation".
 * On the current print of Les Miserables, the logo fades into the NTA logo.

FX/SFX: The searchlights in the background.

Music/Sounds: A remixed variant of the 20th Century Pictures fanfare as composed and conducted by Alfred Newman once again, that has become one of the most famous pieces of music in the world.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On a few films, such as All About Eve, it is silent or has the film's respective opening theme.


 * On some 20th Century Pictures films, the original TCP fanfare is heard due to sloppy plastering.


 * Zorba the Greek, one of the last films to use this logo, had only the first half of the 1953 CinemaScope fanfare play.

Availability: Very common. It's still saved on just about every 20th Century Fox release, with some exceptions. The color version can be seen on the 2007 DVD release of the 1939 version of The Little Princess (although some public domain prints of the film use the next logo, while other prints use either the black-and-white version or no logo at all) and some colorized prints of Bright Eyes and Heidi, as well as some newer colorized prints of Miracle on 34th Street. The logo premiered on Metropolitan and made its final (official) appearance on Batman: The Movie, although the next logo premiered on The Robe. Some current releases of films such as The Blue Bird (1940), Leave Her to Heaven, Forever Amber and David and Bathsheba in circulation have this logo plastered over with the next one. Older television prints of Return of the Fly plaster the next logo with this one, while retaining the CinemaScope fanfare, followed by the Seven Arts Television logo.
 * On the 1994 Studio Classics VHS of Carmen Jones, the 1979 fanfare was heard. This is likely due to a reverse plaster error.

Scare Factor: Low to medium. One of the most wonderful and majestic logos.

2nd Logo (September 16, 1953-December 11, 1987, 1991)
Nicknames: "The Searchlights III", "Fox Structure II", "Majestic Tower III", "Futuristic Structure III", "Slanted Zero"

Logo: A redrawn and more clearer version of the last logo, but the "0" on the top is crooked and two searchlights behind the tower have been removed. This logo was designed by Rocky Longo, who was an artist at Pacific Title and Art Studio, Inc. He also designed the next logo.

Trivia: The extended CinemaScope fanfare has appeared in the two Star Wars 'original score' albums. Many other albums carry this fanfare (albeit rearranged). All of these albums can be found on iTunes.

Variants: The Fox logo has had many renditions over the years. Here are some of them:
 * 1953-1967: The CinemaScope logo. The searchlights are slimmed down and the structure is placed in the center of the screen with a dark blue sky surrounding it. The logo fades to "TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX PRESENTS A CINEMASCOPE PRODUCTION/PICTURE".


 * 1956-1967: Large-format (70mm, CinemaScope 55) films used a different Fox structure where the "0" is not slanted. It made its first known appearance on Carousel.


 * The one with the regular "0" also had this text: "A CINEMASCOPE PICTURE IN CINEMASCOPE 55". In 1961, The King and I was re-released in a 70mm version, called "GRANDEUR 70".


 * 1960-1965: For movies that were shot in 70mm/Todd-AO, such as 1960's Can-Can, 1963's Cleopatra and 1965's The Agony and the Ecstasy, the 20th Century Fox logo with the regular "0" appears for five seconds and then fades to the words "TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX PRESENTS". The Bible (1966) contains the text "A TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX RELEASE" with copyright information below it.


 * 1957-1987: Like the slanted zero version of CinemaScope logo, but without the snipe and fades out.


 * 1956-1967: Like the standard zero logo, but does not have the snipe and fades out.


 * There is an extended version of the 1953-1987 logo without the CinemaScope logo. It appeared only on two films, 1977's High Anxiety and 1981's History of the World, Part I, both directed by and starring Mel Brooks.


 * 1968-1987: The structure and the sky background are off-center and shifted to the left. Beginning around 1976, the registered trademark symbol "®" was added to the bottom of the logo.


 * There was a short version of this logo.


 * The logo would take place on either a day or a night sky.


 * On older international prints (and a recent TV airing) of Chariots of Fire and Breaking Away, the logo is zoomed in. Because those films were shot in "open matte" and the logo was not adjusted for widescreen.


 * On Quintet, the logo fades to a white snowstorm, revealing the start of the movie.

Closing Titles: FX/SFX: The searchlights in the background.
 * An ultra dark variant due to film deterioration exists. Such films that have this variant are older prints of The Omen.
 * 1953-1965: Same as above, but the "The End" words were moved to very top and the 20th Century-Fox text is pushed to the bottom to give space for the text "A CINEMASCOPE PRODUCTION" or "A CINEMASCOPE PICTURE".

Music/Sounds:
 * November 5, 1953-1960: The 1953 recording of the original fanfare, which debuted on How to Marry a Millionaire.


 * April 30, 1954-1967: The original fanfare is extended for CinemaScope, as conducted by Alfred Newman and debuted on River of No Return; after CinemaScope was dropped in 1967, the 1935 fanfare is only used from this point on, until it returned on Star Wars in 1977.


 * March 9, 1960: A different recording of the original fanfare, conducted by Nelson Riddle, debuted on Can-Can.


 * 1965-October 31, 1981: The 1935 recording of the original fanfare.


 * December 21, 1979-December 11, 1987: A re-orchestrated version of the 1935 fanfare which was first used on 70mm prints of Alien. This arrangement is used on the next logo.


 * May 17, 1980-: A new recording of the fanfare, played by the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Williams, which debuted on (Star Wars Episode V) The Empire Strikes Back.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * In other cases, it is silent or on some films has the opening music from the movie's score playing.
 * Marilyn Monroe's final and unfinished project Something's Got to Give (1962) has the short, slowed-down version of the 1997 fanfare. The film can be found as a bonus feature on The Seven Year Itch special edition DVD


 * An abridged remix of the 1954 CinemaScope fanfare, beginning with 0:03-0:04 of the fanfare, then 0:05-0:09 and finally 0:18-0:23. This can be heard on quite a few films, such as Brubaker, Fatso, Fire Sale, Willie & Phil, Damien: Omen II, The Stunt Man, the 1973 TV movie Miracle on 34th Street, and the 1980 TV movie The Diary of Anne Frank.


 * There is also a slightly modified version of the 1954 CinemaScope extended fanfare. This can be found on Star Wars (later known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), released in 1977.


 * High Anxiety, also released in 1977, had a slightly modified version of the 1954 CinemaScope fanfare that sounded like a combination of the regular 1954 fanfare and the modified version from Star Wars and is also reverberated (noticeable at the tail end of the fanfare right before the opening credits).


 * History of the World, Part I, released in 1981, has a different re-orchestration of the CinemaScope extended fanfare.


 * There are low toned versions of the 1935 and 1954 CinemaScope fanfares that exist on some films.


 * On some prints of 1935's The Call of the Wild, the 20th Century Pictures fanfare is heard.


 * On recent prints of The Roots of Heaven, the 1994 fanfare is played over the CinemaScope variant.


 * The original 1977 Magnetic Video release of Fantastic Voyage has the opening flourish of the Magnetic Video music mistakenly playback during the first half of the fanfare.

Availability: Very common. It's still retained on just about every 20th Century Fox release. The CinemaScope variants aren't usually subject to plastering, however one print of Satan Never Sleeps that aired a decade ago on AMC had this logo plastered with the 1994 opening, but is retained on DVD releases of said film and an FMC airing. Some films from the era such as Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back were also seen with this logo (which are kept on the original theatrical versions on the 2006 DVD releases of said films), but were replaced with the 1994 logo on all Special Edition versions. The International version of Chariots of Fire also originally had the 1953 logo, but was plastered with the 1994 logo on the current U.K DVD release. However, it was intact on a recent TV airing on SKY and the Warner Blu-ray of the International version (appearing before the still version of the 1999 WB logo). The original VHS releases of Moving Violation (1976) and Thunder and Lightning by Key Video had it plastered with the 1981 logo; the former was restored on current prints and the Shout! Factory DVD, while the latter is still plastered, but keeps the original abridged fanfare. Some releases of Alien and its Director's Cut version have it plastered with the 1981 logo, though the first 1981 VHS, 1999 theatrical DVD, and the newest Blu-ray retain it. The logo premiered on The Robe and made its final (official) appearance on Wall Street (though all current prints have the next logo instead). This logo can also be found some early-mid 80s films of the era, such as older video releases of Bill Cosby: Himself (1983) the original CBS/Fox Video release of Revenge of the Nerds (1984), and Moving Violations (1985); all three were some of the few films from their respective years to use the 1953 logo. Sadly, most home video/DVD releases and TV prints of the three films replace it with the 1981 logo. This has been plastered on the Warner Archive DVD of Avalanche Express (a Lorimar film they distributed, which WB now owns due to the purchase of the former's library) with the current WB shield having the 1935 fanfare underneath it, resulting in one of the most sloppiest plasterings ever! It is, however, intact on the Spanish R2 DVD. The logo was not seen at all on Carmen Jones, The Girl Can't Help It, The Longest Day, Zorba the Greek, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Batman: The Movie, The Cape Town Affair, The Day the Fish Came Out, Star!, Deadfall, Patton (some TV broadcasts have the logo spliced in from another film), Tora! Tora! Tora! (although the newest DVD and Blu-ray releases have the logo at the front), Trouble Man, The Poseidon Adventure, USA prints of The Towering Inferno (as Fox owns primary North American distribution rights, while Warner Bros. owns most international rights, though both companies worked on the film together), At Long Last Love, The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, Silent Movie, or All This and World War II. The CinemaScope logo with the "regular 0" can be found on Carousel, and the original The King and I. The "regular 0" without the CinemaScope snipe or "Twentieth Century-Fox presents" card following is seen on The Sound of Music, and the original 1967 Doctor Dolittle. The 1976 revision makes a very strange appearance on the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray of Naked Lunch (a 1990s film).
 * On Netflix viewings of The French Connection 2, an abridged recording of the John Williams 1980 rendition of the CinemaScope extension is heard.

Scare Factor: Low to medium. One of the most wonderful and majestic logos. The tilted zero can be an eyesore to look at for some, though.