Advertisement for The Freshman (1925), last of the Harold Lloyd features released by Pathé Exchange. Lloyd's production company was one of the many independent firms whose films were distributed by Pathé.

Pathé Exchange, commonly known as Pathé, was an American film production and distribution company, largely of Hollywood's silent era. Known for its groundbreaking newsreel and wide array of shorts, it grew out of the American division of the major French studio Pathé Frères, which began distributing films in the United States in 1904. Ten years later, it produced the enormously succeesful The Perils of Pauline, a twenty-episode serial that came to define the genre. The American operation was incorporated as Pathé Exchange toward the end of 1914 and spun off as an independent entity in 1921. The following year, it released Robert J. Flaherty's influential documentary Nanook of the North. Other notable feature releases included the controversial drama Sex (1920) and director/producer Cecil B. DeMille's smash-hit biblical epic The King of Kings (1927). For much of the 1920s, Pathé distributed the shorts of comedy pioneers Hal Roach and Mack Sennett and innovative animator Paul Terry. Famed comedian Harold Lloyd starred under the Pathé banner in both shorts and features for Roach and then in three features for his own production company.

In late 1926, investment banker Elisha Walker acquired control of the studio through his Blair & Co. firm, subsequently bringing in financier and Hollywood maestro Joseph P. Kennedy as a co-owner and managing director. Finally, in January 1931, most of its assets, including its motion picture production facilities, employee contracts, and distribution exchanges, were acquired by the major RKO Pictures studio, which established a semiautonomous, short-lived RKO Pathé division. (Three films completed by Pathé Exchange, two already in release, also became RKO properties.) While Pathé Exchange continued to exist as a holding company for minor assets not included in the sale, it was no longer a film production or distribution company.

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