David A. Smart established the company with his brothers Alfred and John in 1934, but the first titles registered for copyright date from 1941 (beginning with
Aptitudes and Occupations). Over time, a studio was set up in
Glenview, Illinois. Smart was the publisher of
Esquire and
Coronet magazines, and the film company was named for the latter. The film company outlived the magazine, which ceased publication in 1976. In addition to producing military instructional films during World War II, Coronet found success in its early years with its full-color films about common birds such as the
ruby-throated hummingbird (a 1942 release), many of which were filmed by
Olin Sewall Pettingill Jr. and
Dr. Arthur A. Allen. One of the company's hallmarks was that many of its titles were shot in color
Kodachrome a few years ahead of competing classroom-film companies. Production costs were controlled by selling both color and black-and-white prints and charging a much lower fee for the latter. As many school educators economized, fewer color prints are viewable today than are those in black and white. After David Smart’s death in 1952, his brother John and Jack Abraham took over. The quantity of Coronet’s output had surpassed that of the classroom-film industry’s leader
Encyclopædia Britannica Films (initially ERPI Classroom Films), with an 11-minute or longer film completed nearly every week. While its main rival strove for more cinematic films, the narration included in the 1950s and 1960s Coronet films was often of a dry and didactic tone. However, Coronet produced some well-made travelogues boasting good cinematography in addition to an annual quota of animal-related films. Starting in 1957, a Special Productions unit headed by Bob Kohl and Tom Riha added some more ambitious and prestigious independent productions to Coronet's more economically made catalog titles. The 1970s were a creative period for the company, despite the fact that 16mm educational films were gradually replaced by video cassettes and computers as key audio-visual classroom tools a decade later. After Hal Kopel replaced Jack Abraham as general manager (around 1972), the look and style of the films received an upgrade and film credits included directors and creative personnel; most earlier films only credited educational consultants. This change was made in response to ongoing criticism that the Coronet films were too "stodgy and unimaginative." Many earlier titles were revised to reflect the higher production standards and changing audience expectations of the period. By the early 1980s, Coronet was becoming more of a distributor of other companies' films than a producer of its own. Sheldon Sachs became vice president in 1979 and headed a Perspective Films division to increase Coronet's distribution of outside productions, making theatrical award winners like Sparky Greene's
American Shoeshine available for classroom viewing. In 1981, Coronet acquired
Centron Corporation. Shortly after merging with MTI films in 1984, Coronet and its acquisitions were taken over by
Gulf and Western Industries, but Kohl bought back Centron as a separate entity to run himself.
Simon & Schuster, part of the conglomerate, moved the reduced filming facilities to New Jersey a decade later. In May 1997, Phoenix Learning Group took over the distribution rights to the Coronet catalog. ==Personal-guidance films==